Here we are 3 years on and it's gone by really quickly.

Just thought I'd tie this one up neatly.

The S Tronic gearbox was a dream to use and the gearchanges up and down were imperceptable. There was a slight amount of jerkiness when manoevering at parking speeds but this became a minor issue with practice.

The EHB gave no problems.

Being a Motability car, it only covered 15300 miles in the 3 years at an average of 36.1 MPG (spreadsheet not fuel computer!) Lots of short journeys. Could easily reach 45 MPG on gentle cross country runs.

Faults were as follows:

Cracked windscreen replaced after 4 months; nail in rear tyre; Satnav module in shark fin aerial went wrong after 2 years 9 months; slow coolant loss caused by bad thermostat seal after 2 years 11 months (both obviously repaired/updated under warranty).

I would have no issue in purchasing the vehicle myself, having known how it was driven and maintained, we handed it back in immaculate condition in/out. Unfortunately Motability don't take into account the £11500 we spent over 3 years, so I would expect to see it on sale in the next couple of weeks at around £19000, judging by similar examples.

We now have a Volvo XC40 T4 Inscription. Also a lovely car, quieter and softer suspension, but not as 'sporty' to drive as the Q3.

We now have a Volvo XC40 T4 Inscription. Also a lovely car, quieter and softer suspension, but not as 'sporty' to drive as the Q3

We had a XC40 T4 R Design Pro on 2 day test last month and both of us were really surprised by it. Never really liked the idea of a high up SUV and never liked autos but on both counts it converted us.

Need to look at alternatives but on paper it seems to be the best of the bunch. Would probably go for the T4 R Design and have the space saver option, it has all we want/need (and more).

What mpg do you get? Over 2 days we seemed to be getting about 30 mpg on the dash and that looked about right considering the fuel used and miles covered but we all know how far out they are on some cars. Could live with that, only about 4mpg worse than the Pulsar.

This engine is not known for its economy, HJ real economy suggests just over 32, which I can live with. Users on the XC40 forum seem to say that economy of the T4 engine improves after 5000 miles.

That would be fine for us as well. Only do about 6000 miles a year thus the extra cost would be about £60 a year.

New models from May will be known as B4s and have mild hybrid technology, but the increase in economy is minimal according to official figures.

Saw a brief test of the new T5 Twin engine version of the XC40 this week and although I would never consider one due to the cost it had a very interesting comment. One thing we really liked about the T4 was the auto box and that is form 2 people one of whom dislikes them and the other who has only drive one and hated it. It was really smooth and kicked down instantly. Not only that but it did not constantly and needlessly keep changing gears for no other reason than to entertain itself, once in a gear it seemed to stay in it. Due to it being a torque converter box it had creep for parking as well, very old school and very useful. But the test I read this week criticised the box in the T5 twin engine and commented that Volvo had replaced the Torque converter box with a dual clutch box.

If they have done that to the B4 it will be off our list immediately regardless of all the cars many good points. Just hope that the B4 is an additional model and the T4 continues to be sold.

The only slight negative is noticeable tyre noise on the motorway, the Q3 was particularly good in this respect.

We had read about this before our drive and all I can say the one we had was fine after a motorway run of about 50 miles. It was the R Design Pro version and ran on 245 45 19 tyres, we would probably buy the non pro version which runs on 235 55 18 tyres which in my experience should be better, the taller sidewalls in my experience always seem quieter as well as riding better.

The B4 replaces the T4 but keeps the 8 speed torque converter automatic.

Just downloaded the 2021 model (that is not an error) price list and spec and compared it to the 2020 model price list and spec that I downloaded in January before out test drive.

The new B4 is £825 more expensive than the T4 so not really a deal breaker.

Looking at the specs it seems to have lost the parking ticket holder (a feature I love in the Fabia) and possibly the gear shift paddles (never tried them on the test drive so no idea if I would miss them).

It seems to have gained a "care key" (allows you to set the top speed if loaning the car) and the power tailgate. On our test drive car we really liked that plus it worried us that the wife may no be able to work a manual tailgate.

So for us the gains outweigh the losses.

MPG looks about 2 mpg better on the B4 but that is the officail figure and who believes those.

BHP has gone up 7 on the B4 plus it hangs on longer.

Torque is exactly the same.

Top speed seems to have been limited to 112 mph from the previous 130 mph, no issue there.

Kerb eight has increased 56 kg so its now even lardier.

Important fact as 72 Dudes says is it seems to have retained an 8 speed box and presumably that is still the torque converter one so it still looks good to us.

Gives me an excuse to try an blag an extended test in the new model now, if we all survive of course.