2020 Volvo V60 T5 Cross Country: 10 things worth knowing | Car News

Listed here in Canada, Volvo sells sedans, SUVs and sure, wagons. And you can tell them aside devoid of even wanting at them: the sedans get an S in the name (S60 and S90), the SUVs an XC (XC40, XC60 and XC90), and the wagons a V (V60 and V90). Almost nothing like placing an order to points. Anyhow, I not long ago drove a V60 Cross State (CC) so I could arrive up with 10 points you really wanted to know about it – even if you did not know that.

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# 1 It is an idea out of fashion

But initial off, why choose a wagon to poke and prod? Well I can give you 5 wonderful good reasons:

A person. It can property far more stuff and doodads than a sedan. But then, you might inquire, if it is a cavernous trunk you want, why not just go for an SUV? Which provides me to…

Two. I would choose a wagon if only to distinguish myself from the hordes of utility styles grazing on our roadways and highways, contrarian that I am.

Three. There are people who will need to lug kids around but swear on their grandmother’s grave they’ll never ever, ever be caught at the wheel of a minivan.

Four. A lot of wagons have an obtain threshold that, like Newborn Bear’s porridge, is just proper – not also significant and not also very low. So you do not have to contort by yourself into the seat to avoid smacking your head on the prime of the doorway opening, nor do you will need a ladder or mountain-climbing equipment to help you clamber up into the cabin. Granted, many lesser SUVs hit the similar sweet place, but then there’s…

5. Driving a wagon is in most each individual instance a a lot far more lively experience than piloting an SUV – and do not even deliver up what a minivan does to the soul of the regular driver!

# two Its sights are set on the Germans

When it arrives to determining the V60’s immediate competition, it is significant to adhere to evaluating apples and apples. And given that the rate assortment of the Swedish wagon begins the place that of the Subaru Outback ends, that eradicates the Japanese entry – though I’ll arrive back again to that in a little bit.

In any case, with a sticker rate ranging (widely) between $44,000 and $82,000, the V60 trains its beady eyes quite a lot exclusively at the Germans, notably the Mercedes-Benz C-Course ($47,seven hundred) and E-Course ($76,four hundred) and the BMW three Series Touring ($forty eight,900), not to point out the Audi A4 allroad quattro ($50,two hundred), A6 allroad ($75,two hundred) and the hugely expected RS6 Avant (predicted to run about $one hundred twenty,000).

#three It does not get a lot adore in the US of A

I would have been delighted to be capable to consist of the splendid Jaguar XF Sportbrake in that record, other than that its maker has decided on to consider the North American industry to be the Usa, and the Usa only.

That’s odd given how minor enthusiasm American buyers have for wagons these times. In 2018, in point, shoppers there acquired only 212,000 wagons in all, which seems alright but is not as it represents but two{0764260a27b4b31ca71a8adf79c3ae299a61e6f062052eee3f0df84ce9b30ade} of that tremendous industry. The last real blue-blood American wagons remaining this planet in 1996 they were being the Buick Roadmaster and the Chevrolet Caprice Classic.

Head you there is the Buick Regal TourX provided south of the border… but it is designed in Germany.

#four It’s loose in the land of the Teutons…

The land of outstanding beer, sausages and sauerkraut is, you may perhaps or may perhaps not know, the place you are going to locate the finest amount of wagons on roadways. German buyers lap up between 600,000 and seven hundred,000 of them ever yr, which represents about a fifth of automobiles profits overall. And there’s your respond to to the question of why so many of the world’s wagons are Teutons.

#five It is on stilts

My test travel of the Volvo V60 was in point a test travel of the model’s Cross State edition, or the CC to its pals and shut relations. What would make this variant distinctive? Three elements, actually. Its floor clearance is 210 mm instead  of the regular V60’S 142 mm it is embellished with ornamental elements that are to various levels meant to “protect” it and it attributes the requisite all-wheel-travel program, enriched by the existence of Hill Descent Handle (by which the car or truck can negotiate a sharp descent devoid of your intervention, conserve for holding the steering wheel).

