Volvo XC60 D4 R-design AWD
In its reinvigorated, new era, Volvo aims its cross hairs at the mid-sized SUV sector
ROAD TEST
MODEL TESTED D4 R-DESIGN AWD Price £39,705 Power 188bhp Torque 295lb ft 0-60mph 8.9sec 30-70mph in fourth 10.5sec Fuel economy 39.6mpg CO2 emissions 136g/km 70-0mph 47.2m
It wasn’t so long ago that Volvo was commonly thought of within car industry circles as ‘that funny northern European semipremium car maker that nobody wants’. In 2010, the Swedish firm’s parent company, Ford, had already been searching for a new owner for more than a year. Then China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group snapped up the ailing car maker for £1.4 billion and promptly ploughed even more money into brand-new engines and vehicle platforms. At the time, it looked like some particularly bold decision making by Geely.
How things change. Seven years on, Volvo’s story is continuing to look like the perfect advert for Chinese ownership of a big European car maker. Volvo is flourishing and Geely’s strategic vision is paying off, too. Global sales are 20% up from where they were five years ago, while profitability is up 50%.
With Volvo’s help, Geely has developed the technology it needs to launch China’s first European-style car brand of its very own, Lynk&co. Suddenly, you can see why Geely invested all of that money.
And now the first of the really big-selling new-breed Volvo models has hit the showrooms, and it’s the subject of this week’s road test: the all-new XC60 SUV. The 60-series compact 4x4 uses the same platform and many of the same engines that power its 90-series bigger sibling, and so in many ways, it is exactly what it looks like: a boil-washed XC90. But a car that shares the new-groove, tech-savvy design appeal of the XC90 and most of its comfort, versatility and capability, available at prices starting well under £40,000, could plainly accelerate Volvo’s growth into a new, higher gear.
The XC60’S UK range starts with 188bhp D4 diesel and 251bhp T5 turbocharged four-cylinder petrol models, before rolling in a 232bhp D5 diesel and culminating in a 400bhp-plus T8 plug-in hybrid that promises to be an interesting alternative to the usual performance SUV. Front-wheel-drive and fourwheel-drive versions are available; likewise both classically restrained styling options and thoroughly new-age-volvo R-design trims. We’ve elected to test a mass-market four-wheel-drive D4 R-design. DESIGN AND ENGINEERING Volvo’s impressive recent design form continues with the XC60, which oozes class inside and out.
Underpinned by Volvo’s Scalable Product Architecture (SPA), the XC60 shows f lashes of resemblance to its bigger XC90 sibling – such as the ‘Thor’s hammer’ headlights – and it sits on the same platform, but the XC60 manages to carve out enough of a difference to be distinguishable in its own right. It’s longer, wider and lower than the previous-generation model, too, but has a higher ground clearance and isn’t any heavier. It’s also nicely proportioned to allow it an airy, spacious cabin while striking a sleek, understated, Nordic-chic exterior that isn’t particularly flashy, but neither is it emotionless and
bland like many of the snoozefest SUVS in the class.
As standard, the XC60 gets allwheel drive and a double-wishbone front suspension with a rear multilink arrangement. Like the XC90, it gets a transverse composite leaf spring at the rear, allowing a light, compact design with, in theory, a smoother ride and less noise, vibration and harshness than you’d get with a regular coil spring set-up. Height-adjustable air suspension (which allows an additional 60mm of travel) is available as a £1500 option – and our test car had it.
All SPA Volvos benefit from the lightweight and strong qualities of the modular platform and get the same electromechanical rack and pinion steering system, which can be adjusted through the different drive modes available – Eco, Comfort, Dynamic, Off-road, Individual. These modes also impact the brake pedal feel, throttle response, damper settings and, if fitted, air suspension ride height.
Every model in the range has an eight-speed automatic gearbox and the engine line-up consists of three 2.0-litre four-cylinder engines – diesel D4 and D5 units along with a 251bhp turbo T5 petrol. Later this year, a T8 petrol-electric plug-in hybrid will join the range. The D4 will be the big-selling sweet spot of the range, with 188bhp and CO2 emissions from 133g/km.
INTERIOR
Volvo has given every reason for potential XC90 buyers to talk themselves into its more affordable relation because much of the larger car’s aesthetic appeal, usability and material quality has been ushered into the latest offering. The pair are closely related enough that even seasoned reviewers were forced to find the differences in side-byside comparison. The differences, then, are subtle: vents have been remodelled and switchgear swapped out, but essentially all the important fixtures are transferred, including the portrait-orientated infotainment screen that dominates the dashboard. This is to the smaller car’s benefit. We lauded the XC90’S take on an SUV cabin two years ago, and its downsizing has done nothing to dilute the impression of sitting in a well-thought-out space.
The larger XC90’S cabin ambience, which manages to seem vaguely Scandinavian without lapsing into the appearance of an Ikea kitchen, is well translated, as is the high-quality fit and finish of predominantly premium materials. The R-design
model on test gets the 8.0in digital instrument cluster that, when combined with the 9.0in touchscreen, evokes the sort of technologically advanced ambience that Audi is currently thriving on.
You sit obligingly high in the car on leather-upholstered seats that offer a decent enough compromise between comfort and support and you’re left in no doubt that the surrounding space is capacious. The seats in the rear quarters follow suit. It’s usefully more roomy in the back of this car than the model being replaced. Although it’s nothing exceptionally spacious for the class, adults of all sizes will still find themselves being made to feel comfortable in the rear.
