Volvo XC90 T8 Excellence review, test drive

What is it like on the inside?

The Excellence experience starts in earnest when the valet or your chauffeur opens the rear door for you. Gone are the regular XC90’s third row and middle seat bench. Instead, the Excellence gets two individual chairs at the back. There’s 50mm more legroom and some of the best seats in the business to make the most of that space on. The shapely rear chairs, finished in nappa leather no less, are the same as the supremely comfortable ones in front and will leave you spoilt for choice in the ways you can set them to your liking. There’s ventilation, heating, seat angle adjust, side, back and thigh support adjust as well as a superb back massage feature, all controlled via a retractable touchscreen that pops out from the rear centre console. You can even adjust the position of the front passenger seat from the back. The rear seats are where you’d want to de-stress after a tough day at the boardroom. When it is time to celebrate that multimillion-dollar deal, you can always reach out to the refrigerator between the seats to pull out the bottle of champagne and pair of handcrafted Orrefors crystal glasses. And you can count on the Bowers & Wilkins sound system to set the mood. It’s been optimised for the Excellence and sound’s brilliant.

Also unique to the Excellence is a glass partition that divides the passenger compartment and luggage bay, which is there in the interest of minimising cabin noise levels. Peer past the glass partition into the boot though and you’d wonder how your golf kit will fit in. Unlike standard seven-seat XC90s that get a space-saver tyre stowed in a dedicated recess, the Excellence features a full-size spare that sits on the boot floor.

Up front, the Excellence doesn’t feel all too different to the stock XC90. There is a posher nubuck headlining and the gear lever is uniquely made of crystal (we have mixed views on this), but the changes only add to what was a beautifully turned-out cabin to begin with. However, we’re sure that those at the wheel will join us in asking Volvo for a few more physical shortcut buttons for routine functions like setting the air con; there’s just too much bundled on to the central touchscreen.