The car everyone likes
Kids, wife, jurors – the XC60 gets everyone’s vote… once the audio’s sorted, anyway. By Anthony rench-Constant
WHEN, IN AN earlier round of voting, m’learned colleagues of the UK Car of the Year jury took it upon themselves to award the Performance Car gong to the most muscular iteration of the Kia Stinger, I was tempted to see just how far my toys could actually be thrown from the automotive pram. Don’t get me wrong; the Stinger’s no stinker, but a better performance car than a McLaren 570S? Seriously?
Happily, said jury has now redeemed itself by agreeing with me that the XC60 is a sufficiently Jolly Good Thing to take this year’s top slot. Moreover (and wonders will never cease), the missus is – as a motoring TV presenter who shall remain nameless insists on putting it – in ‘agreeance’, summing it up with the same enthusiasm that the baddy in RoboCop demonstrated for the Cobra Assault Cannon: ‘I LIKE it’.
Indeed, such is her overall enthusiasm that, to date, the missus’ only gripe concerns the keyfob, which has been dis
nd missed as ‘An ugly custard cream... And the buttons are far too small.’ Happily, a quick lesson in the joys of keyless entry and start (I know, I know) have gently torpedoed the latter gripe, if not the former.
The hooligans, meanwhile, have complained of not being able to fade the sound system output more strongly towards the aft accommodation. Turns out you can do this, but not using the permanently on-screen sound adjustment panel that pertains specifically to the delicious B&W stereo installation.
Rather than straightforward bass, treble, balance and fade adjustment, the B&W controls are dedicated solely to offering a range of enthrallingly diverse environments for your listening pleasure: studio, concert hall, jazz dive, Minack Theatre on Cornish cliffs, motorway underpass reeking of wee…
Turns out Volvo’s own sound adjustment platform, which does subscribe to the more traditional tweakage techniques, is buried deep within some sub-menu that requires a fair degree of swiping and prodding to unearth. Mercifully, being entirely au fait with an iPhone, the missus has pronounced the infotainment screen a veritable piece of piss to live with.