Here we have the Volvo S90 Recharge and I got it because it might be the best plug-in hybrid
on the market. That's not what we're going to look at first. Holy freak. The sound system in
this thing is freaking amazing. Just come on over here, Brent. Look at this. It's a $3,000 option,
but holy ball, is it ever worth it? I think this one down here is made of Kevlar. This one's
aluminum. That one's aluminum covered in this nice stainless steel. Looks amazing. In the center,
we have a tweeter and then two center speakers. There's 19 in total. So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. That's not the start of the show. Back in here, we have a
9.8-inch subwoofer that's bonded directly to the chassis. Just come and look at this, Brandon.
It being bonded directly to the chassis means it transmits all of those vibrations
through the entire car straight to your butt.
Now,
I've felt a lot of bass in a car before, but it's not the same when it's your buddy's
Jetta and he has 220s in the trunk and the lid comes off when you play it. This is the most
refined sub bass that I've ever felt in a car. It'll make you go to the movies and be like,
huh, that's a pretty casual subwoofer they have there. I wish it was better. Let's have a listen.
I went ahead and got a title subscription just for these speakers. Normally,
Spotify quality is more than good enough. In here, you notice the
difference. It's just so good. I'm sorry that my mic probably isn't really doing it justice.
Now, right now, I have it on the stage mode with the subwoofer just cranked because I really like
the bass. It's so good. But if we come over here and put it in studio mode and reset it,
it's the flattest EQ I've ever heard in a car. Well, I didn't even know that it tailed off like
that before. You just hear these little details in your songs that you've never heard before.
It's absolutely amazing. We're going to do proper sound testing stuff on it later. I'm guessing,
based off my ears, that it's almost completely flat in this, and we'll verify that with a graph
right here. Anyway, let's look at the actual car bits. Now, we have the inscription model of the
S90, which is just straight grandpa spec. Like, all of this chrome up here, it does look really
good. Like, all the Volvos for the last 10 years have looked great, especially, like,
there's a nice...
...
Thor's hammer headlight. Awesome. I would get the R-Spec. It just blacks everything out.
Moving around over here, right here, we have our charging port. So, this gets you, what,
like, 60 kilometers of range, pure electric. Now, I am a little bit disappointed there's no
fast charger, but again, like, whatever. It's a plug-in hybrid. If you don't fast charge,
you just use the engine. It's fine. Let's take a look at that. In total, we have 450 horsepower,
and 312 of it is coming from this guy right here. It's a two-liter four-cylinder that makes 312
horsepower, thanks to a big old snail on the back there. Now, this used to come as a supercharged
and turbocharged engine. I'm really glad that it only has a turbo now. Like, you don't need
the supercharger when you have the electric, and it's just one less thing to fail in a car that has
so many things that can fail. Get the 10-year warranty. Wow.
This hood's really high. Look at that. That would probably hit the roof in my parking garage.
Holy s***. Anyway. The rear wheels are driven entirely by electric, so they contribute 143
horsepower, but 228 foot-pounds of torque. Now, that's just awesome, because you can take off,
the electric gets you going, and then by the time that, like, it's starting to peter out,
the turbo's spooled up, and you can just rocket it. Now, it's kind of down here,
and you can't really see it, but whatever. Trunk's nice and big. You can fit, like,
four or five bodies in there. Easy. Our first really big problem, though, is in
this area. The trunk might be big, but this is a Volvo, and it's not a wagon. That's just dumb.
Like, why would you buy the S90 when the V90 exists? Volvos, wagons, Volvo Canada, get us a
V90, please. I want to drive it. Anyway, Brandon, you're really wrong. Wagons are sick. Let's get
a backseat. Back here, we have the executive seating, so I can do fun things, like annoy the
person in front of me by just moving their seat back and forth. You know, want more leg room?
Move them up. Want to crush them? I can. Excellent. We also have must-haves of saloons, like, you know,
the good old peasant blockers here, even blocking the rear peasants. Awesome. We even have control
of the sunroof in the back, although I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do it in the back.
