Test drive Volvo V50 2004 - 2007 station wagon

Two faces of respectability

Arctic, Lapland, light frost. Around the cleanest snow, sometimes bizarrely playing in the rays of the sun rising above the hills. And silence
A string of various Volvo Voltvo goes to the Mecca of Winter tests for the Test World training ground.
In anticipation of the cunning snowy tracks, my colleague and I live a new-wheel drive Volvo V50 T5 AWD. We live, because with such rigid speed restrictions (50 in the city, 80 on the roads), 220 horses are yearning for the hood. They would frolic, breathe deeply, tear all this silence with a juicy roar. But there is no tachometer arrow froze at one and a half thousand mark, and a six -speed mechanics implanted from versions R, dutifully allows us to enable the highest gear we roll.
It would always be so: the engine is not heard, pendants are ideal, as, however, handling, brakes and everything else. Smart Haldex connects the rear wheels with the slightest slippage. The car is sensitively monitored by the DSTC system (Dynamic Stability and Traction Control), analyzing the angles of rotation of the steering wheel, acceleration, speed of rotation of the wheels and the machine itself around the vertical axis. Well, the driver's attention is mainly paid to looking at the surroundings and studying the interior.
Here, for example, is an unusual central console in a kind of high -tech style outwardly light, almost weightless. The management of everyone and everything is concentrated here: from the built -in phone and a thoroughbred stereo system to a separate climate installation. It would seem great, only too electronically. On the previous ones Volvo, by a cryptogram with a sitting person, instantly figured out the regulation of air flows. If you look closely, this can be found in the V50, only a little man behind the slender rows of buttons is lost easier to use the car mode.
Well, this sportswagon is intended for its creators exclusively for energetic and young. Perhaps their tastes and requirements are somewhat different, and my nit -picking is probably from the monotony of movement. Moreover, the driver’s place of the V50 AWD has not yet been claimed. Convenient electrified seats with excellent adjustments, a distinct, well -readable combination of devices. Yes, and the level of equipment of the wow, is rich in a voluntary one.
Meanwhile, the conversation with technical topics wagged on traditional jokes about hot Finnish guys: they say, it is clear where all this equanimity came from. At the intersection, something camouflaged flashed, similar to the silhouette, similar to the BMW X5. We feel driven up. And then to the left of the highway appears a snowmobile that goes across us a rapidly increasing in size. While I am wondering who misses whom, he, without discarding the move, taxi to the road. A beautiful jump of six meters and a snowmobile disappears in a cloud of snow dust. My colleague and I looked at each other: they are not so frozen.
Passion for electronics
In this kingdom of perfectly cleared ice and snow in this kingdom! Nearby, behind the parapet, the fighting Subaru growl with motors by the selection of tires. Our tasks are more modest: to try how all -wheel drive Volvo will behave.
The first exam is a winding snow serpentine. We cheerfully start under the correct crackling of DSTC, whose task is to minimize the slipping of the drive wheels. The first gear, the second, third accelerator is impressive. Short braking on the floor, driving movement, the car smoothly screws into the turn, gas and polite electronics were alarmed, filling the salon with such musical chattering that it is just right to get scared. The voice of the motor is clearly faded under the influence of active security systems. Of course, we got into a turn, but somehow boring.
I’ll try to drive so that the electronics are not activated. In the next bunch I call to nausea neatly. The assistants silent peacefully and allow you to slip a little. But it is worth a little to go beyond what is permitted, and everything is repeated again. Clicking DSTS OFF with the treasured toothbler. I am ready to wait for the appearance of a bright symbol on the instrument panel, but I find nothing. Only a long phrase in the small window of the display reports about the disconnection of the system, and even that, it seems, is partial. Unknown!
Now let's check what happened: start again. Now the fifty is openly wagging the stern, hinting at the released reserves. However, in the turn, the electronics again intercepts control of the machine, albeit partially. Yes, it allows you to actively use the traction, control the side slides, but still strives to help with their correction, diligently brakes the necessary wheels. For beginners, this is probably convenient, but the more you are in the soul of the racer, the more active the interference that violate the jewelry calculation of sliding. And nearby frolic Volvo S60 AWD a kind of racing taxi. Everything is clearly disconnected by them honestly.
Now the ice circle on which I am going to polish the relationship with the machine. In her bowels, something cracks again, trying to intervene. But the craving on the drive wheels is stronger, and the V50 is smoothly lying to the beat of the driver’s commands. It's time to try another novelty of Volvo-XS90V8. After all, the drive settings and the features of the DSTC work here should be similar.
In general, the way it is: on the ice circle, the behavior of the giant is comparable to the movement of the V50. However, the difference in weight, machine gun, resourceful engine and other chaldex settings make adjustments. It feels that this powerful and large SUV lacks the accuracy of management, it is clearly inert and more difficult to master. It is worth going more actively, as ninetry hangs in a lateral sliding for a long time, provoking a sweeping ride. Apparently, this is already taken into account by the organizers only we drive up to the so much serpentine, they can’t wave their hands!
Borderlands
From the test world to Murmansk a little more than 200 kilometers. However, the deadlock proposed to us is becoming more and more snowy. It’s good that now our XC90V8 satellite on it here feels more humble. But is it? Having hooked a loose snowdrift a couple of times, I begin to doubt. A powerful all -terrain vehicle is not inclined to forgive mistakes. It easily adders to the snow, but we get out more slowly than we would like. Although if you look at the tachometer, the reasons for the delays are becoming clear, we go 6070 km/h. The adaptive machine relaxes, including almost the highest gear. And barely a non-standard situation arises, the tandem of the engine-clock suddenly thinks what to do? For these fractions of a second, the car manages to burst into snow, not wanting to get out of there, not wanting to get out of there.
The one exit is to go to manual control of the box. Help! The motor immediately remembered that he was in the birth of a pit with 2500 rpm, shooting this colossus so that the snowdrifts are cut, like a knife. The main thing here is not to overdo it. Surely the car is good on wide high -speed highways, where it will open in full force. And here the ninetry was distanced from the driver and does not forgive the panrabia.
In the Volvo V50 it was somehow calmer, we unanimously solve after the next change of cars. And it doesn’t matter that the Finnish forest paths sometimes make the car clang with pendants, snow changes are scraped along the bottom. After all, this sportswagon is not intended for rough terrain. But the engine with a boost of low pressure is convenient and burdened and from 2000 rpm does its job perfectly. In addition, as an active car is supposed to, this Volvo is more accurate and clearer in control, allows you to better use the thrust in quick turns.
In the evening we summed up the results: we were not mistaken in our sympathies. The account of losses in colleagues is clearly not in favor of XC90. And although there were without broken cars, someone had to dig out of the snowdrifts on their own, or even rely on the help of a rescue team.
Angrily, but not cheap
Two all -wheel drive cars are two faces of respectability. Both are moderately conservative, perfectly recognizable, intellectual and, without a doubt, beautiful. Their internal content is not only the high cost of finishing materials, a complete set of services for passengers. There is a wide range of engines, gearboxes, the latest materials and systems. And of course, pedantic, purely Volvo strokes in everything.
Nevertheless, there is a difference. The Volvo-HS90 has already found its own, by no means a poor consumer and, with the advent of a new V8 engine, will only strengthen the position in the premium segment. Even the price range $ 89 450100 350 does not scare. So the fifty -like favorite is just starting its advancement to the market. On the one hand, it is focused on young and active. On the other hand, $ 44,700, albeit for the fastest version of the Volvo V50 T5 AWD, can only be the most successful youth. But competitors are not asleep.
 
Sergey Voskresensky
 

 
 
 
 

Source: The magazine "Driving"