“You want me to do what? Drive it through that?”…..the various journalists on the V90 Cross Country press launch were heard to say to the Volvo instructor taking us round an off-road course.
OK, as the image shows, it wasn’t hardcore off-roading, but it was more than these cars will ever endure in the various forest park tracks and gymkhana car-parks they are likely to visit. Some of the ruts and inclines we drove were more intense than anything I have ever dragged my Land Rover through in 5 years of ownership.
The dedicated “Off road” driving mode selects and holds all the right gears and keeps the hill-descent control pre-armed ready to keep your underwear fresh when you pop over the edge of a steep decline. It was an extremely impressive showing and achieved what I presume the purpose was – for us hacks to go away and tell our readers that there should be no thoughts of “this Cross Country thing may not be quite up to it”.
Having established that it’s more than rugged enough and congratulated Volvo for having been in the Cross Country market for 20 years (feeling old yet?), the rest of the day was all about driving the car on-road and living with the car in general.
We were handed the keys to a car at Birmingham Airport, given a route book and told to go forth into the countryside, using notes and sat-nav to get to the agreed meeting points.
Jumping into the passenger compartment, it is immediately obvious that you have entered a quality environment. It’s a lovely place to be. There aren’t any “young upcoming designer needs to make a name for himself” excesses. The materials are good quality and the ergonomics have been thought about (e.g. there may be a big touch screen but there is still a volume control knob and other mechanical controls for a select few core functions).
Perhaps the most telling thing I can say is that I felt no sense of the car not quite being in the big-boys’ league. No “not quite a Merc” feelings. It was top-drawer.
Of course it is a Volvo estate, so there’s lots of room and a pretty cavernous load space. Thought has also been given to storage spaces under the floor and the various other touches, such as a definite place for the key fob to go and not rattle around in a cup-holder.
The car is bristling with technology, particularly safety features. We were given a presentation by the head of the 90-series design team and amongst the various technologies mentioned, it was clear Volvo had put a lot of effort into the radar and camera assited Pilot Assist system to keep you in the lane and out of the boot of the car in-front. That, however is just the start of it. We have City Safety with Autobrake, Rear Collision Mitigation, Driver Alert Control, Blind Sport Informaton System with Cross Traffic Alert, Visual Park Assist with 360 degree camera, Road Edge Detection and Autobrake at Junction. I’ll let you look that lot up. It’s a safety-tech tour-de-force.
The Large Animal Detection system also sounded just the ticket for a rural Argyll resident like me. I’ve offered to take a car from Volvo and drive around the county at dusk allowing the car to avoid deer for me, but I’ve yet to hear back.
Coming back to the touch screen we find Volvo’s Sensus system. It seemed pretty intuitive in the short time we were in the car. The sat-nav was easy to use and we got used to swiping around to find the various controls and settings. I even managed to find the control to adjust the height of the head-up display.
The current speed limit is shown on the sat-nav and on the head-up display, if fitted. Allegedly it will also warn you if you exceed the limit.
Volvo’s On Call app for your smartphone is a nice addition. Remote starting on cold days, remote locking for forgetful people like me who regularly walk back to a car to check, pre-loading of satnav routes, driving logs for company drivers and the very helpful sounding “Honk and Flash” feature for that “I’ve lost my car in a massive festival car-park” moment.
The Cross Country is one of four versions of the V90. There is a base “Momentum” version from £35,000, the R-Design sporty spec from £37,500, the “Inscription” luxury spec from £38,000 and the Cross Country with permanent all-wheel-drive from £39,800. Be warned, there are plenty of four-figure options in the price list, including the Sensus connectivity and entertainment system which will make a £3,000 dent in your piggy bank.
Over the course of the day, we drove the D4 Cross Country and the D5 R-Design spec cars. Neither are out and out performance cars. For that you’ll have to wait for the forthcoming 407hp T8 plug-in hybrid version which promises a 4.8 second 0-62mph sprint, later this year.
I felt that the D4, with 190hp and 400Nm was “fine”. The modern gearbox gets the most out of the engine for you and with an 8.5 0-62mph time, there was plenty there for overtaking and making good progress across the land.
The 235hp/480Nm D5 cars come with Volvo’s PowerPulse system that maintains a dose of compressed air to send into the combustion process when the electronics detect that the driver is asking for maximum urge before the turbos have spooled up. It works, and the Volvo people seemed very proud of a diagram showing their car winning the traffic light grand-prix against some bigger engined competition, but the message was also about safety and your ability to get out of trouble.
Where the D4 felt fine, the D5 had just enough to put a smile on your face. Throttle response was great and the car could hustle along nicely. Neither engine sounds intrusive, but you don’t want that from a diesel.
Previous R-Design Volvo models have attracted criticism for being too harsh riding. You could certainly tell the difference in the V90/S90, but they’ve not overdone it this time. The dash design is actually quite high and between that and the very square bonnet, I found it diminished the sense of speed in the non-Cross Country model, a bit like the big Bentleys. That makes for very relaxed driving but you could be going faster than you think you are. The Cross Country was high enough for the angles to work better.
In summary, I was very taken by the V90 Cross Country. Personally I’m just coming to the end of 5 years of serial Land Rover Discovery ownership and if a car like this ruggedised V90 had been available when I was taking the plunge, I think it would have been a good move. It has the space of a big SUV, but brings a more car-like experience in a lot of ways, including efficiency. If you don’t need to indulge in full-on recreational off-roading or need more than a 2.5 tonne braked towing capacity, then a D5 engined V90 Cross Country could be for you. At £45-50k depending on options it ain’t cheap but it is easy…..very easy….to significantly exceed that price configuring an Audi A6 Allroad.
PRICE: £39,785 (as tested £44,135 for D4 AWD Cross Country)
ENGINE: 4-cylinder 1969cc Drive-E turbo diesel
POWER: 190 hp
TORQUE: 400Nm
PERFORMANCE: Top speed 130 mph, 0-62 mph 8.5 secs
CONSUMPTION: 54.3 mpg (official combined)
CO2: 138 g/km
TT Rating:
