The Top Line

You can sit inside the Volvo XC90, feeling safe, secure and very very comfortable - while getting poor economy and lousy performance. It is a classic trade-off.

We drove a 3.2L Volvo XC90 6 cylinder base model for about 2,000 miles through temperatures ranging from 25 to 90 degrees F at altitudes up to 8,500 ft. if you are now thinking "Hmm . that sounds like a drive from Salt Lake City, Utah up to Yellowstone National Park and back again with many detours" - you are absolutely correct.


The Engine

Our XC90 was powered by a 235HP, 3.2L inline Yamaha engine (the V8 has a 311Hp 4..4L power unit). Your interface to these 235 horses is a 6-speed Geartronic electronic automatic transmission. To get really hands on you can shift manually up and down the gears, which came in handy navigating some of the more treacherous and steeper back roads in the park. The transmission itself was smooth, efficient and very quiet.

Acceleration was acceptable on the highway and on most straightaway sections. However - once in the park, we noted that the XC90 really labored climbing hills, especially when turning left or right going uphill from a standing start (i.e at a stop sign when at a T-junction). Initially I put this down to the altitude, but it seemed to impact the Volvo more so than most other vehicles, according to my unofficial surveys over the next few days. How to be fair and balanced almost all of Yellowstone Park is over 5,000 ft in elevation (just under a mile) and parts of it are close to 8,500 in some of the passes. So it is not only the humans who suffer from altitude sickness and oxygen deprivation - however we did use premium gasoline the entire trip to compensate.

The XC90 has a 21 gallon fuel tank, and official ratings of 14/20 mpg (city/highway).My real life experience was a little over the 20 mpg on the interstate, but then (and obviously given the terrain) less than 14 driving around the park.

As a point of comparison the XC90 engine only offers about 15HP extra than the Ford Fusion sedan I have been driving recently yet has to pull along an extra 1,300 pounds.


Handling


Aside from the occasional sluggish acceleration (even when I put my foot right down I always felt there was a slight delay before anything happened) and the feeling that the engine was literally burning dollar bills as fuel - the Volvo was a pleasure to drive. It hugged the curves, kept traction on tarmac, grass, mud and gravel alike and smoothly took us from "A" to "B" and back again.

On the Interstate north of Salt Lake I noticed an irritating highway drone at around 70mph, which disappeared  when going a few mph faster or slower. The SUV also exhibited an annoying resonance wind buffering when travelling just over 40mph with only the driver's window open. Opening a rear window or the sun roof fixed that - much to the annoyance of anyone trying catch a few Z's in the back seats.

We also encountered some extremely strong winds one evening during an amazing thunderstorm and the XC90 behaved like a trooper. It grabbed a-hold of the road, and we felt extremely safe and secure even in the face of 40mph+ gusts of wind.

The Interior

I'd rate the interior as being secure, comfortable and safe from being eaten by wolves or bears. Actually opening up the sunroof - it slides back and recesses - let our college kids stand up in the back and take some fabulous photos of the wildlife.

Seriously though, this is a sub-$40k SUV masquerading as a $50k luxury SUV and it is one of the reasons I forked over an extra $2/day to Hertz to rent this as opposed to something way way cheaper in appearance and comfort. A great deal of thought has gone into the design of the interior, and this shows up in the dash design. The controls are all easy to see and understand - and in my Epinion, exactly in the right functional place. The speedometer and tach are flanked by two smaller temp and fuel gauges, complemented by an onboard display showing everything from tire pressure to the standard trip and mileage data.

We had standard radio/CD with the addition of satellite radio (definitely required in Yellowstone) and I appreciated the MP3 input jack (labeled AUX) for our growing collection of iPods.

The air conditioning and heating are luxury car quality, with two generously sized vents in the back to keep everyone cool and four vents up front. Let me give you an illustration of that - we left the park very early one morning to drive south to Jackson Hole. The temperature when we left was 25F and everyone was freezing. Within two minutes, everyone had their hats, coats and gloves off - basking in the radiant heat from the car; with a notable assist from the front seat heating units! That lunchtime we are in Jackson Hole and it is over 80F - crank up the air conditioning and everyone is instantly happy.

The cabin is spacious, with comfortable electronically controlled and adjusted driver (3 driver memory sets) and passenger seats to amplify the experience. No backaches or hamstring tugs driving the Volvo. There is a slightly raised rear seat which can seat three if required although we maxed out at two. There was plenty of leg space back there, and ample compartments and holders for coffee, soda, books and other paraphernalia. Third-row seating is an option on the V6 and standard on the V* and Sport trims. I wouldn't recommend the seating for anyone over the age of 14 or 5-3" in height unless you have the entire row to yourself. We never used it as we needed the luggage space.

The dry facts are that luggage space varies from 22 cuft3 up to 88 cuft3 depending on the configuration of the seats. As the rear seat folds semi-flat in a 40/20/40 config you have numerous ways to set up the luggage. The practical facts, what it means to you, is that we travelled with two adults and two college age young adults - each of whom had a large suitcase and a backpack, plus two computer laptop cases and several other random bags. They comfortably fit in the back so no one was cramped and driver could still see out the rear mirror - which is the ultimate "can it fit all my stuff?" test.

Safety

NHTSA Crash Test Results

Head-on accident Driver ................... 5 stars
Head-on accident Passenger ............ 5 stars
Side Impact Front ........................... 5 stars
Side impact Rear ............................. 5 stars
Rollover Rating ................................4 stars
Offset Crash Tests Good in all three ratings

Volvo has been the industry leader in safety for a long, long time. Think back to the old "we're boxy but we're safe" days. The XC90 carries on that tradition. You can view the full list of safety features on any auto website, but to call out a few of the noticeable ones - collapsible steering column, anti-whiplash headrests which cut down neck injury by 50%, dual-stage airbags and full side curtain airbags. I also noted in the marketing literature that the Volvo engineers designed the front end of the XC90 to absorb impact energy in the event of striking a pedestrian (or a bison) to reduce the chances of severely injuring whomever you hit!

Other than having to stomp on the brakes a few times because of stopped vehicles in the middle of the road due to animal crossings I fortunately never had cause to use any of these features. Although I have to remark on the Xenon headlamps which were especially amazing when that rainstorm hit us and helped me see the road and what was ahead even in a torrential downpour.

Exterior Colors and Other Specs
 
Rather than just cut and paste a bunch of stuff from Edmunds or Volvo I'd suggest you go visit those sites and see exactly what colors, trim levels and options you have available. This is a personal experience review rather than speeds and feeds.
 
Reliability

Ten days is too short a time to comment on my own personal experience with the car - although I can state that nothing went wrong ( it only had 7,000 miles on it). Now my own personal experience with other Volvo's is that they are great until something goes wrong - and then they can be a money sink.

The standard warranty is 4 years/50,000 miles and you get 4 years of roadside Volvo On-Call at new charge if you are an owner.



The Bottom Line

I really liked driving this car. It may be a cliché, but as I was driving around three of the people I most care about it felt good to feel safe. If I were in the market for a mid-SUV I would seriously consider the Volvo ( and also the Acura MDX, BMW X5 and Cadillac SRX). Since I live at sea-level I don't feel the acceleration is a real issue for me, although the gas economy could be.
Amount Paid (US$): 38500
Condition: New
Model Year: 2008
Model and Options: V6 standard