[PelvicSorcerer]

At the end of last month, the 4G Modem upgrade option for the 2016 XC90 was finally made widely available.

I called my dealership to let them know (they hadn’t heard yet), and they gave me a quote for the upgrade after some research.

They quoted me $1,699.54 for parts and labor before tax. Has anyone here gone through with this upgrade yet? Does this cost seem right?

 

[HalfMilionKmT8]

Volvos are cool cars, but prices are insane, never again.....

 

[rsfpc05]

I bet parts is like $100 and labor is the rest. Try a diff dealer?

 

[PelvicSorcerer]

I bet parts is like $100 and labor is the rest. Try a diff dealer?

Just did. Same part cost, but only about $150 labor. Fishy.

 

[DFrantz]

Just did. Same part cost, but only about $150 labor. Fishy.

What's fishy about it? A guy on the internet made a number up out of his ass and he was wrong.... $150 sounds like they're charging for 1 hour of labor.

That being said... I think we're charging around $1k for the SPA cars.. not sure the exact figure and I am off for a few days for the Hershey AACA car show.

 

[PelvicSorcerer]

What's fishy about it? A guy on the internet made a number up out of his ass and he was wrong.... $150 sounds like they're charging for 1 hour of labor.

That being said... I think we're charging around $1k for the SPA cars.. not sure the exact figure and I am off for a few days for the Hershey AACA car show.

Fishy that the two dealerships in my area have either drastically different labor rates or think it takes 1 vs 4 1/2 hours for the same service. $750 difference in labor alone. I suspect the cheaper dealership is assuming the labor will be the same as all the other non-SPA vehicles when maybe it’s actually a lot more complicated?

 

[DFrantz]

The XC90 is the only SPA vehicle that gets it I'm pretty sure since they switched to 4g the next year. Possibly some early S90s? Not sure about the labor time myself.

 

[PelvicSorcerer]

The XC90 is the only SPA vehicle that gets it I'm pretty sure since they switched to 4g the next year. Possibly some early S90s? Not sure about the labor time myself.

Yeah I think that’s right. Meant to say non-SPA vehicles.

 

[Delmarva]

Just did. Same part cost, but only about $150 labor. Fishy.

Then go with the dealer that quoted $150 if you want the modem. Not everyone does.
Rather than fishy or over priced I wonder if the other dealer mis-quoted the labor. Maybe grabbed the wrong service code.

 

[tanXC90]

According to this thread, parts/softwares are a bit more than $800 MSRP. The rest is labor.

3G to 4G Upgrade Part Numbers - SPA & P3

What is the 2016 XC90 upgrade solution? The upgrade solution from 3G to 4G for the 2016 XC90 includes a hardware upgrade kit, a new PSIM, and new software. VCM Hardware upgrade kit - 36003681 PSIM - 8640806 TEM Remove SW - 32319432 VCM Reload SW - 31427694 --- P3 / Non-SPA Vehicles The 4G...

www.swedespeed.com

 

[inteller]

it is an expensive part but Volvo of Toolsa is quoting 4.4hrs to do the job because they are a ship of fools over there and enjoy ripping off customers because they think they are the only ones that can do the job. News flash, they aren't.

The job runs about 1k at my indy. The parts and software costs can't be dodged, but the ridiculous labor can.

 

[16xc90t6]

I don’t think owners should have to pay for this at all! They manufactured and sold vehicles that have features that owners paid for that don’t work any more, why is it just assumed that the consumer has to eat this cost?

 

[DFrantz]

I don’t think owners should have to pay for this at all! They manufactured and sold vehicles that have features that owners paid for that don’t work any more, why is it just assumed that the consumer has to eat this cost?

Be happy you have the option. Manufactures are not required to keep your car supported and up to date with modern tech interfaces. Many brands aren't offering an upgrade at all. I have an old Nokia 3310 and needless to say a great percentage of it's features are not working.

edit: Also... technically the devices do work, they just have nothing to connect to.

