Glitch Tally Climbs After Six Months With Our 2016 Volvo XC90

CARS.COM — The 2016 Volvo XC90 is practically bursting at the seams with technology, including a multifaceted touch-screen and long list of advanced driving aids. These features helped the luxury SUV win Cars.com’s Best of 2016 award, but how well do they hold up over time? We’ve owned ours for six months and our glitch log includes touch-screen performance problems, feature failures and connectivity issues.

Related: Follow Our Long-Term Fleet

Some of the reported issues could be one-off occurrences or unique to a problematic phone, but there are also trends emerging from the reports. Below is a collection of glitches recorded after the XC90’s first six months in Cars.com’s long-term fleet.

Bluetooth

• One editor’s phone that was previously paired wouldn’t reconnect to the XC90 and required deleting the XC90 from the phone for the car to successfully reconnect.
• Audible static interrupted streaming Bluetooth audio.

Backup camera

• Multiple editors have noted slowed backup camera operation after the gear selector is placed in reverse.
• In one instance, the backup camera didn’t work at all in reverse and was blocked out of the touch-screen’s vehicle functions menu.

Cross-traffic alert and blind spot warning systems

• The cross-traffic alert and blind spot warning systems were inactive at the same time the backup camera failed to activate, and all three were blocked from the Vehicle Functions menu while the car was running.

Screen startup

• Multiple editors have noted how painfully long it takes for the touch-screen to become operative after starting the vehicle.

Screen crash

• Two editors reported the touch-screen crashing: one while updating an application where touch-screen froze, restarted and the app disappeared, and the other when the screen went white before restarting on its own.

Remote key

• A dashboard message showed “Vehicle key not found. Removed from vehicle” multiple times despite the key being in the vehicle.

We didn’t just log and complain about the issues. We also asked Volvo technicians to inspect the lagging touch-screen and slow backup camera performance during the car’s first service. A software update was available and installed, though it didn’t seem to affect screen performance. Editors continue to report slow touch-screen response time at startup and a lagging backup camera.