Going up against luxury brands

themselves overwhelmed by the options available.”

The subscription model could portend bigger changes in the automotive world.

“What we are really testing the waters for is autonomous vehicle ride-sharing,” said Ivan Drury, an analyst for Edmunds. “Can we get people acclimated to the idea of [switching] cars often?”

its new program that could be used to tailor future initiatives. “The learning will be really insightful to see how consumers will approach car ownership in the future,” Drury said.

For now, though, you’ll have to actually drive your XC40.

After a week tooling around in one, I came away more interested in the subscription model than the SUV itself. The car is competent, sure, but it’s merely that which could be a problem in an ultra-competitive segment where luxury automakers, including Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW, all sell well-honed competitors.

Our test car, an XC40 T5 AWD R-Design that cost $45,935, came loaded with options, making it essentially equivalent to the $700-a-month subscription offering.

6.2 seconds.

Inside, an artful mix of materials patterned metallic trim, perforated leather, and nubuck upholstery feels decidedly high-end.

The paddle shifters, for example, are plastic but give the impression that they are crafted from metal. The backs of the paddles, where you’ll place your hands when shifting in manumatic mode, are coated in grippy rubber. They feel luxurious in hand, better than the ones in $100,000-plus grand tourers from the likes of Mercedes. The rubber backing is an artful touch, one that is largely unseen but reveals a keen attention to detail.

The well-designed interior aside, the XC40’s 9-inch Sensus touch-screen system, which controls nearly all of the SUV’s functions, is a major letdown.

It presents a clunky and maddeningly frustrating interface: slow at times and largely unintuitive. There are few redundant physical controls, making it tough to bypass the portrait-oriented screen. This makes even the simplest of actions, such as adjusting the heat or air-conditioning, unnecessarily laborious.

It’s particularly frustrating because many car companies, Genesis and Lexus among them, seem to

and screen-based controls. (The Sensus system does