 

[Tech]

Looks like they are quoting warranty times for the estimate again, like they did with the other upgrade. This is unfair to the dealer and the tech. If a dealer wants to charge a customer pay time instead of the 1.6 hours, they could.

 

[wawic20457]

Yh


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[16xc90t6]

Be happy you have the option. Manufactures are not required to keep your car supported and up to date with modern tech interfaces. Many brands aren't offering an upgrade at all. I have an old Nokia 3310 and needless to say a great percentage of it's features are not working.

edit: Also... technically the devices do work, they just have nothing to connect to.

I don’t know I still feel they handled the issue really poorly. AT&T announced they were shutting down 2g support way back in 2012. This was already something that could have been predicted. The fact of the matter is they made a choice to save a few bucks per car on a high end luxury brand and it was a bad choice. Now they want to pass the entire cost onto the consumer who already paid for the functionality. Then on top of that, they left the cars completely without any functionality for years while they took their time to figure this out.


To be fair as well, I think a 60-80k car should not be losing major functionality within 3 years of its sale date. I don’t think we can or should compare that with a cell phone that is 20 years old that originally cost 35 bucks.

I’m also not advocating that Volvo donates us this part or install, but they need to meet consumers in the middle, especially original owners or those who bought the car with existing functionality. My car, for example, was sold to me after the 2g sunset was announced and this was never mentioned to me when I bought it.

 

[Tech]

Do you know how much VCMs used to cost? They are meeting in the middle

 

[Gary-16-Xc90]

A personal perspective. YMMV.

In retrospect and with no inside knowledge, launching a 3G modem in a bleeding / leading edge new SPA XC90 in 2015 (i.e., 2016) was a bad business decision for Volvo and maybe a bad customer purchase decision - so there is a mutuality of risks and regrets.

With that said, I am very thankful that Volvo did provide us with an option solution for those of us who plan to keep our MY16s for the longer term. Volvo likely spent considerable resources and costs on the solution than what we are being charged. It is likely a loss leader for Volvo and maybe break even for most dealers. IDK.

For me, a cost of ~ $1000 was at my upper limit while $600-$800 is what I was hoping for. I am still hoping for ~ $1000 installed, plus the two years of VOC at no additional charge. TBD.

Ultimately, the final cost to each customer may depend on the relationship with the dealer. Maybe the original first owner who purchased and serviced with same dealer can get some goodwill from the dealer rather than incur the full estimated cost. Subsequent owners can hopefully get some dealer goodwill, too.

In the end, the goodwill should not be coming at the expense of the techs but from past and future sales to retain valued and appreciative customers. Good news is that customers are being offered an option.


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[Redlineit]

I have actually done one. The price is right. It’s almost 2 hours of labor. The parts are expensive. They are getting rid of the 3g telematics and old VCM which I am starting to see fail on older SPAs. It gets replaced with a new VCM 4g module. Then there is 2 software packages plus the renewal, setup and activation. While it sounds simple. That all takes time. It’s not a 2 minute operation.
I also understand the technology update. But does everyone buy new phone. Why don’t they make phones update able forever as well. Technology changes and the consumer is stuck with the expense.

 

[DFrantz]

Not much changed here so same as all the other threads on it... but Volvo did a bad job communicating the process, but they executed it, and again, many other brands do not offer a solution. They did all this in the mist of the biggest upheval to society as a whole and the automakers in living memory other than a few very old timers with WWII. No one had chips to make cars period... let alone to develop means up upgrading 5 year old cars.

Volvo, as a company, needed to cut some corners on the XC90. Volvo still had a loosing hand coming out of the recession and leaving Ford ownership. There was no promise the XC90 would work in the luxury segment. They bet the farm on it, and used all the capital they had, and would have from the Geely purchase on it. Given production cycles, the decision for 3g was likely done years before the 2016 build too and there wasn't going to be enough money to fix it. Had the XC90 not been sucessful, the forum would be for an orphan brand and folks would be without a servicing dealer to do anything. New 3g things were still coming to market as late as 2018, so Volvo was hardly last in line here.

It's the 3g sunset too, not 2g.