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We just returned from our Overseas Delivery Trip and I want to put a few things down while they're still fresh in my memory.
Travel arrangements went smoothly. We called the travel agency that Volvo uses and a gentleman named Nye worked with me to arrange our transportation to and from Europe. When I ordered my vehicle I was told that the pick up date would be 21 October, which was a Monday, which meant that we would be leaving home (flying out of Sacramento, CA) on 19 Oct. We choose to fly out around 10:00 which allowed for a leisurely departure (we're 90 minutes from the air port). I did some searching on the internet on Scandinavian flights (economy and economy plus) and the reviews weren't good, so I splurged and upgraded to Business Class (which had excellent reviews). If your budget allows upgrading to Business Class is a great move. In addition to more comfortable seating you receive a 5 course dinner and a 4 course breakfast, and the seats actually recline completely flat, so that you have a single bed. Nye completed the travel upgrades and I paid him over the phone with my credit card. A very easy upgrade.
The travel itinerary was well thought out, with enough time between flights that we weren't rushed to change terminals, but not so long that we were sitting around bored. We were met at the Gothenburg airport and taken to the hotel, where we had a very nice room. I arranged for a second night at the hotel (again arranged through Nye, at my expense) because I didn't want to pick up our new car and be forced to immediately depart. But, since we received the car just before noon the following day (with transportation again provided by Volvo from the airport to the factory) we could easily have taken possession of our new Volvo and begun our trip that afternoon, rather than remaining in Gothenburg overnight. We opted to skip the factory tour and museum, so had an afternoon to spend examining our new Volvo and exploring around town a bit before heading out.
I assumed that the GPS would have a North American map, so I had my Garmin with a map of Europe loaded and ready to begin using, however, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Volvo had a map of Europe, and included all of the countries that we planned to visit (this map will be changed to North America when the car is delivered here). Here we found our first pleasant surprise with our new Volvo, the GPS is really pretty intuitive. My wife and I are in our 70's, so we're not computer nerds or electronic wizards, however, we found that it only took a few minutes to learn how to program our GPS and easily found our way back to the hotel (about a 20 minute drive). As we spent more time with our car we found the GPS easy to use and very helpful. If you're going to be driving through different countries keep in mind that the first entry of an address into the GPS will be the country, and understand that there are different spellings for cities in Europe (such as Munich is often spelled Munchen in Germany). I found it helpful to use city codes (like zip codes) when programming destinations in my GPS, and city codes are usually easy to find. Also street addresses are frequently expressed differently than they are in the US. So don't get frustrated if you try programming a street address and run into problems, just take your time and use logic, it will work out.
Our trip involved driving from Sweden through Denmark, The Netherlands, Germany and France, then back up through Germany to turn our Volvo in at Frankfurt. The trip involved toll roads, which the GPS advised me of, so that I could be ready before I got to the toll booth. At the toll booth I used my VISA card and had no problem, in Denmark, Germany or France, they all took VISA. We put 2,600 miles on the car before turning it in, and we had absolutely no problems with the vehicle.
We have the XC40 Inscription T5. Since I've lived in Europe I was comfortable driving the car through small towns with very narrow streets and cruising at high speeds on the Autobahns. I found that the XC40 has a great turning radium so you can drive comfortably in tight spaces and make sharp turns. The steering is very precise. I spent a good deal of time where speed was not controlled, or was limited to 120 - 130 KM (75 - 80 MPH) and was pleasantly surprised when the fuel usage on the dash showed 27.6 MPG overall for our trip.
I didn't like the auto stop feature and learned to switch to individual driving mode each time I started the vehicle, which disabled the stop/start feature, and it does take a minute for the on board computer to download and program before you can begin using it, but these were the only two distractions we found, and we considered them very minor. We had the same problem that others have experienced with using your foot to open the rear of the vehicle, and I will discuss that with the dealer when we pick up the car. What we did find was the the T5 engine has plenty of power and cruises easily at high speed, while returning what I consider reasonable fuel mileage. The seats were exactly what we expected, supportive and very comfortable. After a 7 or 8 hour day of driving we were both still very comfortable, and my wife especially liked the extension feature of the seat cushion in the passenger seat. We lowered the second row seat backs and had plenty of room for two weeks worth of luggage.
Overall we felt that this is an excellent program. Volvo does a great job of arranging travel and accommodations, and the vehicle presentation is well done. If you're considering using this program and have the time, spending two weeks enjoying Europe in your new vehicle is a great opportunity, not to be overlooked. If anyone has questions that I can answer I would be happy to do so. We enjoyed the experience, are very pleased with our new XC40, and can hardly wait to take possession in about 3 months.
