Perfect On Paper
Remember the Volvo V90? It's back! In pog form! I mean. Off-road-ish form! Volvo's V90 wagon was a truly beautiful piece of engineering, but it just could not tickle our northern fancies. As a nation, and extendeding further to a continental scale, we love our high-riding crossovers laden with plastic fender cladding and the illusion of the rugged lifestyle many of us simply do not live. But hey, the dirt trail up to your cottage still counts, ok? Volvo stopped selling the V90 for a short time - but like a foreign exchange student spending a semester abroad - it's back with a whole new personality. But like that student who now incorporates 'chuffed' into their everyday lexicon - is it a meaningful change, or simply a facade? We've previously sampled some of Volvo's offerings, and while we loved the S60 and the XC40 - we felt their attempt to put a performance-oriented spin on the V60 Polestar Engineered was prime porterhouse steak, cooked perfectly medium rare, and then served with a dollop of ketchup on top.
The V90 has always been a stunner. It's like a larger V60, which is already a striking enough design - especially those signature 'Thor's Hammer' headlights. But this Cross Country trim adds some brutish plastic fender cladding and fender flares, a higher ride height and some chunkier tires. There's even an optional steel grille in the back! Not for cooking, mind you, but rather to help secure your cargo or pets along for the drive. It conveniently folds when not in use without obstructing vision.
Volvo's interiors are an exercise in elegance. It just oozes that charming design language we in North America perceive as inherently Scandinavian. But the beauty isn't just ventilated nappa skin deep. Beneath the surface, Volvo's engineers have made sure to keep the brand true to its safety-first roots. You'll have your usual gamut of features like blind spot monitoring, pedestrian and cyclist detection that both warns and acts, but some hidden, passive features that in an accident, you’ll be glad to have. That includes run-off road protection to mitigate spine injuries and a whiplash protection system seamlessly and beautifully integrated into the seat and headrest design. Our only suggestion here - avoid the dark leather and go for the 'Blond' colour. This cabin feels airy and relaxing, and we find the lighter tones just further accentuate that. Totally subjective though.
Despite its faux-ruggedness, the Cross Country is a big softie, in several ways. Volvo's seats can do no wrong in our eyes. Next to Lincoln's, they are arguably the most comfortable car seat you can plant your rear in for under $75,000. Our tester also featured the optional Lounge package, that adds some nifty extras like multi-zone climate, and perhaps most importantly, a driver’s seat massage function. It’s not exactly vigorous, but it’ll make stop and go traffic a little less taxing.
What may lead to some frustration though – is lack of physical buttons inside. Yes, it does look far cleaner and more elegant with less buttons – but there’s no need to have such finicky touch controls for a sunroof. We love you Volvo, but there’s no reason to re-invent a function that has become muscle memory for many of us. Until you get used to the touch layout, it almost becomes detrimental to Volvo’s reputation for safety. The other notable interior change is the switch to an Android-powered infotainment screen. We found this worked mostly okay, but we’d like to see some UX upgrades in the future – including the ability to have the navigation map and your media on screen simultaneously. We also experienced some occasional screen flicker when activating the backup camera.
Volvo bills the V90 Cross Country as a mild hybrid. What exactly does that mean? Its powerplant is a 2.0L 4-cylinder that enjoys both supercharging and turbocharging. On top of that twin-charged setup, we’ve also got a 48-volt battery that helps reduce load on the engine during acceleration. But does that translate to any notable fuel savings? Not so much in our experience. We got a combined average of around 10.9 L/100km at the end of our evaluation week. It’s not bad, all things considered, but we were expecting a little more of an impact from that hybrid setup – especially since the V90 CC needs premium gas.
However, once you get the wheels turning, the V90 is a perfectly pleasant place to be. In our opinion, this type of vehicle is where Volvo shines best. It doesn’t try to be anything beyond a comfortable, safe, quiet ride. Road noise is minimal, visibility – fantastic. Brakes, steering and throttle are responsive enough without trying to feel artificially stiff like a sportier car – and the V90 CC is all the better for it. The only gripe with drivability comes with the gear shifter. It’s a beautiful shifter – but the way Volvo has set it up, you’ll have to flick past neutral every time you go from reverse to drive, or vice versa. Before the seats are folded down, you’ll get 551 litres of cargo space in the back, but the 60/40 split row can extend it further to 1,517L.
The V90 starts at just under $66,000 in Canada. It’s not a bad price, but like with virtually every car sale in North America, things start to add up once you tick those package boxes. Our tester priced in at just under $78,000. Still less than, say, an Audi A6 allroad, but in the Audi, you’ve got AWD and a more powerful V6 with that mild hybrid setup. Wagons are already a niche market in North America – and these faux-off-road luxury wagons, even more so. But even as the ‘value’ option in this market, the V90 is in our opinion the most beautiful. The sleek design and tidy interior will age better than the Audis, but we worry about the finicky software, touch controls, and potential reliability of its complex engine. However, when you try to put a price on safety, it seems like you can still save a few bucks and know you may have arguably the best automotive protection the market has to offer.
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