New Volvo XC90 review, test drive

Scandinavian chic

The new XC90 may not be sleek and svelte like other luxury SUVs, and no doubt, the quest for greater interior room has led to a fairly boxy shape. But the big Volvo has lots of road presence and interesting details that make it stand out from the crowd. The grille, with its vertical slats and a new Iron Mark badge, is quite prominent, but the stand-out feature is the ‘Thor Hammer’ LED daytime running lights that will be the signature for future Volvos as well. There’s the traditional vertically stacked tail-light cluster at the rear, but it’s now shapelier than before.

But it’s the interiors that have truly lifted the game. The cabin oozes Scandinavian chicness with the use of genuine wood, plush leather trim and exquisitely textured finishes. The insides are replete with clever design details and high-quality materials which, only if you examine closely, are a smidgen shy of the best German brands.

The gear lever’s made of Orrefors crystal glass while the start-stop button and rotary control for the suspension settings has an exquisite diamond-cut finish. The top-spec Inscription trim is fully loaded too and gets a 19-speaker Bowers and Wilkins set-up which (appropriately) was belting out Abba’s Mamma Mia with incredible clarity.

The all-new infotainment system takes a while to boot up, but once it’s up and running, the large, portrait-oriented nine-inch touchscreen with its rich graphics and sharp fonts is brilliant to use. You can swipe, pinch and enlarge the menus just like on a smartphone, and by packing in so many functions on the screen, the buttons on the dashboard have been reduced from 32 to just nine.

The seats are generously bolstered and provide great support in the right places. The middle-row seats, which split 40:20:40 and are also heavily sculpted, may feel a touch too snug for large passengers and the cushioning as well may be a bit too firm for Indian tastes. However, what chauffeur-driven XC90 owners (and there will be lots of them) will appreciate is the fantastic view out. The slim front seats don’t obstruct vision, while the large panoramic roof and windows, coupled with the light-coloured interior trim, make the cabin feel fabulously airy.

The third row is surprisingly useable too and you can see where the lofty roof line has paid off. Headroom is good even for adults, but the restricted legroom makes this a place best left for kids. Also impressive is the amount of luggage space that’s left over with all three rows of seats in place. While the flip-down mechanism for the last row was manual on cars at the international media drive, Volvo will introduce an electrically operated option when the car goes on sale. A concern is the absence of a spare tyre; instead, you get a puncture repair kit. In India, sparing the spare is never a good idea and we hope Volvo addresses this issue with some sort of space saver option for our market.

What will give you a sense of security though is the manic levels of safety the XC90 comes with. It gets all kinds of gizmos that can steer and stop the car to prevent you from having a crash. However, many of these active safety features run on radar frequencies that are banned in India, which could be a spoiler. But when it comes to passive safety, there’s no shortage of airbags, which includes side curtains even for the third row.