Test drive Volvo XC90 2002 - 2006 SUV

Better late than never

Of course, the Swedes were pretty late with the release of their first SUV. Couldn't they have to smell before? I remember that for a year in the 94th I saw the corner of my eye in their gear in the gchteborg something off-road or, perhaps, UPV-shaped without identification marks (to fix something on the film in that zone of the landfill, guests were banned). It was unlikely that it was a prototype of Volvo XC90, but even then it became clear that work on off -road topics was going on with might and main. This means that theoretically it was possible not to pull until the end of the century (literally), but, apparently, something did not work out. They release the car at least a couple of years earlier, you look, and I would not have to butt in the market, say, with another neophytus of the Volkswagen Touareg/Porsche Cayenne class. Having a time head start, they would have managed to take a niche, to tie customers to themselves and then pepper Tuareg would have to catch up with nimble vikings. And now you have to fight with equal starting conditions.


I foresee the objection: there, they say, Mercedes ML appeared much earlier than the BMW X5, and the sense of Bavarka quickly made up missed and took her with more than. The analogy is incorrect. After all, BMW and Mercedes brands, count, cult; Each has a lot of fans, and the bimer-fanat will never buy a Swabian car, and the Bavarian gelding-fan. Volvo does not have such a loyal contingent (or it is too small in order to make the weather in sales), so the XC90 will have to thoroughly compete for a place under the sun. By the way, in the states, the Swedish SUV already managed to win something for himself this year entered the top ten most popular cars of one of the large rental companies. True, his place is 10th, but this is also very honorable when you take into account the scale of the choice of rental cars in the United States. Perhaps people take a new car for a day or two just to get to know her a pity, there is no statistics on those whom the test drive moved to the purchase.


Not all of what was in the court in the North American market is successful in European. Forecasts do early, we'll see us. However, there is already interest in Volvo XC90, and considerable, if only because this is the first SUV come from the Scandinavian Peninsula. And there is already a separation of motorists on the principle of its (car) acceptance/rejection. Some say that a company that does not have its own off-road school is not able to build a decent Off-Roader. Others that Volvo does everything quite soundly, and traditions are not always a determining factor: BMW, they say, did not have them when the X5 was built.


I dare to enter this dispute. Personally, I believe that Volvo still has some off-road traditions. I was convinced of this when at one time tested Cross Country at the stadium of technical sports in Krylatsky where there were once survival races, and now the 4x4 shares are sometimes held. I swear that I have never stuck, although there was a completely fat mud, and a moat with water, which rolled on a hood in general, the cross -country cross was very successful ...


Assessing Volvo XC90 according to consumer parameters, two main points should be taken into account. First: the car was made mainly on the requests of the American market of 50 thousand cars planned for annual production (possibly more, if there is demand), 35-40 thousand want to sell in North America. Second: it is assumed that among American users of the XC90, the vast majority of 80% will be women, of which again most women are family, that is, with children. Well, let's see what America as a whole wished and female America in particular.


To begin with, the car is designed for seven seats. This is not a revelation in itself, the novelty here is that the states expressed categorically against the typical options for seats of the third row (this was shown by Volvsky polls at the stage of creation of the XC90) and those facing the face back and dystrophic folding sides. They, the States, are generally against everything small and uncomfortable. American housewives demanded to make a full-fledged underwear (there are many children, and they grow), and they were respected. Of course, such large seats, as in the stalls, did not work out, but what is, is impressive, the third row is designed for a comfortable placement of two American-fired children up to 160 cm. For them, a separate air conditioning is not very good. Well, when the kids from the cart, the third row can be removed to the floor, the middle seat of the second can be moved forward by as much as 300 mm, and the side is 100 mm, and here you have a solid cargo -passenger version. And if at all, all the passenger seats are folded, including the front (well, I wanted to drive one to the supermarket), you get a luggage compartment with a length of 2.9 m with an even floor. Note that the Volvo XC90 is very compact for its class, it is only 130 mm longer than the BMW X5, but it still has seven regular places against Bavarian five!


