Review: It’s full of creature comforts.
Small, luxury SUV full of comfort, convenience
Decked out with modern looks and nifty features, the 2019 Volvo XC40 compact SUV was designed for young professionals who can’t imagine why anybody would want to drive off-road.
The accommodating five-seater delivers value, safety and efficiency. Volvo expects most buyers to be women, but anybody looking for a small, luxury SUV should consider it.
XC40 competes with small luxury SUVs such as the Audi Q3, Infiniti QX30, BMW 1-Series, Jaguar E-Pace, Land Rover Evoque and Mercedes GLA.
The Volvo attempts to stand out with not only a comprehensive set of safety and driver assistance aids, but goodies for comfort and convenience, too.
First and foremost, the sum total of its driver assistance features amounts to what Volvo calls Pilot Assist, allowing the XC40 to follow vehicles and stay in its lane on the highway with very little intervention as long as the driver keeps a hand on the steering wheel.
Pilot Assist’s lane-centering is not as smooth and unobtrusive as Nissan’s Pro Pilot Plus. Despite that, Volvo’s system took another step toward making the new safety and assistance features ubiquitous.
The interior is comfortable with plenty of leg and head room. Useful storage pockets and bins abound in the doors and center console.
A little hook folds out from the glove box door for the handles of bags of carryout meals, an appealing feature the
XC40’s target mostly single and childfree audience will probably appreciate.
I tested both the XC40 R-Design and slightly lower-priced Momentum trim level. The interiors of both look great, with soft-touch materials on nearly ev- ery surface and ambient lighting.
The exterior design is contemporary and recognizable, with a long hood, upswept rear fender and scalloped doors. Paint schemes include attractive twotones with contrasting black or white roofs.
Volvo’s handsome iPad-style touch screen in the center console is among the largest in the auto industry, particularly for a small vehicle such as the
XC40, but its response time could stand improvement.
Front- and all-wheel-drive XC40s both have a 2-liter 4-cylinder engine. But all-wheel-drive models get a higherout put T5 turbocharger and develop
248 horsepower compared with 187 horsepower in the T4 base model.
The T4’s engine has a stop-start or idle stop system, which shuts the power plant off when idling at stop signs and in traffic, that is more obtrusive than the best competitors offer. The car shakes noticeably on stop and restart. Restart is a bit slow.
Those faults will probably lead a lot of owners to disable the system, reducing fuel economy and increasing emissions. Also, the shift lever is small and has an unusual mechanism: push forward twice quickly for drive, push rear twice quickly for reverse, and a button for park.
Hybrid and electric models will be available later.
XC40 prices are competitive with other small luxury SUVs, but the Volvo offers safety and driver assistance features the others can’t match and gets better fuel economy. XC40 prices start at $33,200 for a front-wheel-drive model that will be on sale shortly. All-wheeldrive XC40s start at $35,200. The top
XC40 Inscription model starts at
$39,750.