We’re
Still Smitten With an Old-School Segment
Anyone
older than 40 remembers a day when there were more wagons on the road than
high-riding SUVs and crossovers. Sadly, that day has come and gone, and no
matter how much we want it to, there will never be a Cinderella-story comeback.
Dead segment driving, you might say.
Thankfully
there are still a few companies keeping the fading wagon dream alive here in
America—chief among them Volvo. And in case you hadn’t noticed, we love us some
Volvos. The V90 wagon’s S90 sedan
sibling scored
a Daily Double last year as our Design of the
Year and
a 2017 All-Star. It’s pretty simple why: The new
Volvos are that good.
To clarify,
there are two flavors of the V90, the straight-up wagon New York bureau chief
Jamie Kitman and friends drove to South Carolina and back as part of our January 2018
issue and the V90 Cross
Country, a slightly
cladded and lifted version Volvo can better market as a crossover alternative
(because of course). As Kitman pointed out, the non-Cross Country V90 is only
available for special order, so you really have to want one to get one. We
wanted, and we went with a V90 T6 AWD with the R-Design package sprayed up in a
sweet metallic shade called Bursting Blue for our All-Stars evaluation vehicle.
“Sharp—that’s
how you describe the Volvo V90,” Nelson said. “It looks sharp,
drives directly, operates in a straightforward manner, and has clean-cut
aesthetics. Minimalist design means superfluous bits are contained to small
trim pieces and the like.” Put another way, the V90 is tacklike, never tacky,
and although it’s no hot-rod sled, it’s plenty capable dynamically.
“Beneath
the V90’s slick surface treatments reside the usual Volvo underpinnings—a
feeling that is solid, trustworthy, built to last,” Wasef said.
All-wheel-drive
versions of the Volvo V90 come with the 316-horsepower tune of Volvo’s
2.0-liter super- and turbocharged I-4 paired with an eight-speed automatic
transmission. (Front-drive models get a 250-horse turbo-only variant.) The
powertrain provided more than enough motivation on Nevada’s freeways, state
roads, and the delightful stretch of Highway 157, also known as Kyle Canyon
Road, near our cozy and accommodating base camp at The Resort on Mount
Charleston. “This I-4 is plenty of engine for this relatively big car, further
proof there is a substitute for cubic inches,” Detroit bureau chief Todd Lassa
said.
Relatively
big is a good way to put the V90. At 54 cubic feet of cargo room with the
second-row seats folded, it’s nine cubes shy of its XC60 crossover
cousin. That’s more
than enough room to pack in gear for two for a weekend at the lodge—or for a
pack of dogs.
Inside,
Volvo carved out an interior style that evokes a Swedish dance club for the
R-Design—industrial chic—especially with the killer optional Bowers &
Wilkins audio system spinning the cuts. Its 9.0-inch portrait-oriented
touchscreen, with its tabletlike approach to operating vehicle features and
connectivity options, is among the best going—although some editors pined for a
few more vital control buttons. Some things never change, though. “The seats
are typical Volvo—mega comfortable,” Noordeloos said.
Another
Volvo constant is an emphasis on safety, and as with the rest of its lineup,
the V90 is stacked with more nannies than an au pair convention. The
overarching focus is on crash avoidance, including detecting moose, which is a
thing in Sweden, apparently.
We’ll let
Cumberford have the last words: “If you like station wagons—I do, very
much—this is the one to have. Good-looking, great interior, plenty of room,
plenty of performance, good road behavior. Of all the cars in the test fleet,
this is the one that I can imagine buying and keeping in use for 10 to 15 years
without much maintenance expense and with safety for all passengers. Nice is a
good word for this car. And it will be the right word far in the future, when
colors have faded and there are scratches and dents and signs of normal wear
and all the new has disappeared.”
—Mike Floyd
Source: Automobilemag.com
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