The new Volvo XC90 T6 2.0 320 KM AWD (2015) - test, opinion, fuel consumption, price
New Volvo XC90 T6 2.0 320 hp AWD (2015) - test, opinion
Everything on one card
Volvo has invested over 11 billion in the development of this model dollars. This is roughly the same as Mauritius' GDP. Naturally, this sum should not be treated as the budget of one car, because the technical solutions developed during the process of creating the new XC90 will also go to other, later models. Thanks to this, several cars will earn the return of the above, dizzying sum together.
Putting a huge amount of money into model development doesn't necessarily mean automatic success. When such concerns put such large sums on the table, they analyze the chances that such a move will actually pay off. There is no place for gambling here. You have to be almost 100% sure that the plan will work. Exactly. Almost. The market situation can change in a very short time. The crisis of recent years has shown how little it takes for the world economy to swing on a tightrope over the abyss.
So, despite numerous analyses, brainstorming of development experts, consultations and hectoliters of coffee drunk, something could have gone wrong. $11 billion accelerates an industrial locomotive to a speed where it is easy to fall out in a curve. However, that didn't happen. Volvo was not wrong. Customers of the Swedish brand wanted this car so much that some of them bought it even before they knew what it would look like. Such situations tend to happen in the case of the production of 20 copies of the Lamborghini limited special edition, not mass-produced cars.
When Volvo announced the pre-sale of the special First Edition, all 1,927 units sold out in hours, not days. The number of cars corresponding to the date of establishment of the brand turned out to be insufficient. The start of proper sales again brought a wave of huge interest in the model.
Volvo had us waiting a very long time for the second generation of the XC90. A lot of money and work was put into the preparation of this car and it is obvious from the start that it was worth it. So I have to ask a question that I have probably never asked before in relation to the first drive of a new model. It's not "is the XC90 good?", but rather "what makes customers think it's perfect?"
No shortcuts
We live in times when a product is supposed to bring maximum profits with minimum production costs. Well, it's simple math that every entrepreneur knows. It's hard to be surprised. Unfortunately, this has led us to extreme situations where what we eat is only an imitation of what it seems to be, imitation beer is served in pubs, imitation musicians are played on the radio, and luxury car manufacturers sell us imitation luxury materials. These are painful compromises that we agree to every time we spend money on this artificiality. Volvo has taken no shortcuts. The Swedish manufacturer has shown that in the cool word of the product there is still room for attention to detail and pampering the customer.
There are no imitations in the new XC90. There is real, natural leather, wood and aluminum. And if anything looks like carbon fiber, it's actually a composite, not a well-engineered veneer. This is the first factor that makes a Volvo SUV impress. You get inside and you know that no one is trying to cheat you. Under your fingers you feel the soft leather and delicate texture of wooden accessories. To balance these cozy and warm materials, the XC90's cabin is complemented by cool aluminum. This metal can be found, among others, on speaker housings, about which a few words later.
All these natural additions fill the interior of the XC90 with distinctive scents. A particularly pleasant aroma is generated by leather. Interestingly, Volvo programmed the air conditioning so that it aired the car more efficiently during the first year of use, when the leather and wood still smell intensely. After a year, when the aromas are less intense, the air conditioning will switch to normal operation.
Form
Volvo didn't just stop at using great materials. The Swedes managed to tailor the look of the XC90 in a fantastic style, while maintaining the brand identity, visible from all sides. The body of this SUV is maintained in the convention presented in recent years by Volvo's stylish concepts. The smooth body of the XC90 is broken only by a few and very subtly marked embossing. Thanks to this, the Swedish SUV looks elegant and modern, while avoiding aggressive and often exaggerated off-roaders.
It's also subtle on the inside. Neat simplicity was achieved primarily by transferring many functions to a large display placed vertically in the center of the dashboard. I myself have never been a fan of this type of solution, because I considered the insertion of a large screen instead of a well-thought-out panel with buttons to be easy. Volvo, however, managed to avoid the clumsiness that spills from the center console, e.g. Tesla Model S. Here, the large screen is integrated really elegantly. Thanks to this, its presence does not sting the eyes.
In this Swedish-style interior, there is also room for sophisticated details. For me, two details that are on the list of things that make the XC90's cabin unique are the door handles and the head restraints. The first of these details is the fantastically formed aluminum handles that, even while riding, call out to be touched.
The headrests are made in an unusual form for a modern car. Usually we now meet meaty, thick cushions that play with equally thick armchairs. Volvo designed them to be as slim as possible. Thanks to this, the armchairs still look comfortable, and at the same time they are very shapely and modern.
I also liked the display for controlling the air conditioning from the second row. This is another show of the Swedes in the category of combining simplicity with unobtrusive elegance and modernity.
Swedish comfort
The seats in the new XC90 look great and feel great while driving. Test examples were equipped with seats that were electrically adjustable in many positions. Volvo puts in the hands of the driver and passenger the ability to comfortably adjust the length of the seats, the tightness of the lateral support and naturally the support of the lumbar region as well as the angle of the back support and the longitudinal position. The comfort of driving in these Volvo seats deserves a five with a plus.
