Overall a great car, some improvement would be nice
The GV70 is a great car. It looks great on the outside, luxurious on the interior. The engine is powerful, handles great for an SUV, and the ride is fairly comfortable. The seats are very comfortable and heated/cooled. I like the surround view, too, and lots of other amenities like smart cruise, automatic rain wipers, auto headlights, etc…
However, no car is perfect and there are some things worth noting.
The big screen is mostly wasted space if you are not using nav since you can't put widgets over there. Lincoln has the right idea imperfectly executed - allow any widget to be positioned anywhere. Getting the gauges and widgets setup also takes some non-obvious clicking around.
The sports mode speedometer is kind of dumb because it has a number for the speed and then a circular graphic...that also indicates the speed, not the rpm. Why?
The auto-start stop is poorly executed - it shakes the car when it starts, and turns off way too quickly so it is always turning back on immediately after it turns off (ex: stop sign, right turn on red, adjusting parking position, need AC back on)
The car does not remember the drive mode (sport, comfort) or what was showing on the main screen after a restart. It also doesn’t remember the start-stop mode either, but that is expected unfortunately.
The lane keeping assist works mostly as expected, but it tends to hunt for the center of the lane, slowly drifting a little one way and then back. Humans probably do that too, but it is distracting when the car does it. It probably would help if the rate at which it drifted one way or the other was slower, then I wouldn’t notice. It has trouble with any curve beyond a gentle one and I’ll often feel a need to “help” it because it was a little late to start the turn. The smart cruise has jammed on the brakes when a car ahead of me entered the exit lane and slowed down (several times).
The center console is a fingerprint magnet due to the glossy surfaces. Also, the shiny metal piece around the shift knob will blast your retinas with reflected light if you happen to be driving in the wrong direction.
I also think there is a little too much road noise, mainly from the rear tires. The fact that otherwise the cabin is pretty quiet probably accentuates the road noise and it isn’t loud, just prominent.
Last comment is my GV70 has been in the shop for almost 3 weeks and running. It has a problem where the audio won’t play when the engine is running. First repair failed after long wait for part and now waiting on better diagnosis. Wondering if I should have bought the RX350.