Care By Volvo is the automaker’s alternative to leasing or financing a new vehicle, offering instead a subscription program starting at $650 per month covering insurance, tire protection, maintenance and other services on a new car. And now you can swap out for another new ride after only four months.
Previously, the Care By Volvo subscription program covered all of what’s mentioned above, starting at $650 per month on the S60 and XC40 R-Design trims. It bumped to $700 for the XC60 or $750 for the XC90, which you had to hold onto for at least 12 months before you could swap for a new car. It’s like using the Apple upgrade program so you get the latest iPhone each year.
But now Volvo has updated the program to shorten the loan time frame requirement to just four months, from 12 months, with the same 1,250-mile monthly allowance and no other weird stipulations introduced. You can just swap or upgrade to another Care By Volvo loan any time after your first four months with a car, in perpetuity, as long as you keep paying the rate. In a single year, you could drive a brand-new S60 R-Design, XC40, and an XC60 for $700/month or less.
Update Wednesday, October 28, 2020 11:33 a.m. - Care by Volvo is available for residents in US states excluding: CA, FL, HI, MS, NC, ND, NY and SD.
While it is technically a separate brand from Volvo, sister-company Polestar has recently made a lot of noise about reducing the broader environmental and resource impact of its vehicles by developing a new Chinese factory to build the Polestar Precept electric sedan — which itself features many sustainable materials — with as close to a zero-carbon footprint as possible. Volvo’s offering of brand-new cars to a single person on a (potential) four-month rotation kind of eats away at the foundation of any corporate argument for reducing vehicle footprint and material waste. All in the name of padding those sales numbers, I presume.
But how many subscribers are actually going to eat through cars with an incentive like that, given the opportunity? Oh, wait, the Volvo website confirms that you can order your car from an available inventory online and it can be delivered to you directly in just two weeks. Yeah, I’d totally have a new car in the driveway three times a year, then. No neighbor, it’s not “exactly the same car.” This one is clearly blue.