We had a five -seater version on the test, which in size is not different from the seven -seater, it will be the main one for the European market. The amount of useful interior space is impressive. Where did it come from with such unbearable dimensions? Yes, they simply reasonably used what is. For example, they shortened the motor compartment, putting the engine in a row six crosswise (for the first time it was done on the S80), and the steering of the salon was moved forward.


And America also wished to have a front -wheel drive version of the XC90 (naturally, in addition to all -wheel drive). This is only for her. We are unnecessary. In Europe, and, in particular, in Russia to travel on an SUV with a monotive is even somehow indecent.


However, it's time to drive. The XC90 salon is not to say that he was richly rich (but, of course, not poor!) More likely, moderately unheated. And very calm. Neutral colors, solid finish. No shocking, brilliant tsatski is simply not annoying them. Did America lose his loving chrome trinkets? By the way, what is American here? Perhaps only the parking brake. This is not a familiar handbrake, but, more correctly, a scabric chick. You turn it on with your foot, pressing on the pedal. You turn off your hand, pulling the handle, more like the key.


And what about the female? And also with family and off -road?


About female. Honestly, the question of sexual orientation of cars is always at a standstill. For some reason, it became fashionable to divide them into male and female. I know for sure that such a division can adversely affect the market fate of the machine (there are precedents), especially if it is an SUV. The label of the lady jeep and the male customer contingent will immediately strive to eliminate to eliminate. Yes, the opinion of women played a huge role in creating a Volvo XC90, so what? This does not mean that the car is all in lace ruffles and from the air ducts with Chanelia. The image of the XC90 is quite unisexual, this is the corporate identity of Volvo, tested on the S80 and well accepted by people of various sexes (joke).


About family. There is something to praise. The Swedish company takes care of the primary cell of society and to me, for example, as a person hopelessly family, this is pleasant. This concern is by no means exhausted by cargo and passenger capacity, allowing you to feel comfortable to feel a large family, including the Swedish (again a joke) small amenities are also provided. What are at least picnic bells and whistles. You go out into nature, raise the back door, throw off the rear side and install a decent table on it. Not that, in order not to sit on a hard place on the hard, you put on board special elastic seats. Damn it is convenient.


About off -road. If you close your eyes to the handles on the front racks (the cars have such pens on the ceiling) and all sorts of devices for fixing the cargo, then the salon can hardly be called off -road. Nothing governing-brutal. The same applies to governing bodies. Here, for example, is a 4-speeded automatic gearTronic automatic box (with the possibility of gaming manually). No reducing modes and different connectors of leading bridges and locks there. The only additional button W (Winter) Winter mode. In general, a purely passenger option.


Now it's time to ride. I start the motor, transfer the selector lever to the D (Drive) position and ... what kind of nonsense? The lever suddenly, without my participation, jumps into the +/-, that is, in the manual transplant mode. Nes -blessed. Thank God this does not happen on the move ... And once it will not have to jump or not. To prevent guaranteedly, after the transfer of the lever for a second, I hold it with my hand, everything is fine. (Later he called colleagues from friendly publications rolled on the XC90. Yes, they say, it was with a lever. Not everyone, but it was. Looking ahead, I will say that this is the only problem noticed by the XC90. Maybe the model is still damp, not Everything in it is honed in the early stages of production. This happens.)
 
There are no complaints about motor cases. I had a T6 car, that is, with a 272-horsepower in-line six with a volume of 2.9 liters. Two turbochargers, a system for changing the phases of gas distribution at the inlet and release of all this, as they say, will be used. The peak of torque (380 nm) the engine reaches at 1800 rpm. The thrust is great. The acceleration is quite powerful, but not explosive, but the smooth, obviously, the machine is trying here. By the way, the adaptive himself chooses the switching algorithm, adjusting to the driver's style.


