PACK IT ALL IN
SWEDES HAVE APPETITE FOR BULK GOODS
AFTER months of trying, I’ve finally managed to organise time off work for a small trip to properly test the V60’s family hauling capabilities. If you’ve been keeping up with the car’s recent escapades, you would be aware it is accomplished on long drives, as proven on the 160km journey home after Wheels Car of the Year testing at Inverloch, south-east of Melbourne.
I’m not sure how everyone else goes with family trips, but for my brood just getting out the door is a stressful experience. Between the wife freaking out and the kids waging World War III against each other, sometimes I wonder why we bother.
During the whole process I watch a pyramid of luggage build near the front door, growing fearful of the poor Volvo’s ability to swallow all this crap. Finally given the green light, I gleefully head out to play Tetris.
The V60 has a 529-litre luggage capacity, but it never really stood a chance with our tendency to take more stuff than we need. It was stacked almost to the top, leaving a pile of extra bags to place around the kids’ booster seats. If we could have shown more restraint when packing, I think we would have easily needed only the back and I would have had better rear visibility. Live and learn (I hope, foolishly).
Not having great rear vision isn’t too much of a problem though. The V60 is fully loaded with safety features – pedestrian, vehicle, large animal and cyclist detection; intersection collision and oncoming mitigation; AEB; and front and rear collision warning, to name just a few. Having all these is great, but they can go off at awkward times. Rear collision warning, for instance, has activated when another vehicle has driven alongside while I’ve been parking. Another niggle I have is with the sometimes flaky 360-degree cameras; the ones in the side mirrors don’t always activate.
These are minor issues that are far from deal-breakers though. I’m not aware of the date for the V60’s return to Volvo HQ, and frankly it’s something I’m blissfully ignoring for as long as possible.