Volvo V90
It’s here, it’s huge and it’s wonderfully luxurious
Iwander through life feeling like a slightly bewildered boy who’s accidentally landed in the saggy skin of a middleaged man. “Owning” a big grand car doesn’t sit quite right with me. Still, to ease me in, it’s not the usual sort of big grand car. It’s not German and not an SUV.
The V90 is such a long, low sled. Like those huge American wagons of the Sixties, or a hearse painted spring-morning sky. My avoiding black or silver paint was one way to avoid the big-grand-car design cliches. I specced the interior by the same logic. No black leather, no slabs of brushed aluminium or fake carbon fbre. Instead it’s soft-stitched tan saddlery and matt-oiled timber. Hmmm… I could get used to this.
First trip out, I asked my wife (far more of a natural grown-up than me, but even less beholden to the big or the grand) what she reckoned to the interior, and she spat a one-word dismissal: “Ostentatious.” Oh. She likes the Citroen Cactus. So do I, but, y’know.
Still, one member of the household is only too delighted to be bound by the tyranny of luxury. The V90 has the family pack (pop-up booster seats, electric child locks, roller blinds), and our eight-yearold kid is loving being free of her big child seat for the frst time ever. She has yet to discover I specced the optional 240V mains socket in the centre console and the wif hotspot. If she did she’d hole up there with an iPad and refuse ever to be dragged out.
It’s blissfully comfy for me too, thanks to the £350 super-adjustable front seats. They’re vented as well as heated. For comfort reasons, I swerved a wheel size upgrade. I also ticked the box marked Winter Plus with HUD, because active bending LED headlamps are such a fab thing, and having navigation in the HUD lets you turn of the dictatorial voice.
One thing does irk, though. Why, on a £50k Volvo, is it £600 extra for blind-spot and cross-trafc warning?
It left Volvo to come here with just eight miles on the clock. I haven’t had the time to run a fuel check, but the computer says 40mpg. Hope it loosens up soon. Meanwhile, enjoying the new-car smell...