Four reasons why this SUV is fit for a family
The new XC90 shows it has what it takes to win top honours and keep people happy
The Volvo XC90, which just won the North American Truck/Utility Vehicle of the Year, is an excellent SUV for one reason alone: it handles the eccentricities of family life better than any other vehicle I’ve driven.
My husband and I are impulsive at times and it occasionally lands us in some unfortunate comedies of errors. You’ll soon find out how.
One recent trip to that Swedish big-box furniture store started as a post-holiday storage stock-up. But, without warning, it morphed into the purchase of a queensized bed.
We chose one we liked, made a parts list, picked out linens, and headed to the warehouse to fetch the large items.
And wouldn’t you know it? The mattress we wanted was, naturally, sold out.
Only one location in the GTA had any in stock. It was the store in Burlington, nearly an hour away. There, only two remained. And to top it all off, the city was about to be hit by its first true snowstorm of the winter.
Being hard-headed once our minds are made up, we hastily loaded up our many boxes and bags, a job made easy with the XC90’s flat-fold seats and 40/20/40 split second row.
It’s in here that we find one of the few things not to like with the XC90. The SUV could benefit from easier access to the third row, though it’s not bad. It would also be nice to have some kind of easy-up feature when those seats are down.
In any case, we belted our 5-year-old daughter into the lone remaining rear seat and set off westward.
The roads were slushy but not terrible. The voyage was fruitful: when we arrived, a mattress was awaiting us.
But in the 20 minutes between grabbing the mattress, paying for it, and walking out, the wind and snowfall picked up considerably.
With ice whipping our faces, we crammed in an entire Ikea flatpacked queen bed without having to fight much at all. Plus, there was still space for the three of us. We were duly impressed.
Everything fit inside the XC90’s shell. Although the exterior styling bucks the current luxury trend of curving large SUVs into coupe-like shapes, a little less fashion sense goes a long way in terms of functionality.
After loading up the SUV, it was time to get safely home.
It’s no secret that the Swedes design good winter cars. That said, the XC90 exceeded my expectations. The unplowed and unsalted roads were covered with 10 centimetres of snow, and I felt like I was driving on dry pavement.
But plenty of automakers build spacious and capable vehicles these days. The XC90 has one far less common attribute that makes it stand out. My husband and I are somewhat prone to anxiety and verbal sniping in stressful situations, even self-inflicted ones.
In here, all three of us were comfortable. The adults up front enjoyed Volvo’s renowned front-row seats, and our daughter benefited from the standard panoramic sunroof and four-zone climate control.
The tablet-like infotainment sys- tem is a snap to use, making navigation easy and music selection, often a point of contention in our lives, even easier.
The interior design in our tester’s Inscription trim appears to be inspired by a yoga studio. It’s remarkably quiet and features a clutter-free, minimalist layout trimmed in supple Nappa leather and open-pore wood grain.
From behind the wheel, the XC90 seems smaller than it is, getting around city streets and in tight, urban parking lots with enough ease to make you forget you’re driving a sev- en-seat SUV.
And the engine is one of the best parts.
The T6 Drive-E uses a supercharger at low revs and switches seamlessly to a turbocharger as they climb, smoothly delivering nearconstant torque and very good fuel economy for this vehicle’s heft.
What this car achieves best is calming and de-stressing its occupants, particularly the driver.
Where some trips of this nature have seen my husband and I pull into our driveway biting each other’s heads off, at the end of this one, we high-fived our renewed sense of adventure.
Of course, we then needed to unload everything, get our daughter tucked in, and decipher those infernal instructions to build our new bed.
We could have used a little extra Zen for that process, too. Maybe we should have built it in the back seat of the car. Freelance writer Stephanie Wallcraft is a frequent contributor to Toronto Star Wheels. More of her work can be found online at thestar.com/autos. To reach her, email wheels@thestar.ca and put her name in the subject line.