Two more engines are provided for the model, both 5-cylinder 2.5-liter gasoline turbo (210 hp) and a 2.4-liter turbodiesel with direct injection Common Rail and a variable geometry of the turbine (163 hp). Both have excellent traction characteristics: gasoline goes to the maximum of torque (320 nm) already at 1500 rpm, diesel (340 nm) at 1750 rpm. That is, they are not much inferior to the top 272-strong motor. They also provide a GEARTRONIC machine, but not four, but five-speed.


The constant all -wheel drive in the XC90 is implemented by the well -known Haldex system, which performs the functions of the center differential. Its main element is the hydraulic multi -disc clutch controlled by electronics, it works faster than the usual viscous coupling. In an ordinary, not torn mode of the XC90 driving, consider as a front -wheel drive car 95% of the traction force falls on the front wheels. But it is worth any of the front ones a little (by a quarter of turning) to slip, how the craving instantly throws into the rear. The dose determines the electronics, depending on the situation, the rear wheels can receive up to 65% traction. Well, of course, it is also distributed between the right and left this is the ETC electronic tracket control.


Of course, such a transmission cannot be called a fully off -road, if only because there is no reduced row in it. But the Swedes do not expect someone to storm the wilds of Borneo on the XC90. On the off -road of moderate severity, the car behaves decently (good, and the clearance allows 218 mm), but more and no need. And even if you are not embarrassed by the fact that the XC90 is built on a common platform (P2) with cars S80, S60 and V70 everything that is needed is expanded (base and track) and hardened (say, steel subframe, and not aluminum). Let me remind you that 90% of SUVs of 90% of the time are used on good or on quite acceptable roads, because, by the way, gross army boxes are replaced from the market with comfortable SUVs. Want on Borneo, take Defender or GAZ-69 ...


On the asphalt, but at speed, as the test showed, XC90 is good for almost everyone. Almost because the asphalt was Moscow, with rails, hatches and potholes. I repent, flew a couple of times, not having time to lose speed and thought that the front suspension could be a little more absorbing. Pierced. But I put the lion's share of responsibility for this sin on myself (I need to look where you are chasing!) And on the Moscow road workers.


Well, where the road workers are doing at least something, XC90 is good without reservations. A powerful, dynamic, maneuverable car. So he would have laid steep turns on it, if the idea that all the SUVs were prone to overturning (the center of gravity is tall, not a passenger!) And although I know that this refers to the XC90 to a lesser extent than many of its classmates thanks to the advanced control system of overturning RSC (Roll Stability Control; Depending on the corner and speed of the roll, traction and brake efforts are redistributed), it is still better to take care. Hope for equipment, and curb the courage ...


Interestingly, the company was concerned about the safety of not only those who travel to the XC90, but also those who, God forbid, come across to them in the way. The development of Ford, which in 1999 appeared on the Excursion SUV, was used. Under the cladding, below the front bumper beam, the cross-mental structure is hidden, with a frontal clash, acceleratedly affecting the deformation of the second participant in the accident (so in a press release). This is especially true if the second participant below growth, say, the size of the OKU. Volvo crash tests have shown that the XC90 does not sit on the hood of a small car and, accordingly, does not crush it, that same cross-line interferes with it. Smart. It would be nice only for this participant in the deformation zone was appropriate for accelerated exposure ...


Comfortable filling of the XC90 (all kinds of electric packages, heating, xenons, players, telephones, etc.) I will not describe only that it is here, and there are a lot of it. The list is standard for this class. The machine is decently charged in the database, and the optional reception also involves very strong. There would be money from six and a half to seven with a baal tail. Naturally, tens of thousands. And, unfortunately, not rubles.


American housewives, apparently, have money for the XC90. I wish you to be.
 
Sergey Sorokin
 
 

Source: Motor magazine [June 2003]