2010 High-MPG AT Programming (Volvo XC90)

[jaj]

I needed a rental car, so the local Budget lot rented me a 2010 Volvo XC-90 SUV with AWD and all the bells and whistles. Lovely car, except for one thing: the automatic transmission is just diabolical!

This car has the 3.2 liter six engine in it, and it's pretty good at dragging this 4,600 pound monster around. What ruins the experience is a 6-speed autobox that just can't decide what gear to be in, ever! It's miserable to drive.

Every little move of the throttle gives you another gear. Ease off the throttle, it shifts. Press on the throttle, it shifts. Going around a corner? Lift, turn, accelerate. MINUMUM of three gear shifts as you do it. It goes up one gear when you lift, down two gears when you accelerate, then up one, then up the second as you reach running speed again. Changing lanes? Same thing.

The gearbox just never stops shifting. I don't know why it's built this way or why it's supposed to be "good". All I can say is that driving the car is exhausting. Every shift interrupts the smooth flow of power to the wheels, making everything take longer, and gradually wearing away confidence that the car will respond quickly if you need it to.

I have to say I was very surprised that a high-end vehicle like this would come with such a disappointing driver experience. I'd never buy one, not if this is the way they work.

 

[rshunter]

Wears away confidence that it won't respond quickly? It sounds like it is far too responsive. You twitch, it responds...

Seems like they need to just let the engine do its thing.

 

[brandini]

Also the trans computer can't learn your habits & shift points and chill out since it's constantly changing drivers.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Yes, you are seeing the adaptive logic used in the drivetrain controller.

A simple pull of the correct fuse for a minute or so can reset these to the factory defaults and then they will begin learning your habits.

 

[The_Jeff]

Best thing is the Ford/Volvo/Budget corporate conglomerate put you in one of these instead of, say, a taurus to get you to accidentally test drive it and see how "good" it is.

 

[PT1]

You just are not used to the 6 speed AT.

 

[Hethaerto]

I wonder how long the transmission will last as it's incessantly switching around like that? Did the revs ever get above 1500 (or wherever the torque peak is)?

 

[jaj]

The car had 200 miles on it when I picked it up and 500 when I dropped it off today. The adaptive learning was still in grade school as far as I can tell.

I've driven slushboxes and standards since 1970 and this one was the first one ever that I just couldn't warm up to. I've driven little tiny automotive diesels with auto's, small gasser's with auto's and big gasser's with auto's. Eventually you figure out how they think and then you can drive them and they're ok. This one was a surprise every minute. I was driving my (adult) kids around and they were laughing their heads off at the way the gearbox wouldn't sit still. Like it had automotive ADHD or something.

The car itself was great - I once had a Volvo 760GLE wagon that I bought new in 1980, and it was a great car. This car is a worthy descendant. But that gearbox needs to take a pill. It would be fine if it would just stay in gear for more than a second at a time.

 

[chrome]

It sounds rather similar to a CVT... the gearbox is probably trying to keep the engine revs in the optimal range for efficiency. With 6 gears to choose from, the ratios would be quite close...

 

[KrisZ]

I'm guessing that the relatively small engine in this application has a lot to do with shifting behavior. The transmission was programmed to keep the engine as close to the peak torque as possible so that the car doesn't feel like a dog. And like others said, I would really worry about longevity of this transmission if i was the owner of this car.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: chrome
It sounds rather similar to a CVT... the gearbox is probably trying to keep the engine revs in the optimal range for efficiency. With 6 gears to choose from, the ratios would be quite close...


Actually, most sixers do not have very close ratios, they just have two overdriven cogs for fuel economy.

 

[jaj]

Originally Posted By: KrisZ
...The transmission was programmed to keep the engine as close to the peak torque as possible ...


The transmission heads for the highest gear it can get, not the torque peak. Cruising at 30MPH on city streets, it selects 5th gear (second-highest gear in the box!), turning the engine at 1300 RPM. Great for a five-liter V8 with loads of torque, but the 3.2 liter six at that RPM is barely producing enough torque to overcome friction.

The software compensates for this urge to seek high gears by shifting down a lot. If you're cruising in fifth (at 30 MPH), and you touch the throttle, you get a shift down to at least 3rd; if you push it at all you're in 2nd. That means that the slight speed adjustments needed to move with traffic has it constantly shifting up then down. Like I said, the problem is that the box has no time lag - it just shifts constantly, always heading for the highest gear possible if you ease up on the throttle, then shifting down again if you move the throttle. Even though it shifts smoothly and quickly, as the driver you spend a lot of time with no apparent throttle response because the gearbox is trying to figure out what to do next, and while it shifts the engine is disconnected from the wheels.

Fuel economy was actually pretty good over the time I had the car - 17 MPG with about 50:50 highway:city.

 

[IndyIan]

Did you try manually shifting? Like just selecting 3rd and having it stay there? Sometimes I'll pick 2nd in my 3 speed auto for intown driving for a bit more throttle reponse and engine braking.

 

[UNC017]

Originally Posted By: chrome
It sounds rather similar to a CVT... the gearbox is probably trying to keep the engine revs in the optimal range for efficiency. With 6 gears to choose from, the ratios would be quite close...


It may be *trying* to behave like a CVT, but my experience with CVTs is that they are completely unobtrusive in doing their thing. They're different, but they're completely ignorable once the novelty wears off. They just *work*, and there is no shifting to attract attention to them.

I do have to wonder if it might not get better once the adaptive logic adapts better. Not only does the adaptive logic have to learn the driver, to a certain extent it has to learn the hardware too. 200 miles may just not be enough yet.

 

[jaj]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Did you try manually shifting? Like just selecting 3rd and having it stay there? Sometimes I'll pick 2nd in my 3 speed auto for intown driving for a bit more throttle reponse and engine braking.


The XC90 does have a manual mode that works pretty well, provided you remember to shift. Every time I used it I'd forget. My usual car is a manual, by the way, and I switch back and forth all the time, but the Volvo drove like an autobox when it was in manual mode, and I just couldn't remember to move the lever. What "M" actually did was downshift to "1" when you stopped and upshift when the engine hit redline (you learn things like that when you forget to shift manually). What I came to realize is that the car actually drives pretty well if you just bung it into third and leave it there. If you stop, you have to start over getting it into 3 or 4, but at least you get some peace on the shifting front.

I was surprised that it didn't have a non-adaptive mode, like the BMW "Sport" mode in my wife's car. It raises the shift points and doesn't learn any adaptations, so it's predictable. The BMW adaptive "normal" mode can deliver the same kind of boggy acceleration issues that the Volvo has - shifting up and taking its time on downshifts - but at least you can move the lever into "S" and make it drive like a regular autobox if you need to.