Long live the sleek sedan

VOLVO S90: VERY UNDERRATED AND UNAPPRECIATED, JUDGING BY PALTRY LOCAL SALES

In SUV era, this excellent car arrived almost unnoticed a few years ago.

The biggest casualty in the well-documented rise of the SUV has been the sedan. Once the world’s most preferred body style, the sedan continues its steady decline year after year as manufacturers establish segments within segments to milk the SUV cow.

In South Africa the sedan has become such a poor cousin that it finds itself below bakkies, SUVs and hatchbacks in the pecking order.

If you take long-time local favourites like the Toyota Corolla, BMW 3 Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class and Audi A4 which have managed to fend off the SUV onslaught to a certain extent, out of the mix, the picture looks grim for the booted species. Then the majority of new sedans are not for personal, daily use, but rather commercially or government-bound.

But just because something isn’t popular, doesn’t mean it’s not good. In fact, sedans are as good as they’ve ever been these days. They have benefitted from all the technology found in other body styles, while keeping the traditional virtues of comfort and generous cabin and boot space.

A few years back Volvo rolled out the S90. It didn’t exactly replace the S80, but did take over the mantle as the Swedish carmaker’s flagship sedan. But with the sad state the sedan finds itself in, the S90 flew in almost under the radar. Not only does it compete against some stiff opposition in a tiny premium sedan segment, but also against SUV offerings in its own stable.

After recently spending a week in the S90 in D5 Inscription guise, we have to admit that this is a sedan that is not only very underrated, but clearly unappreciated, judging by its paltry local sales figures.

You can formulate all sorts of clever conclusions as to why people prefer the SUV body style to a sedan, but it’s undeniable there is an unmistaken statesman-like appeal to a big sedan. Add a few distinctive exterior features, like in the S90, and you get the usual status associated with a long, shiny car along with a large pinch of eye-catching style.

At the front the wide flat grille is in perfect unison with the headlights featuring Volvo’s “Thor’s Hammer” LED insignia.

From the side the 19-inch rims clad in 255/40 R19 rubberware and sloping roofline are standout features, while the C-shapes taillights, of which the top extends into the boot lid, completes the package.

If you haven’t seen the exterior before getting inside, you’d be forgiven for mistaking the S90 with Volvo’s flagship SUV, the XC90. It’s virtually a carbon copy of it’s bigger sibling, meaning you get all the sophistication and elegance associated with the XC90, with ridiculous amounts of space. Leg and head room in the rear is plentiful, and the boot has 500l of space.

As you’d expect from the Swedish manufacturer, safety is second to none in the S90. Standard is Volvo’s City Safety Technology which combines automatic breaking functionality and collision avoidance systems. Add to this automated cruise control and steering assistance and the S90 is fully equipped for semi-autonomous driving.

Inspiration comes from a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder, turbo diesel engine which produces 173kW of power and 480Nm of torque. This is sent to all four wheels via a buttery smooth eight-speed automatic Geartronic transmission.

It’s the same powerplant that does duty in the XC90 D5, but it feels much livelier due to the vehicle having a lower centre of gravity and being 250kg lighter.

There is enough oomph under the bonnet to at least show the hot hatch driver at the traffic light that not all sedan owners are old farts. But the good news is that should you prefer to drive like an old fart you should get better fuel economy than the already impressive 9.0l/100km we managed over almost 600km. If you prefer to stand out from the SUV crowd and can afford R978 600, this S90 is the way to go.

The sedan is dead, long live the sedan.