CAR (UK)

Parenting made easy, the Volvo way

Baby’s first words: ‘Don’t you dare take our S90 away.’ Sorry. Time to let go of some fabulous family transport.

- By Ben Pulman

After 12 months with the S90, I’m a Volvo convert. It joined us just after the arrival of our first child, at a time when steps, buses and just about anything beyond our front door was suddenly fraught and immensely frustratin­g. By contrast the Volvo made our lives easier. Only when you have children (specifical­ly your child in one arm, flailing, and her toys, changing bag and beaker in the other) is the full worth of keyless go apparent. Ditto the ability to waggle your foot under the bumper to open the boot. We will sorely miss, too, the standard rear window blinds that block out motorway lights at night. And while my sleep deprivatio­n has ended, I can still never remember where I’ve parked – but the Volvo On Call app knows.

Besides being useful, so much of the S90 just works. The auto electronic parking brake never suddenly yanks you to a stop if you’ve paused for a split second in traˆc (our previous VW Arteon had that fault). The fabulous heated seats and steering wheel are warm in seconds. The touchscree­n, which initially seems overly simple, really gives you all you ever need.

The S90 combines it all seamlessly into a package where the exterior styling, interior ambience and badge cachet are now at least on par with the Germans. As for our exact car, in retrospect did we spec it correctly? In R-Design Pro guise it was understate­d, the ride good, the engine quiet. When you have to park nose-in to a space to be able to access the buggy in the boot – and when you’re in a saloon and everyone else is in a tall SUV – £500 for the Cross Traˆc

Alert system (which spots if you’re about to reverse into the path of an oncoming vehicle, cyclist or pedestrian) is worth the money.

Equally good is the optional 360º around-view camera. So good in fact that I never used the Volvo’s Park Assist Pilot that can do parallel and 90º parking; I’d recommend spending £525 just on the camera, rather than three times that on the Xenium Pack that bundles it all together.

I wondered if the T8 plug-in petrol-hybrid powertrain would’ve been better for London than our 2.0-litre petrol. But while there’s charge enough to run around the capital on e-power, every long journey is less economical because of the batteries you’re also lugging.

Even if localised emissions are worse, gut feel is we’re not better off doing one electric journey a week to and from a swimming class and then inferior petrol consumptio­n on a 500-mile round motorway trip.

So, if we had our time again with the Volvo, it’d still be a 2.0-litre petrol in much the same spec.

Styling, ambience and badge cachet are now all at least on par with the Germans

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