Volvo News: Volvo CEO Admits He Wasn't Fully On Board With Four-Cylinder Plan

[William Maley]

When Volvo announced that all of their vehicles would be powered by only four-cylinder, it caught a lot of people off guard, including Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson. Speaking with various media at the Geneva Motor Show, Samuelsson revealed that he wasn't sold on this idea. But since then, he has been convinced.

“Two years ago you could ask me that, and probably I would have had to answer a different way. But today, I’m absolutely convinced," said Samuelsson.

“The reaction of that decision has been very positive. Even in the US – the XC90 was even truck of the year in the US, a big SUV with a four-cylinder engine: that’s a good indication that we took the right decision."

Volvo explained back in 2011 the move to only using four-cylinders would help with fuel economy and future plans for hybrid variants.

Source: CarAdvice
Pic Credit: William Maley for Cheers & Gears

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[Drew Dowdell]

The new Volvo 4-cylinders are fantastic. 

[Frisky Dingo]

Still shouldn't be. Those engines are overstressed and too high strung. Lots of them are having issues. They're not limited to engines, though. Plenty of electronic issues, too. No way would I consider a new Volvo anything. 

[G. David Felt]

Not Sold that a full size SUV can go the distance like my 1994 V8 Suburban with 300K miles plus. When I see heavy full size SUV's with 4 banger motors hit half a million miles with minimal, just basic maintenance, then I will say OK, I will give up my V8.

I actually expect them to go EV before going 4 banger.

[Drew Dowdell]

7 minutes ago, Frisky Dingo said:

Still shouldn't be. Those engines are overstressed and too high strung. Lots of them are having issues. They're not limited to engines, though. Plenty of electronic issues, too. No way would I consider a new Volvo anything. 

What engine issues are you hearing about?  I'm curious because the XC90 and new XC60 are both on my radar.

4 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Not Sold that a full size SUV can go the distance like my 1994 V8 Suburban with 300K miles plus. When I see heavy full size SUV's with 4 banger motors hit half a million miles with minimal, just basic maintenance, then I will say OK, I will give up my V8.

I actually expect them to go EV before going 4 banger.

Volvo is going with supercharged, turbocharged, hybrid 4-cylinders at their top end. 

[G. David Felt]

4 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Volvo is going with supercharged, turbocharged, hybrid 4-cylinders at their top end. 

That is very interesting to hear about supercharged 4 bangers. Will be interesting to see how they deal with the heat and stress long term. Did not know they were pushing the engines that hard. 

How much increase in compression are they doing? Hevy they moved to compression on their gas engines like on a diesel?

[Frisky Dingo]

11 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

What engine issues are you hearing about?  I'm curious because the XC90 and new XC60 are both on my radar.

Volvo is going with supercharged, turbocharged, hybrid 4-cylinders at their top end. 

Idk the specifics, but I know our Volvo store is being flooded with XC90's for powertrain and electronic related issues. Take it with a grain of salt, but I have nothing against Volvo whatsoever, and wouldn't baselessly criticize them.

[G. David Felt]

9 minutes ago, Frisky Dingo said:

Idk the specifics, but I know our Volvo store is being flooded with XC90's for powertrain and electronic related issues. Take it with a grain of salt, but I have nothing against Volvo whatsoever, and wouldn't baselessly criticize them.

Some interesting stats but they do seem to have electrical, engine and especially powertrain problems. 2016 is shown as very bad for these 3 items.

http://www.truedelta.com/Volvo-XC90/problems-292

http://www.carcomplaints.com/Volvo/XC90/

http://repairpal.com/transmission-failure-common-257

Interesting, many XC90 owners have gone through 2 transmissions in a 100,000 miles of ownership. WOW

[cp-the-nerd]

25 minutes ago, Frisky Dingo said:

Idk the specifics, but I know our Volvo store is being flooded with XC90's for powertrain and electronic related issues. Take it with a grain of salt, but I have nothing against Volvo whatsoever, and wouldn't baselessly criticize them.

I've seen their 4-cylinder powertrains get panned for refinement as well. 6-cylinders are still the current benchmark for luxury refinement, and V8s are still preferable to those. When people talk about intangibles of credible luxury cars, the feel of larger displacement, 6+ cylinder engines is high on that list.

[Frisky Dingo]

1 minute ago, cp-the-nerd said:

I've seen their 4-cylinder powertrains get panned for refinement as well. 6-cylinders are still the current benchmark for luxury refinement, and V8s are still preferable to those. When people talk about intangibles of credible luxury cars, the feel of larger displacement, 6+ cylinder engines is high on that list.

I haven't driven one, so I can't speak from experience. But shallow though it may be, I know I would personally much rather have a six cylinder than a double-boosted I4. Pass.

[Drew Dowdell]

2 hours ago, Frisky Dingo said:

I haven't driven one, so I can't speak from experience. But shallow though it may be, I know I would personally much rather have a six cylinder than a double-boosted I4. Pass.

On a test run while I was driving a new V6 Cadenza... Which has about the standard amount of power you'd expect from a V6... I was positively spanked by an S90 T6 AWD (the double boosted 4 cylinder). It wasn't even close. From a performance perspective, the double boosted engine has it.

[cp-the-nerd]

33 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

On a test run while I was driving a new V6 Cadenza... Which has about the standard amount of power you'd expect from a V6... I was positively spanked by an S90 T6 AWD (the double boosted 4 cylinder). It wasn't even close. From a performance perspective, the double boosted engine has it.

$60k Luxury sedan with 316 hp/295tq walks away from $35k sedan with 290 hp/253tq. Can't say you're really making a game changing point here. If Volvo's top engine couldn't move the car, they'd be up sh!t's creek.

[Drew Dowdell]

1 hour ago, cp-the-nerd said:

$60k Luxury sedan with 316 hp/295tq walks away from $35k sedan with 290 hp/253tq. Can't say you're really making a game changing point here. If Volvo's top engine couldn't move the car, they'd be up sh!t's creek.

The point was the 4-cylinder v. 6-cylinder. I remain largely unconvinced by turbo 4-cylinder from any brand as true replacements for a V6... however the double-boosted 4-cylinder from Volvo is the exception to that. 

It's hard to describe here, but in the Cadenza, I didn't even stand a chance... it wasn't even close. I might as well have been driving a Mirage.