Other than that, the chassis is not really far more rugged, and neither is the motor. Volvo’s tactic is predicated on making milder off-road escapades fairly less difficult, but particularly, making it glimpse like it will be less difficult. The CC tells other people you’re a real all-terrain tamer, like you could gallivant off to the Amazon or the forests of Borneo if you felt like it. Just as quickly as you do your run to the area Walmart…

#6 It is the hottest in a shorter line

So which automaker initial dreamed up the idea of internet marketing a wagon as an all-terrain adventurer? Audi arrived out with its allroad edition in 1999, and Volkswagen only adopted in 2015 with an Alltrack edition of its Golf Sportwagen (absent from our Canadian showrooms considering that 2019).

But at Volvo, the wagon is like a religion. The 850 the business rolled out in 1993 was a alternative for the 240 Series (est. 1974), alone the successor to the 140 Series (born 1966). In 1996 the V70 took the position of the 850, and one particular yr afterwards was born the V70 XC. That product is the ancestor of the V60 Cross State, available at good Volvo institutions considering that 2010.

And yet, the idea of an off-road-capable wagon really initial germinated at Subaru. Some may perhaps try to remember these likeable Television set adverts back again in 1995 that starred Crocodile Dundee himself, Australian actor Paul Hogan, as he vaunted the merits of the then-new Outback product.

#seven It is a contradiction in phrases

Volvo, for most of us, equates with basic safety – and with explanation, considering that the business is powering any amount of basic safety innovations, not least of which the seatbelt back again in 1959. Offered that, I’m at a little bit of a reduction to explain why a business which is normally promoted basic safety initial, second and 3rd would make customers shell out excess to profit from points like a blind place watch or rear transversal visitors alert.

Just to convert the knife in the wound a minor far more, Volvo has just recalled ALL of its 2019 and 2020 styles (amounting to practically 12,000 automobiles in Canada, and 10 periods that in the U.S.). The dilemma? The automated emergency braking program could malfunction, and will call for a application update at dealerships.

#8 It might be Chinese-owned, but it is nevertheless mighty Swedish

The 2020 V60 CC represents the second technology of the product initial presented at the 2018 Geneva Motor Display. It is distinguishable by the rear lights, pretty identical to these found on the XC60 SUV, and by the “Thor’s Hammer” LED headlights in the imprecise condition of the favourite toy of that Viking god, the one particular in cost of thunder and lightning and tasked with shielding humanity by means of the use of mentioned toy, to which nothing at all can resist (other than perhaps Captain America’s shield? See position #three higher than).

#9 It is more simple below than there

In Europe, the lucky buyer of the V60 has the alternative of seven different engines, together with tow diesel units and a few hybrid configurations. Daily life is more simple for us Canadians: all Volvos make use of the similar two.0L turbocharged four.cylinder, the one particular that arrives with the T5 designation. Insert a volumetric compressor to that and you get the T6. Acquire the turbo device with volumetric compressor and increase to it two electric motors and you end up with the T8 plug-in hybrid powertrain.

You can climb the ladder one particular move increased by entrusting the T8 to the people at Polestar (obtained by Volvo in 2015). Then you will earn by yourself a handful of far more horses and far more-dynamic on-road conduct.

Now forget every thing I just told you, due to the fact if you’re opting for the CC you do not have any of these possibilities: it is available strictly in a T5 configuration, priced starting up at $forty eight,900.

#10 Its multimedia program necessitates some savvy decrypting

I could consider the V60 CC remaining the favourite method of transportation of Indiana Jones, due to the fact effectively even journey-seeking archeologists like their minor comforts. This car or truck features commonly Scandinavian degrees of plushness, luxurious and purified traces.

It is just a shame that purified esthetic does not apply to the Sensus program on the central screen. It is not simple to decode, though of program decrypting sophisticated hieroglyphics is exactly bookish Prof. Jones’ specialty, so there you go…

#11 (bonus) Apprécions

Now that you know a minor far more about the historical and industrial context of this Volvo wagon, and about the CC’s origins, here’s a minor epilogue for you that sums up the experience of actually driving the point.

Its luggage keep can consider in 529 litres, or up to 1,441 litres with the seats down (as opposed to 1,432 litres in the XC60). The 250 hp less than the hood is enough for what you are going to use the car or truck for, and adequate to pull up to three,500 lb.

Did I consider it on a rock ‘n rolling ramble across the Canadian Defend for the duration of my time with it? Not once. But I could have. As Volvo Canada proclaims proudly on its web site, this sport wagon was “created to consider you to the coronary heart of the adventure”. In fact.