I don't think this camera will be too happy about it. Aside from that, we have your typical
comforts that you have in luxury cars. You know, you have climate control back here, rear heated
seats. Ventilated is an option. And, okay, you normally don't have this, but there's also
a little cigar ashtray. One thing that's kind of weird about this is that in here, where you
normally have storage, there's almost none. But there's a good reason for that. All of your
seats are right in here. Now, I appreciate this placement because in some other hybrids,
they'll have just a bunch of your trunk space taken up with it. Or, like, you won't be able to
push down your seats properly because there's a big battery in the way. Getting in the driver's
seat, like, hot damn, is a nice place to be. These are some of the most comfortable seats that I've
ever felt in a car. There's heaps of adjustments. You can do length of the seat, the size of the
bolsters, lumbar, forward, backward, all of that good stuff. And, you know, you can do a lot of
so comfortable. Absolutely love it. Everything in here is real genuine leather that cows died for.
All of the wood that you see here is actual oak that trees died for. It's all, it's all very
nicely put together. I just, it's a very premium spot to be, despite the fact that, like, you know,
the chrome and the wood and the stuff is, again, very grandpa spec. I appreciate it, though.
To turn the S90 on, you just turn this little dial to the right,
turn it off, you might expect you'd turn it to the left, but, uh, nope, that's also to the right as
well. Kind of weird, but, uh, whatever. Up front here, we have Android Automotive. It's easily one
of the best infotainment systems on the market right now. It works great, and you're able to
have different people's Google profiles in there and match to your key, so you get in and, like,
your Spotify title, what have you, just signs into your account. Freaking awesome. Now, if you want
to learn more about Android Automotive, we went into a lot of detail.
In our Volvo XC40 Recharge review, but, again, the TLDR, freaking awesome. The only thing that
concerns me is that they haven't added Android Auto or Apple CarPlay into it yet. They say it's
coming, but they also said it was coming back when we did the XC40 review in, like, December.
So, when will that arrive? Will it ever arrive? Probably. How much do you trust Volvo and Google?
For media controls, we get nice physical buttons,
and even though the climate control is entirely touchscreen, I don't hate it. Like,
it works pretty well. I just, in general, haven't been annoyed by it. Even my father, who's over 60,
had no trouble just navigating this and getting it all to work. Good job, Volvo, I guess.
The funny thing is, though, watching reviews from, like, 2018 when they first put out this system,
people had no clue how to use it. They hated it. And now, a couple years later, it's
all perfect.
It's perfectly fine. Makes sense now. To shift into drive, you just pull back on this incredibly
fancy Oreo 4 shifter. Just like that. And now I'm in neutral. You have to click it twice. It's
really stupid. And to get reverse, you have to go forward twice again. I go into neutral on this
thing all the time. It should just be one click. It's two. That's dumb, Volvo. Change it.
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Let's go. Driving is actually good. In previous versions of the S90, there was a little knob down
here that allowed you to easily change your drive modes. Now, Volvo got rid of it, and instead it's
now in the infotainment. So if I want to go to power, or go up like that. Volvo says it's because
no one used their drive modes. They look at the data, no one's using it. But Volvo, why do you
think people are not using your drive modes? Is it because people don't use them, or because your
drive modes suck?
I think it's the latter, because even though this has four-corner active suspension, I can't tell the
difference between power and hybrid and all of the different modes. Like, even in my Golf GTI, going
from sport to comfort, you can really just feel the whole thing go from, like, tight and wanting
to go, to just kind of relaxed and sort of glides over bumps. In this, you have the suspension, and
it is well set up, but I just really wish that they allowed you a little bit more range of the
suspension, and the chassis, and everything. Instead of just, here's what you get. Anyway, do you want
to do a little launchy launch, Brandon? I haven't done a launch in this yet. It's not the kind of car
where you... Oh, wow! It launches pretty hard, damn! There was some wheel spin there. 0-60 in 4.9 seconds,
and I think there was some wheel hop in the front, and we definitely spun the rears. Damn, that was
enjoyable. Did you like that, Brandon?
Uh, yeah.
You did? Great. So, yeah, this thing is proper fast. Like, you put your foot down, and just...
