Now answering to dictates from its new
Chinese owners; trying to respond to its heritage as ‘the world’s safest cars’;
building in enough luxury to compete with Audi/Mercedes/BMW/Jaguar; and
sticking on badges that say ‘All Wheel Drive’ like Range Rovers; whilst
advertising twin-charged engines with Polestar-like racecar performance.
This is a very confusing mish-mash of
mandates from which to develop a mission statement. Plus Volvo now tells us
that all its cars will be exclusively powered by electric motors from 2020!
What is going on in Gothenburg?
What is going on in Gothenburg?
Just exactly what IS a Volvo today?
I think
there’s been far too much sweating in saunas, and then rushing outside into the snow to beat
each other with birch boughs!
Actually, I secretly admire this bunch of
Swedish sauna babies – they are survivors!
When my friend, designer Peter
Horbury took up the Head of Design post at Volvo, he told me quite emphatically that Volvo had a strong, sensible, innovative and individual culture which infused their
thinking on all facets of car-making.
Volvo is nothing like Saab, they are
completely different cultures. Saab was populated by a bunch of innovative,
independent, automotive miscreants; while Volvo is populated by grown-ups, who know a lot
about making cars for worldwide consumption. That is distinctly different from
Saab, which seemed to exclusively concern itself with Swedish car consumers’
tastes, and preserving its kinky personality profile.
Which one's still here? Volvo, that’s who. Still
based in Gothenburg, still preserving jobs for Swedes, but now with the
financial backing of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, it seems supercharged to
face the uncertain future of the car business.
All this meandering around the subject of the Swedish
survivor is prompted by this week’s motoring in a Volvo XC60 wagon.
It’s the 'almost top-of-the-line' T6 model, with a 2.0L four cylinder boosted by both a
supercharger and a turbocharger – mated to a slick Aisin 8-speed automatic and
all-wheel-drive courtesy of Borg-Warner. The XC60’s off-road capabilities might
not quite be on a par with Range Rover, but hey, it will easily amble up and
down some of the steepest slopes on my off-road test track very surefootedly.
Actually it competently handles both tasks, and once
you’ve become an owner you will appreciate many thoughtful touches in the
interior and its general performance and economy.
Most buyers in this segment will be shopping XC60
against Land Rover Discovery Sport, and Range Rover Evoque, and in the end the
final decision will probably be the deal you negotiate – because all three of
these competitors are equal in design, performance and visual appeal.
Here's a snapshot of the segment from the YTD September VFACTS stats.
This XC60 will sell well, because its forerunner has been Volvo’s most successful wagon. The original XC60 was launched in 2010 and as of this month production volume will exceed one million vehicles. The superseded XC60 accounted for 30% of Volvo’s global sales.
This XC60 will sell well, because its forerunner has been Volvo’s most successful wagon. The original XC60 was launched in 2010 and as of this month production volume will exceed one million vehicles. The superseded XC60 accounted for 30% of Volvo’s global sales.
It’s also defying the trend where vehicles sell
strongly at the start of their life, and then sales slowly decline as it ends production. Volvo says the
original XC60 is selling better now than when it was launched. Seems the Swedes
are on to something with this package.
There’s no reason why the new XC60 should not continue
the trend. The base model is priced to compete, right on AUD$60,000; but the
car I’m driving is the top-of-the-line T6, twin-charged model with AWD, and
it’s just over AUD$78K.
However, it performs well, handles well, crashes through
the bush with ease, and features some interesting tech, as a prequel to rapidly-advancing autonomous vehicle design.
If you read DRIVING & LIFE regularly, you’ll
know I can’t give a toss for all this intrusive tech; self-driving cars;
lane-change avoidance; and adaptive cruise controls – but Volvo has delivered a
very impressive package of this new-fangled stuff, which means it’s already a
key player in the emerging technology.
If you’re impressed by this sort of thing.
Me? Couldn’t give a damn. I’ll be pushing up daisies by the time this stuff becomes the norm.
Me? Couldn’t give a damn. I’ll be pushing up daisies by the time this stuff becomes the norm.
Just give me Apple CarPlay and I’m happy – and in that
department the XC60 delivers.
However, based on my first drive, I think it would be
a difficult car for me to own.
It's the memory seat system. This really is a
pain in the backside, because it’s got two problems. Apparently when the Swedes
are designing seats they must assume that in Sweden a 95 percentile human is 2m
tall!
When you get in the car, the seat moves back so far,
that yours truly (who is just 162cm tall) can’t reach the brake pedal, to press
it, and be able to start the car!
Then there’s the seat memory. According to the
on-screen owners’ manual, you simply set up mirrors, seat and steering to suit;
press the ‘M’ button until the warning light illuminates, and you get between
1-3 seconds to press the M1 button! Okay, let’s try that. Nope. As soon as you
press the ‘M1’ button the seat reverts to the settings for the previous 2m-high
Swedish male, for whom the system was obviously designed! Which means every
time I got in the car, I had to reset seat, mirrors and steering. Back to the
drawing board boys!
Volvo joins the world of modular architectures, by basing the XC60 on a shortened XC90 platform. Actually, the system is called 'Scalable Product Architecture' (SCA), and allows total customisation of all platform elements.
Overall, the XC60 is a very pleasant car to drive. You may have to wring the engine’s neck to get Polestar performance, but the 8-speed Aisin transmission is well-calibrated, and you do get paddles to make it all more fun.
Overall, the XC60 is a very pleasant car to drive. You may have to wring the engine’s neck to get Polestar performance, but the 8-speed Aisin transmission is well-calibrated, and you do get paddles to make it all more fun.
The central touchscreen is a design tour-de-force,
despite the fact that its OS is the very ancient Windows CE platform.
Apparently Volvo will soon switch to Android OS.
Aaron, my Volvo
tech guy, said just think of it like an iPad, complete with horizontal/vertical
swiping, and it’ll all become easy to use in no time at all.
The dash features Volvo’s version of Audi’s active
dashboard, and works well, but what I really liked was the ‘overhead’ view of
your parking manoeuvres on the central screen – it’s brilliant tech!
Car repair manuals pdf of Volvo can save a lot of time of the owner since it gives the solution of any kind of maintenance issue. The Volvo 850 is a compact executive car produced by the Swedish manufacturer Volvo Cars from 1991 to 1997 and designed by Jan Wilsgaard.
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