Volvo Effort to Take on US Market Undermined by Poor Score for XC90

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 7:00AM EST · Published Oct 20, 6:40AM EDT

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Volvo Effort to Take on US Market Undermined by Poor Score for XC90 — © Volvo Car USA

Volvo has had a great deal of trouble with the U.S. market, where its sales have been poor in recent years. Its comeback strategy in the world’s second-largest car market was recently undermined as its XC90 model was named one of Consumer Reports “10 Least Reliable Cars.”

Through September, Volvo U.S. sales have been a tiny 58,632, well behind the leading luxury brands. Sales of its flagship, all-new XC90 have dropped 15.7% to 20,414. It is part of the luxury sport utility vehicle (SUV) market, which has generally done well for other manufacturers.

Consumer Reports “Annual Reliability Survey” evaluation of the XC90 reads as follows:

The XC90 is a competitive three-row SUV. Base models use a 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbo, offered with front- or all-wheel drive. Our tested T6, with its 316-hp turbocharged and supercharged version, delivered decent punch and returned 20 mpg overall, but it sounds raspy. A plug-in hybrid with an electric range of about 14 miles is available. All versions use an eight-speed automatic. Handling is commendable, but the ride is stiff though the optional air suspension makes it slightly better. The interior is quiet, plush, and modern, with super-comfortable seats. But audio, phone, and navigation functions are controlled through an unintuitive touch-screen infotainment system that’s frustrating to use. Many electronic safety features are available.

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The poor features are all critical to consumer valuation of luxury vehicles.

Volvo is owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely. It has tried its hand at innovation. Its latest effort is the Polestar 1 partially electric, motor-driven 600 HP electric coupe. With poor scores in America, such innovations may not make much difference to Volvo sales.

With industry leaders BMW, Mercedes and Toyota Motor Corp.’s (NYSE: TM) Lexus, all of which have much larger sales, Volvo’s chance to make a mark on the U.S. market has been badly battered by the new Consumer Reports evaluation.

The Consumer Report research is based on “how well vehicles have held up and the odds that an owner could be inconvenienced by problems and repairs.” The study included data on over 640,000 vehicles.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.