The focus on passenger contentment has penalised boot space a wee bit, though. The XC60’S 505-litre capacity is respectable but not quite on a par with the room offered by most of its big-name rivals. That’s a mild deficiency each buyer will have to rate for themselves. Our view is that the impressively square and flat load space seemed ready for most big-family tasks.
PERFORMANCE
For evidence of the sheer competition there now is in the mid-sized premium-branded SUV market, consider this: you can take what amounts to an engine and gearbox from the larger and more expensive XC90, albeit in detuned form, drop it into a smaller, lighter car, and still fall short of the class standard on performance and drivability.
The XC60’S diesel engine and eight-speed automatic gearbox allow it to hit an acceptable standard on acceleration and responsiveness, but it’s impressive in neither respect. You can see that represented in our recorded acceleration figures: a likefor-like Audi Q5 is more than 0.5sec quicker from rest to 60mph and almost 0.5sec quicker from 30mph to 70mph through the gears. You can also appreciate it from the driver’s seat. The gearbox feels slightly hesitant both away from standing and when swapping ratios under load, and the engine is less free-revving than some comparable diesels.
Where the engine and gearbox hit back is under lighter throttle applications and in a more laid-back mode of usage, where the XC60 surprised more than one tester with its mechanical refinement in particular. There’s an elastic feel to the way the transmission slips before fully engaging as you apply middling amounts of power. It can be bothersome when you’re in a hurry or looking for any meaningful driver engagement in manual mode, but somehow it seems to make more of the engine’s torque when you’re just punting around in ‘D’. There’s plenty of low and mid-range torque to go on, of course, so fairly brisk but relaxed progress is easily made, and the XC60 motivates its mass without making hard work of it until faster overtaking is required. Those planning on towing with the car might be well advised to opt for the more powerful diesel engine, though.
Volvo matches the good mechanical refinement with equally good cabin isolation, keeping the interior laudably muted on the motorway and preventing wind noise from becoming intrusive. So drivers who’ll rarely use more than a not-so-arbitrarily selected 60% of the car’s performance – who’ll activate Volvo’s Pilot Assist auto-steering radar cruise control at every motorway opportunity, for example – may consider their car the match of any rival.
Volvo’s preference for slightly overassisted, isolated-feeling controls makes for a light and slightly spongyfeeling brake pedal, which, combined with the iffy body control of our airsprung test car (which we’ll come on to), made hard stops less precise and smooth than they might have been. That’s part of the bargain struck in order to make the more gentle stops less physically demanding, of course. It is a set-up that we’d imagine many Volvo drivers would value.
RIDE AND HANDLING
As we’ve written many times, what constitutes a great-handling mid-sized SUV is an evasive and complicated thing to define. In outright terms, the answer may simply be ‘a Porsche Macan’ – but
Fairly brisk but relaxed progress is easily made
for someone who wants the comfort, isolation, versatility, space and convenience that most cars of this type afford (and that, in many cases, the Porsche does not), that answer may be as good as useless.
However you prefer to define that idea, few would expect the new XC60 to set the class standard on handling dynamism – so perhaps few will care that it doesn’t. But we’re not here to overlook the shortcomings of the car’s suspension and steering on that basis.
In air-suspended form and on the R-design trim’s 19in alloy wheels at the very least, the XC60 is a car that falls between two stools, providing a driving experience particularly worthy of commendation for neither its ride nor its handling. It’s a dynamically competent car and as secure in extremis as anyone could want a Volvo to be. But the ride is excitable and hollow over poorer surfaces and sharper-edged bumps, the steering is overly light and remote and the handling is slightly mushy, unresponsive and lacking in balance and bite, even by SUV benchmarks. In some of those ways, we can imagine the car is precisely as Volvo wanted it to be and as many owners would prefer it, but not in all of them.
The XC60’S occasionally clunky ride is perhaps its most disappointing dynamic blight and the one you may be least forgiving of in both an SUV and a Volvo. The air suspension does a reasonable job of suppressing surface roar, but given an averagely testing ridge or edge to deal with, it thumps and sometimes almost crashes. It’s a criticism we’ve made of all air-sprung Volvos sharing this platform, but it is more notable here than anywhere.
After that, we’d bemoan the fact that the XC60’S Dynamic driving mode doesn’t do a better job of producing much of a sporting driving experience (body control ranges from decent downwards), admitting the same caveat with which this section started: that, in all likelihood, an owner won’t care. We simply can’t pretend that we don’t.
BUYING AND OWNING
XC60 prices have risen by around £4000 compared with the outgoing model, but that still keeps the car broadly in line with its premium rivals, and in return for your cash, you get plenty of kit.
Of the three trims levels – Momentum, R-design and Inscription – entry-level Momentum will suit most fine. You still get (take a breath) cruise control, keyless start, automatic lights and wipers, 18in alloy wheels, rear parking sensors, dual-zone climate control, a gorgeous leather interior with heated front seats and a 9.0in portrait-style Sensus infotainment system with DAB radio and sat-nav.
Of course, this is a Volvo, so you get a host of safety features, too. There’s an advanced form of autonomous emergency braking that recognises cars, cyclists and animals and can even help you safely swerve out of the way of oncoming traffic and back onto the correct side of the road, should you need to – and the semiself-driving Pilot Assist is an option.
It does seem a bit off that you need to pay £300 to get Apple Carplay and Android Auto. If you’re desperate for the air suspension on a model that doesn’t have it (it’s standard on R-design Pro and Inscription Pro), you can add it as a £1500 extra.
Over three years of typical ownership, you can expect the XC60 to hold on to its value better than most rivals, but its engines aren’t any more fuel efficient. Our test car averaged 39.6mpg overall.