Stan Kromfols
[email protected]
Travel arrangements went smoothly. We called the travel agency that Volvo uses and a gentleman named Nye worked with me to arrange our transportation to and from Europe. When I ordered my vehicle I was told that the pick up date would be 21 October, which was a Monday, which meant that we would be leaving home (flying out of Sacramento, CA) on 19 Oct. We choose to fly out around 10:00 which allowed for a leisurely departure (we're 90 minutes from the air port). I did some searching on the internet on Scandinavian flights (economy and economy plus) and the reviews weren't good, so I splurged and upgraded to Business Class (which had excellent reviews). If your budget allows upgrading to Business Class is a great move. In addition to more comfortable seating you receive a 5 course dinner and a 4 course breakfast, and the seats actually recline completely flat, so that you have a single bed. Nye completed the travel upgrades and I paid him over the phone with my credit card. A very easy upgrade.
The travel itinerary was well thought out, with enough time between flights that we weren't rushed to change terminals, but not so long that we were sitting around bored. We were met at the Gothenburg airport and taken to the hotel, where we had a very nice room. I arranged for a second night at the hotel (again arranged through Nye, at my expense) because I didn't want to pick up our new car and be forced to immediately depart. But, since we received the car just before noon the following day (with transportation again provided by Volvo from the airport to the factory) we could easily have taken possession of our new Volvo and begun our trip that afternoon, rather than remaining in Gothenburg overnight. We opted to skip the factory tour and museum, so had an afternoon to spend examining our new Volvo and exploring around town a bit before heading out.
I assumed that the GPS would have a North American map, so I had my Garmin with a map of Europe loaded and ready to begin using, however, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Volvo had a map of Europe, and included all of the countries that we planned to visit (this map will be changed to North America when the car is delivered here). Here we found our first pleasant surprise with our new Volvo, the GPS is really pretty intuitive. My wife and I are in our 70's, so we're not computer nerds or electronic wizards, however, we found that it only took a few minutes to learn how to program our GPS and easily found our way back to the hotel (about a 20 minute drive). As we spent more time with our car we found the GPS easy to use and very helpful. If you're going to be driving through different countries keep in mind that the first entry of an address into the GPS will be the country, and understand that there are different spellings for cities in Europe (such as Munich is often spelled Munchen in Germany). I found it helpful to use city codes (like zip codes) when programming destinations in my GPS, and city codes are usually easy to find. Also street addresses are frequently expressed differently than they are in the US. So don't get frustrated if you try programming a street address and run into problems, just take your time and use logic, it will work out.
Our trip involved driving from Sweden through Denmark, The Netherlands, Germany and France, then back up through Germany to turn our Volvo in at Frankfurt. The trip involved toll roads, which the GPS advised me of, so that I could be ready before I got to the toll booth. At the toll booth I used my VISA card and had no problem, in Denmark, Germany or France, they all took VISA. We put 2,600 miles on the car before turning it in, and we had absolutely no problems with the vehicle.
We have the XC40 Inscription T5. Since I've lived in Europe I was comfortable driving the car through small towns with very narrow streets and cruising at high speeds on the Autobahns. I found that the XC40 has a great turning radium so you can drive comfortably in tight spaces and make sharp turns. The steering is very precise. I spent a good deal of time where speed was not controlled, or was limited to 120 - 130 KM (75 - 80 MPH) and was pleasantly surprised when the fuel usage on the dash showed 27.6 MPG overall for our trip.
I didn't like the auto stop feature and learned to switch to individual driving mode each time I started the vehicle, which disabled the stop/start feature, and it does take a minute for the on board computer to download and program before you can begin using it, but these were the only two distractions we found, and we considered them very minor. We had the same problem that others have experienced with using your foot to open the rear of the vehicle, and I will discuss that with the dealer when we pick up the car. What we did find was the the T5 engine has plenty of power and cruises easily at high speed, while returning what I consider reasonable fuel mileage. The seats were exactly what we expected, supportive and very comfortable. After a 7 or 8 hour day of driving we were both still very comfortable, and my wife especially liked the extension feature of the seat cushion in the passenger seat. We lowered the second row seat backs and had plenty of room for two weeks worth of luggage.
Overall we felt that this is an excellent program. Volvo does a great job of arranging travel and accommodations, and the vehicle presentation is well done. If you're considering using this program and have the time, spending two weeks enjoying Europe in your new vehicle is a great opportunity, not to be overlooked. If anyone has questions that I can answer I would be happy to do so. We enjoyed the experience, are very pleased with our new XC40, and can hardly wait to take possession in about 3 months.
Stan Kromfols
[email protected]
