After a long wait Volvo’s passenger car based XC90 has arrived, and it’s every bit as good as all the hype led us to expect. The XC 90 T6 is the flagship model in the Swedish car-makers new XC range. Although not a REAL off-roader, the Volvo is well qualified to take on the BMW X5 and Mercedes Benz ML series soft-roaders, both in the rough and as a tarmac-chomping family wagon. As usual from Volvo, safety standards are absolutely tops, with more airbags scattered around you’d find at a pipers’ convention. The car set a record by being the first in its class to achieve a five-star European NCAP safety rating at its first attempt.
The interior of the Volvo is understated and exceptionally classy, and specification levels are extremely high – well, so they should be for half a million rand. The car is available in five or seven seater configurations, and the seven-seater is particularly impressive, with the rear seats sliding neatly away under the floor to provide baggage space aplenty when required. There’s also a nifty arrangement whereby the centre seat in the middle row can be moved within clouting range of the front seat occupants, meaning Mom doesn’t have to take hers eyes off the road when dispensing justice to Junior.
The Volvo is available at present only in three-litre petrol twin-turbo guise in this country, but this engine is a beaut. The silky smooth in-line six dishes up 200 kW at 5100 rpm, with a healthy 380 Nm of torque distributed usefully between 1 800 and 5 000 rpm. Top speed is claimed to be 210 km/hr (electronically limited) and 100 km/hr arrives on the clock 9,3 seconds after blast-off. Transmission is an auto four speed with geartronic, and shifts were almost too smooth to be detected.
We drove the XC 90 on freeways and country roads, where it excelled thanks to its extreme smoothness, supreme comfort and rapid, fuss-free performance. Then we descended into Oribi Gorge near Port Shepstone to assess its off-road ability. There’s no low-range transmission or differential locks, but Volvo uses electronics to get most of the job done. In normal driving the vehicle operates as a front-wheel-drive, but when the various sensors detect a lack of traction the intelligent all-wheel-drive system starts dishing out torque between the various axles as required. Response is very quick – just one-seventh of a turn by a tyre during wheelspin is enough to get the process going. The only shortcoming we could find with the system was the lack of engine braking. During the admittedly very steep descent into Oribi Gorge we had to rely on the brakes rather more than we’re accustomed to during off-road use.
We rate the Volvo XC 90 T6 as one of the absolutely finest of its genre. It’s pricing is very competitive, pitting it against the smaller-engined less-powerful models in its German competitors’ ranges, and its specification level is excellent. As far as quality is concerned it takes a second place to nobody.
The XC90 T6 5-seater automatic retails at R495 000, with the 7-seater costing R30 000 more. Next year the lineup will be extended to include a lower-priced T5 version fitted with a 2.5T light turbo 5-cylinder producing 154 kW, and a D5 turbo-diesel with the 120 kW 2.4-litre 5-cylinder engine.