VOLVO XC60 test drive since 2008 SUV

Swedish syndrome

In Valencia, they are driven as in Moscow
Few people could have imagined that a hot Spanish girl who goes into the left turn from the third strip needs to turn around, it is not accepted there. Nevertheless, the Amazon did not bother. Green caught fire, the stream went, and after a couple of seconds, her Fiesta, emerging from under Rav4, for some reason stood exactly across our XC60. One and a half meters from the bumper. It really was not enough to get scared of time only to transfer the leg to the brake pedal and step, but Volvo had already taken care of this.
Now this is his duty. XC60 The safest car in the history of Volvo, with these words the Swedes began their presentation. Then there were design, technical details, talk about trend, diagrams, forecasts ... But the main thesis was still the main thesis, around which everything, in fact, was spinning: they made a car that took on the functions of the driver in Gothenoe. The new City Safety system is really worthy of a separate conversation, but this is noteworthy: the XC60 for the brand is not only an experimental rabbit, designed to promote a number of innovative systems on the market, but also a completely new car, and also performing in the segment completely new for the brand. In such cases, it is usually customary to talk about the car itself first, and most manufacturers would have done just that, but not Volvo. The Swedes went to this for 80 years, systematically exploring something and inventing. The result of many years of research was the CH60 crossover, capable of independently evaluating the degree of threat and by reducing speed, or even a complete stop to avoid a collision or, in extreme cases, reduce losses to a possible minimum. And since each XC60 is capable of such exploits, the Swedes are sure that these features of the model for customers will ultimately become decisive. Although you can argue with this.
Volvo did not refuse her claims to the place in the elite division, so the circle of competitors is determined quite clearly: Audi Q5, Mercedes-Benz GLK, Infiniti Ex35, aging BMW X3. But, in our opinion, XC60 on getting into the premium segment, like all his relatives, is still only claiming, even despite the price tag and the number of equipment. Take at least appearance. We won’t deny, in appearance the crossover is fresh and quite presentable, but the concept of the same name, presented two years ago, looked worse and more faster.
It had more a gloss, while in the form of a serial version, calm features traditional for the brand prevail. In fact, the car has turned into a banal symbiosis of the youth C30 and the most popular in the XC90 line.
The option, of course, is not the worst, however, proclaimed by Steve Mattin, which is now responsible for the corporate style, the new approach here is not so obvious. Having concentrated on the details, the designers as a result came to where they started, to the cosmetically updated Volvo, which was created a year or two ago. Bottom line: nice, moderately modern, but by no means the most unexpected car in appearance.
The same is inside. The soaring console, which was deployed to the driver, is good, borrowed from the flagship S80, the instrument panel is informative and presentable, there are no complaints about the materials or the quality of the decoration. However, the slope of the Volvo interior characteristic of this level is clearly not enough, the same EX35 from the inside looks much more solid. The Swedes were limited to a formal association of the driver's zone in a monolithic cockpit. In a word, making a constant residence permit at the premium-class of the Swedish brand is still too early.
So you have to catch up with another. For example, in capacity. The crossover is longer than the one -platform Frelander, wider and above Q5. In addition, his arsenal has a 2774-mm wheelbase, so the four in the womb novelty is not so bad. Only the sloping ceiling interferes with the heads of the rear passengers. For the rest, the supply of space here is fully consistent with the concepts of comfort in the classroom: people do not encounter their shoulders and their knees do not press to their ears.
Provided, however, that the front passengers will not be zealous with the settings of their own seats, otherwise the gap between the pillow of the sofa and the backs of the seats can be squeezed out only a subtle teenager.
On the other hand, this is a problem of not a specific car, but the whole class as a whole in the EX35 already mentioned or, for example, BMW X3 places in this case are much less. At the same time, the front sedocks will be delivered from claustrophobia attacks a priori: space, comfort, high landing, relatively good visibility, almost exemplary ergonomics ... Although the clients will not expect a different way from a modern car.
As, probably, such a noisy turbodiesel will not understand. On the other hand, the acoustic qualities of this unit have long been not news, since the same 2.4-liter D5 is installed today on XC90 and on XS70. Not the news is that this is almost the only drawback of the motor. Otherwise, continuous advantages. Firstly, on KhS60 it develops not 163, but 185 hp, secondly, unlike the top six, it is equipped with both mechanics and automatic transmission, well, thirdly, fuel absorbs much less, providing the crossover quite decently dynamics. Especially with a machine gun.
The fact is that the working range of the turbodiesel is extremely small from 2000 to 2750 rpm, so that, by raping it with a basic 6-speed mechanics, you still won’t squeeze anything worthwhile. The automatic transmission, trying to sniffing the raging, in her opinion, the driver, with the slightest opportunity switches to increased, due to which the motor is constantly at the peak. Moreover, such a XC60 in the city moves at all more slowly by its gasoline fellow with a 285-horsepower T6 under the hood. But on the highway about pseudo -sports driving will have to be forgotten. Going to the cruising speed (120130 km/h), the turbodiesel becomes absolutely passive, and it begins to make noise much stronger.
Such a tandem is not too good in the mountains. On the serpentine, he is too calm: after a quarter of an hour, a cotton accelerator and deliberately comfortable automatic transmission literally forced your correspondent to go into manual mode, limiting the transmission with a second gear. What is characteristic, by car with T6 I had to repeat the symptoms, alas, the same, except that the crossover has become more effective.
In general, like all his relatives, xc60 is primarily comfortable. Confident in the straight line, in the bend, he begins to fall. Of course, there is no speech about the demolition of speech (the stabilization system, the fourth Haldex in the drive), but passengers are rocking quite quickly. Yes, and traditionally a long steering wheel for active driving does not have.
In general, KhS60 is primarily a worthy successor of family traditions and only then an equal rival for the same Q5 and GLK. However, is it so bad?
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The City Safety system has become the results of Volvo research, which showed that three quarters of all beats in the back of the car occur at speeds up to 30 km/h. Moreover, in half of these cases, drivers do not react at all to the threat of a collision. In order for this, this does not happen, the XC60 electronics, through the laser sensor built into the windshield, monitors objects located at a distance of 10 meters from the front bumper, and is inhibited if necessary. True, she sees only a metal person or, say, a motorcycle for the system is transparent.
Vladimir Zhidkov
 

 

A source: Mkobil magazine [December/2008]