Dual-personality wagon has speed and space
Swedish automaker stays true to its roots with a treat for longroof aficionados
So many companies seem to be dropping wagons from their lineups in favour of crossovers, so it’s refreshing to get into a proper wagon that lives up to all the clichés we longroof aficionados use to defend them: The 2017 Volvo V90 looks better, drives better, carries as much stuff as any average family needs.
Granted, I did happen to benefit from getting into the hottest V90 trim you can get, and it’s made even hotter by the Polestar performance upgrade we sampled.
Style profile
We’re driving the 2017 Volvo V90 RDesign T6 AWD, but what does all that mean? R-Design is just Volvospeak for sporty. The R-Design is the sportiest looking of any Volvo model, and here we have a blacked-out grille insert, silk metal trim and a sporty body kit with a front lip spoiler, dual tailpipes and 19 or 20-inch wheels. However, R-Design means nothing when it comes to power, as you can still get it in base T5 FWD trim or upgraded T6 AWD. More on that later.
Inside, we have available carbonfibre trim, alloy pedals, perforated leather steering wheel with flappy paddles, and a set of sexy sport seats covered in nappa leather with nubuck inserts and contrasting stitching.
The cargo space listed on the spec sheet — 960 litres in the trunk, 1,526 litres with seats folded — doesn’t do justice to the actual space available, which is wide and useful for all of a family’s junk and epic Costco runs. However, the Sensus interface can be a bit of a letdown with its odd menu and screen setup and lacks countdown graphics in the route guidance system. But let’s get to the good stuff and why this is the hot wagon in the V90 lineup.
Spicy Swede, mild Swede
What makes it hotter is this T6 AWD powertrain, which features a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine that is both turbocharged and supercharged.
The T6 is normally rated at 316 horsepower and 295 lbs.-ft. of torque, but with a power bump courtesy of Volvo’s Polestar division — much like BMW’s M or Mercedes’ AMG — this V90 gets 330 horsepower and 325 lbs.-ft., with sharper throttle response and a transmission tuned for sportier driving. The power is plenty for its 1,891 kilograms, getting moving with a nice little snarl, then back to quiet composure at any speed when cruising. With all-wheel drive, it hits 100 km/h in fewer than six seconds, so it has the speed, but what most impressed me is its dual personality.
In Dynamic mode, the transmission holds gears and shifts quickly, delivering on that sporty character that the design promises. But it’s not a one-trick pony, and for everyday driving, the transmission’s eight speeds are used wisely with smooth, seamless shifts in Comfort or Eco mode, while the more aggressive behaviour is reserved for Sport mode. Between Eco mode, engine stop/ start and that small, clever engine, the V90 is expected to deliver 11.8 L/100 km in the city, 8.5 on the highway (which we achieved in a similarly equipped S90 sedan), and about 10.3 L/100 km in mixed use.
Smooth and steady when you want
Another aspect of the car that provides refinement on demand is the optional air suspension paired with front double-wishbones and rear integral axle suspension with a composite cross-axle leaf spring. Sounds weird, right? However, the rear integral axle is the same suspension design BMW uses to achieve its superb balance and rewarding driving dynamics in many of its cars. Anyhow, the V90 we sampled was also equipped with that air suspension, which can shift from Comfort to Sport at the touch of your finger.
The result is a ride that can handle the broken highway pavement with ease but tightens up when you get out of town and find some corners to carve. In comfort mode, it almost completely smothers out railroad crossings, choppy expansion joints on bridges and other disastrous road conditions without giving up that sporty drive.
Dial up Sport mode on your favourite back roads, and that unusual suspension keeps the car flat while absorbing bumps without upsetting the balance, allowing you to pile on as much speed as you like in ideal conditions with barely a hint of understeer, even when we flogged it through twisting ribbons of tarmac.
And while the gorgeous front seats are fantastic for grip and back comfort, there are little bolsters on the seat extensions that I could do without because they dig into my thighs.
The steering might not be sportscar sharp, but it is smooth and well weighted, with a heavier feel in Dynamic mode, giving you the confidence to push the car. Like any large car, carrying a lot of speed into corners will eventually degenerate into understeer, but that threshold is beyond what even aggressive drivers will likely reach when packing up their kids and heading to the cottage. That being said, it is still fun to hustle up to its reasonable limits, but if you’re looking to take your wagon to the track, get in line for the V60 Polestar.
However, on a daily basis, you are more likely to be stuck in traffic and appreciate the well-executed adaptive cruise and the subtle lane-keep assist, and Volvo’s suite of driving and safety aids is standard in the V90. While those are becoming the norm, Volvo is constantly rolling out new driving aids to make you safer in a Volvo, as well as others around you.
Volvo has stressed that it isn’t rac- ing to deliver autonomous driving prematurely, yet it is committed to eliminating fatalities and serious injury in all Volvo cars by 2020. A couple neat innovations coming in the XC60 are oncoming-traffic-avoidance steering, which guides you back out of danger if you stray toward oncoming traffic, and blind-spotavoidance steering, which will take over steering to dodge traffic in your blind spot if you fail to heed warnings.
The verdict
The V90 starts at about $59,000 for a 250-horsepower front-wheel-drive model, goes to more than $64,000 for the T6 AWD and closes in on $80,000 fully loaded. That’s a lot to charge for a niche vehicle that few people are shopping for these days, but Volvo is a brand that seems to have rediscovered its mojo, with a smart, flexible platform that can breed a variety of body styles and sizes, a power plant that runs from basic to ballistic and some of the best designs on the market.
This classic V90 wagon delivers exactly what it’s supposed to, all the cargo and passenger space you need paired with a more engaging, sporty drive, especially in this R-Design T6 AWD trim, and that Polestar power bump sure doesn’t hurt either. Long live the wagon.