Without electric adjustment, but not much less comfortable to sit in the back. There is enough leg room even for tall people. Only the passenger seated in the center seat can complain. Here, as in most luxury cars, you sit on a bulge, due to the fact that more emphasis is placed on good lateral support in the outer seats than on the comfort of the fifth passenger.
In addition to comfortable seats, we get adjustable air suspension. In Dynamic mode, it allows a lot for a car with the dimensions of an 18th-century cupboard, or at least no less than what you would expect from a luxury SUV. Cofort mode takes us to another fairy tale. The car gets softer, better picks up bumps. However, you can still feel a slight rocking. In Comfort mode, the response of the motor to the movements of the right foot is also different. You have to press the gas much more decisively for the Volvo to start accelerating dynamically.
We also expect comfort from modern cars in the form of accessories, provided not by mechanic specialists, but rather by mechatronics specialists. There are a lot of those in the XC90. There are many solutions that we already know. The new SUV from Sweden has on board, among others, active cruise control, automatic parking, omnidirectional cameras to facilitate parking or a system that indicates speed limits based on read road signs.
The system that caught my attention the most was the special function of the active cruise control, which allows for automatic driving in traffic jams. With ACC (Active Cruise Control) activated, the XC90 brakes in front of a stopping car and, if necessary, comes to a standstill. If the stop does not last more than a few seconds, it follows the vehicle in front when it starts to move. If we stop for more than 5 seconds, to move again, just touch the gas and the car will start rolling behind the car in front again. This system is absolutely sensational if we travel a lot around a congested city and everyone who stands in traffic jams to the office districts of Warsaw can guess that every morning.
A trifle that will please gadget lovers is the way the glove box opens in front of the passenger. To avoid the need to integrate clumsy door handles into it, Volvo used an electrically released lock on the XC90. The storage compartment opens with one of the few buttons in the cabin of this car, located in the lower part of the center console.
The XC90 is equipped with so many electronic systems that it was impossible to check them all in one day of driving. So I'll leave some of them for a full test.
Volvo Concert Hall
Perhaps I could have checked out more assistants and systems if my XC90, which I drove in the second half of the presentation, hadn't included the Bowers & Wilkins. Perhaps I wouldn't have been cruising around the hotel area for an extra few tens of unscheduled minutes just to listen to some music and make it in time for dinner. But I certainly wouldn't know then how good a car audio system can sound.
The top Volvo set is Bowers & Wilkins, which includes a 9-inch touchscreen, 19 speakers with a total power of 1,400 W, including a Nautilus tweeter, Kevlar midrange speakers, carbon cone woofers, a Fresn Air cone woofer, and Dirac Unison sound field optimization software. So much theory.
In practice, the system proposed by Volvo perfectly fills the interior of the XC90 with sound. Both the driver and passengers will feel it perfectly. The sound is full and the lows are clear even at the limits of the system's capabilities. Depending on the track being listened to, we can adjust its sound not only with the graphic equalizer, but also through the interior acoustics selection menu, which has three settings: Studio, Individual, Gothenburg Concert Hall. Each of these settings can change the sound experience slightly. It's been a long time since I listened to music in the car with such pleasure.
It is worth adding here that the Bowers & Wilkins is not expensive in the abstract. It costs PLN 14,310, which is much more than two times less than Bang & Olufsen at Audi. And it sounds better.
Downsizing time
Volvo offers only one engine capacity in the new XC90. 2 liters is all we can count on. In such a large car, which is also aimed at the American market, there should be no shortage of larger motors. That's what almost everyone who was on the premiere rides of the XC90 said. The problem is that the market denies this. As I mentioned, the new XC90 is selling like hot cakes. People buy this car despite only having a 2-liter engine. And since the market has received this car so well, is there room for criticism?
I'll take it. In my opinion, in such machines, especially as well made as the XC90, there should be a place under the hood for prestige. Currently, large units are already a luxury good. So why not propose at least one engine that will not only be strong on paper, but will also let you feel its capabilities.
Although the XC90 with the most powerful gasoline engine is really fast, because it has as much as 320 hp, you don't feel it at all. As I pressed the pedal to the floor and looked at the road, I had the impression that there was a mistake and we got a weaker version. There is no racial sound, at least inline five, not to mention V6 or V8. It wasn't until I glanced at the speedometer that I realized how efficiently the XC90 was accelerating. Of the two evils, it's better that way than if it had to scream and growl, but not go.
XC90 prices start at PLN 229,900. Even for the top Inscription we will pay 277,700, which is relatively small for such a large SUV. Volvo has balanced the prices well, and what it offers is a top-class product. There is still only regret that under the hood of this Swedish cruiser there will never be more than 4 cylinders.
Excellent workmanshipLarge amount of space insideVery good top audio at a reasonable priceAttractive designIntuitive operation of a large touch screen
No larger units in the range
