Welcome aboard
Inside our family-friendly XC. By Alex Tapley
Like Tom Cruise favouring the shorter leading lady, how big the XC40 appears to be depends on what it’s parked next to. Put it beside a Renault Clio and the Volvo dwarfs it. If its neighbour is a Porsche Cayenne, the XC40 looks decidedly modest. In the Volvo line-up, it’s the prettiest and by far the shortest nose-to-tail, although it towers over all the non-SUVs.
The boot’s not big unless you fold the rear seats down, but one of the reasons for driving a crossover is because you have a family, so you want to use the rear seats.
And the high seating position of a crossover makes it relatively simple for the parents to reach in and adjust the kids’ boosters, child seats and seatbelts. In this case, where both adults are quite tall, that does make life easier. You could always use a bit more room for that reaching-in performance, but it’s really not bad here.
It’s interesting to compare the figures with the V60, the smaller of Volvo’s two current estates. Although the V has a bigger boot, our car gives the rear passengers more head room, shoulder room, hip room and knee room, although if those rear passengers are adults they’ll want to stick to short trips.
If you’re not using the fifth seat your two rear passengers get the benefit of a fold-down armrest that’s a good width and has two cupholders, so no need for any arguments there. The door pockets could be bigger, and there’s just one USB-C charger back there, with no options for extra charger, iPad holders etc. The rear seats don’t recline or slide.
Don’t tell the kids, but the front seats are more comfortable than the rears. And my Inscription Pro spec involves both the front seats being powered, which makes life that little bit easier. (I also have the £85 optional remote child lock feature, which is money well spent if you’re too lazy to flick a switch inside each rear door.)
The driving experience is okay from a dynamic point of view, but as a mobile lounge it’s a winner.