Family Car - XC90 or Discovery Sport

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Wed 17 Jul 2024 09:11
Family Car - XC90 or Discovery Sport - Pauljmeh

Hi all,

Apologies for the long first post but have been reading through the forum and found lots of really great content.

My wife and I have a 2 year old, 1 year old with another on the way. We now need a larger car and have been sopping the market for the past month. We narrowed it down to X5, VW All Space, XC90 and Discovery Sport of cars we liked within our budget.

We wanted all 3 baby seats to fit across the middle row and it turns out surprisingly that the X5 and VW All Space couldn't accommodate that. That leaves the XC90 and Discovery Sport

Within our budget there are 2018 and 2019 XC90s with roughly 110,000 miles on the clock or 2020 Discovery Sports with 60,000 miles on the clock. Both would be 2.0 Diesel and would be purchased through dealers with full service history and 1 year warranty's.

Our main concerns were about space and reliability and we are now wondering which would be the better pick factoring in age and mileage? Any advice or experience would be really appreciated?

Edited by Pauljmeh on 17/07/2024 at 09:18

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Wed 17 Jul 2024 10:16
Family Car - XC90 or Discovery Sport - Falkirk Bairn

With your budget buying a 5/6 year old + high mileage Volvo /Discovery Sport would be risky!

I would set my sights on something more modest with lower mileages and a "good history reliability" - petrol/hybrid petrol from well known Japanese/Korean brands with longer warranty.

After market warranties are not what they claim to be - too many get outs when something happens.

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Wed 17 Jul 2024 10:23
Family Car - XC90 or Discovery Sport - Pauljmeh

Thanks Falkirk Bairn

There's not a great selection for Japanese brands here that can fit 3 across, unless we opt for a MPV which we are not keen on.

We're read that Discovery Sports can be unreliable but with mileage in around 60k and it only being 4 years old we thought that was safe...the XC90 is obviously a year older and mileage is double so was wondering wat their long term reliability is like

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Wed 17 Jul 2024 10:39
Family Car - XC90 or Discovery Sport - daveyjp

Hyundai/Kia options would be nearer the top of the list than a Discovery. Check out reliability tables.

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Wed 17 Jul 2024 11:06
Family Car - XC90 or Discovery Sport - Pauljmeh

This is the thing, we've checked reliability tables and XC90 comes in top 5/10 on pretty much all of them, including Honest John... unless I'm looking in the wrong places?

Thanks for the feedback re Discovery Sport...I'll mark that off the list

Edited by Pauljmeh on 17/07/2024 at 11:07

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Wed 17 Jul 2024 14:45
Family Car - XC90 or Discovery Sport - Pauljmeh

www.whatcar.com/news/reliability-survey-most-relia...7

This has XC90 as the most reliable

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Wed 17 Jul 2024 10:48
Family Car - XC90 or Discovery Sport - SLO76
Wouldn’t touch either of them unless you can afford to buy or lease new. We had a previous gen low mileage full dealer history XC60 and it was a pig, from fragile suspension components to coolant leaks and rust it just wasn’t the quality product that Volvo used to make before the Americans and later the Chinese ruined the standards. They’re cripplingly expensive to fix too. I won’t buy another.

Wouldn’t think about any JLR product with their 2.0 diesel motor, spend half an hour googling engine failures relating to JLR vehicles and you’ll remove it from your shortlist too. Add to this electrical and gearbox failures and the insane cost of repairs and this should end your interest. These are both a poor choice at the money you’re likely thinking.

What is your budget and what are your needs plus where roughly will you be searching?
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Wed 17 Jul 2024 11:09
Family Car - XC90 or Discovery Sport - Pauljmeh

What we're looking for is something that's reasonably nice to look at, like an X5 or XC90 but priority is something that can fit 3 baby seats across the same middle row, have space for 3 buggies in the boot and isn't going to be in the garage all the time. I realise MPVs are the best option but I've driven an Smax on holiday and hated it.

We currently have a BMW 420D and parts are expensive but we accept that, I assume parts for a Volvo etc won't be anything exceeding the costs of what we currently have

I think Kia Sorrento is only other one that can fit 3 across as a friend has Skoda Kodiak and it doesn't fit the 3 baby seats in a row.

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Wed 17 Jul 2024 11:27
Family Car - XC90 or Discovery Sport - Heidfirst

have you seen www.whatcar.com/advice/buying/best-large-suvs-for-...4 ?

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Wed 17 Jul 2024 11:54
Family Car - XC90 or Discovery Sport - Pauljmeh

I have and thank you, it's actually the best resource we found for detailing what SUV's fit the 3
Santa Fe my wife didn't like but we never looked at the Kia so I'll have to approach that

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Wed 17 Jul 2024 11:40
Family Car - XC90 or Discovery Sport - Andrew-T

What we're looking for is something that's reasonably nice to look at, like an X5 or XC90 but priority is something that can fit 3 baby seats across the same middle row,

After you have owned it for a few months and (assuming it has behaved itself) the novelty has mostly worn off, you will be more concerned with its day-to-day behaviour. I would suggest putting appearance lower on your list, as its main effect is to get you to buy the thing !

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Wed 17 Jul 2024 11:53
Family Car - XC90 or Discovery Sport - Pauljmeh

Yeah you're probably right re the looks...I think from a practicality standpoint the XC90 still probably leads it as it has the option of the 7 seats and has a lot more boot space than the SantaFe or Sorento but again it's just the reliability question.

I was always under the impression (as someone who admittedly doesn't know a lot about cars) that a premium diesel with mileage around 100,000 wasn't an issue and that it was more concerning if a 5-6 year old diesel had low mileage?

I think the ultimate question is will a premium diesel 2019 Volvo at 120,000 miles be as reliable as a 2020 Sorento or Santa Fe that have 60,000 miles?

Edited by Pauljmeh on 17/07/2024 at 12:01

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Wed 17 Jul 2024 15:19
Family Car - XC90 or Discovery Sport - Adampr

Yeah you're probably right re the looks...I think from a practicality standpoint the XC90 still probably leads it as it has the option of the 7 seats and has a lot more boot space than the SantaFe or Sorento but again it's just the reliability question.

I was always under the impression (as someone who admittedly doesn't know a lot about cars) that a premium diesel with mileage around 100,000 wasn't an issue and that it was more concerning if a 5-6 year old diesel had low mileage?

I think the ultimate question is will a premium diesel 2019 Volvo at 120,000 miles be as reliable as a 2020 Sorento or Santa Fe that have 60,000 miles?

The answer to the ultimate question is no. The Hyundai and especially the Kia will also still be under manufacturer's warranty.

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Wed 17 Jul 2024 15:59
Family Car - XC90 or Discovery Sport - Ian_SW

Have you looked at the "Multimac" which is a triple child seat which fits in the back of any reasonably sized car?

This then opens up many other options in terms of cars to buy, meaning you can get a normal estate car or a 5 seater crossover which will be significantly newer and lower mileage than for an XC90 or similar.

They are pretty expensive, but probably no more than it would probably cost fixing an XC90 or Disco Sport over a couple of years.....

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