What will Volvo's XC40 flat-rate pricing cost? Here's a clue

When Volvo revealed the XC40, it also announced the introduction of a unique payment plan called Care by Volvo. Instead of messing with haggling and financing, it will let you lease a new XC40 with one simple flat-rate each month that's the same nationwide. Volvo didn't put a price tag on that for the U.S., though. But we did discover that the program does have a price in the U.K., specifically £629 a month for 24 months for a T5 model with the turbocharged, 247-horsepower model. At current exchange rates, that would come to $853 per month, which would come to about $10,200 a year.

Now something to keep in mind is that pricing is never a direct translation between countries, so there will probably be a difference between the U.K. and U.S. pricing. It could be a fairly substantial change, too, since the most affordable T5 XC40 (a slightly higher trim R-Design, while the U.S. will have a more modest Momentum trim to start) costs almost $48,500, while America's entry-level XC40 T5 will cost just $35,200. That puts the American T5 at about 73 percent of the cost of the U.K. version. If we assume that American pricing for Care by Volvo is similarly less, the monthly cost would be about $623 per month, or nearly $7,500 a year.

That's certainly easier to stomach than $10,000 a year, but it's still not exactly cheap. And put into perspective, paying that much per month over two years would nearly equal half the base purchase price of the XC40. Then again, the Care by Volvo price doesn't just cover the cost of the car. It also covers maintenance and insurance. Whether or not that would make the plan financially better would come down to the individual, but some people might even be willing to spend a bit more just for the simplicity.

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