It just charges. It doesn't do it, except for back there when I brake boosted it.
It's always very refined. Like, you put your foot down, and I don't think they're giving you the full
electric, like, all at once. I think they're just smoothing everything out, so that you don't have
that, like... If you've ever been in a Tesla with someone that's a bad driver in one pedal mode, it's
an awful time.
Speaking of which, though, this is, as far as I know, the only plug-in hybrid that has
proper one-pedal driving. You give a little pull back on the shifter, and you can go between drive
and braking. It's just friggin' awesome. I absolutely love one-pedal driving, and it allows
you to kind of get that feel of a manual transmission car in an automatic. Like, there's
something about the engine braking that I just love. It makes the whole experience better. It
allows you to kind of trim your legs a little bit. It's just, like, super fun. I think I've had a lot of
trim your lines as you're dipping into and out of corners.
I absolutely love it.
And as a bonus, you get more, you know,
energy recovery from the braking.
So your battery lasts longer.
Awesome.
Up front, the center display is just awesome.
It is very similar to the one that we found
in like the IONIQ 5 and the Kia EV6,
but it's just so much better executed.
So through the steering wheel,
I can clearly see everything that's up there.
And in the center, you only have two options,
either nothing or Google Maps.
I just keep Google Maps on there all the time.
It is just great to be able to look here,
have your directions,
and your passenger can screw around with the infotainment
and you don't have to worry about missing a stop.
Oh, here's a speed bump.
How is it going to handle this?
Let's just hit it.
Okay, that was actually fine.
Larger bumps, it filters out no problem.
At low speeds,
it can be a little bit cramped,
a little bit crashy.
Like it's nothing like an electric car
or most electric cars,
but there's a little bit more harshness
than I would expect in like a big executive saloon.
I understand why they did it though.
Once you get on the highway
and up to above about a hundred kilometers per hour,
the suspension in this thing is just sublime.
Okay, we found some corners.
Here we go.
If you really want to,
it can be quite rapid.
Like you can,
flip it into a corner here.
It is quite fast.
Like almost shockingly so given the size of the thing.
But when you like really push it,
like right there,
you can feel the whole thing just being like,
why?
Why are you doing this?
You could be driving smoothly right now
and you should drive smoothly.
And then you kind of just do.
It's honestly like a better B-Road cruiser
than a lot of sports cars that I've been in.
Because in those, the whole time,
I'm just thinking, wow,
this would be really great
if I could go 200 kilometers per hour right now.
Whereas instead in this, it's like,
hmm, I'm happy going 120.
What else do we have here, Brandon?
Oh, assists.
So the steering assist in this is quite good.
The problem is that I never use it since to activate it,
you have to go in driving,
scroll down here and then enable steering assist.
If they just had a button on the steering,
I would use it all the time
because it does work pretty well.
But at the same time,
if I have to go in the menus,
yeah, I don't do it.
The adaptive cruise control also is pretty good.
It's excellent up until, I don't know,
you get down to about 20, 30 kilometers per hour,
and then it can be a little bit jerky.
If you're following a Lexus with like
a proper adaptive cruise,
it's gonna be nice and smooth.
But if you're behind someone that has an N
on the back of their car, it's not gonna be so good.
But if you're behind someone that has an N on the back of their car, it's not gonna be so good.
Overall, driving this has just been fantastic.
Like ever since I've got it, I've loved it.
Everyone else that's gotten in it has just loved the car.
I'm really surprised.
Like just everything feels really well thought through
when so many other vehicles feel like they're just
slapping all the tech in for the sake of it being tech and fancy.
In Canada, this starts around 70 grand,
and as spec'd,
it comes in at 90.
There's a lot of other cars that are available for $90,000.
I don't know.
I don't drive saloons all the time, Brandon.
Do we even give good consumer advice on that?
You probably live in a different country anyway.
It doesn't even matter.
Anyway, the sound system of this thing is fricking amazing.
So I'm going to get back to listening to it.
Have a great day.
See you later.
Volvo, if you want to give someone a V90
for a long-term review, for a long-term review,
I know someone.
See ya.