CTC Review: 2010 Volvo XC60

[CD_Editor]

Day 1:

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Something a little different for me this week, as I am driving the latest mid-sized luxury SUV, the new 2010 Volvo XC60.  At first glance, to me, it is just another SUV in a crowded marketplace, but after just a few hours with the XC60 it is already obvious Volvo has done quite a bit to make this one stand out from the crowd. The question is: will shoppers get past the entry price?  More...

[curls]

Psssst: your link to the larger interior shot isn't right.   NICE vehicle though... tons of options.

[johngenx]

tons of options.

Hole-ee, almost $20,000 in options?  Did Volvo hire someone from Porsche?

[mmret]

Nah, there's no $8k brake upgrade available.

[johngenx]

Nah, there's no $8k brake upgrade available.

yet

[mac_powah]

This is a really nice car and all (NAIAS really impressed me), but wow is it overpriced.  Volvo tends to do this.  They also tend to make their cars look like crap so that you spend the extra money - UMMMM have you seen the standard wheels on the C30?  For such a cool car, man did they blow it with the wheels.  Volvo is not a make I would consider if they continue to do business this way.

[adjutor]

Nice look. But the most expensive small SUV on the market?  More than BMW X3, Mercedes GLK, Acura RDX, Infiniti EX35, Audi Q5, Almost $20 000 more than the VW Tiguan 
$63 000 is prepostrously overpriced. The present market tendency is to lower  the price.
Volvo seems to think that overpricing their products make them luxurious.
Way overpriced product, much lower dependability than average . Not tempting.
If you really want one , wait for a year or two . Volvo also have one of the worst resale value on the market. You will be able to buy one for a  reasonable price.

[ktm525]

Too much electro do dad crapola. Complete overload. I'll take a stripped XC70 T6 for just over $50k over this thing every day of the week. I tested a XC60 and XC70 back to back and couldn't see the appeal of the XC60. Forget the published cargo numbers, the XC70 has a large square (cube actually with the vertical) cargo hold while the XC60 had this short, semi-wide space that seemd to be half the size. Uh no thanks. All these mid-utes suffer from the same issue, no cargo hold.

Buy a XC70, better yet, buy a year old one with extended certified warranty and a $15k discount. Get the optional 18" wheels and put some performance rubber on it. With the 4C in advanced you have a decent handling station wagon.

[Blueprint]

A co-worker bought an XC90 earlier this year, a barely 3 y.o. 2006 ... for less than 20k$, and that was at one of these fixed-priced discounter stores.  Imagine what Volvo got for it after the 3 year lease was up...

Terrible reliability, average reviews, bad resale and now a Chinese owner in the works (Geely).  They should have stuck with the college prof image they had.

[ovr50]

James comment on all the knobs and switches (and the resulting confusion with them) is one reason BMW went to the iDrive system. Having lived with mine now for almost 2 years, I like it and find no problems using it.

Sounds like Volvo needs to work on that area a bit.

[ktm525]

James comment on all the knobs and switches (and the resulting confusion with them) is one reason BMW went to the iDrive system. Having lived with mine now for almost 2 years, I like it and find no problems using it.

Sounds like Volvo needs to work on that area a bit.

Or just get rid of all the electronic nonsense.

[Trainman]

Interesting.

"Hole-ee, almost $20,000 in options?"

"but wow is it overpriced"

If you want a luxury CUV/SUV on a budget, look at the RAV4 V6 LTD or Forester XT.  That is what CR did a couple of issues back for their review of luxury SUV's.  Threw a couple of cheapies in there and then said, for the value, the RAV4 and XT were hand down winners.  They did not give up much in the way of amenities and in the real world, their performance was just fine.  At a substantially lower price.

[ktm525]

To be fair Volvo has thrown all the toys into the tester to show people what is available. I highly doubt many of these will be optioned this way. Still not my cup of tea.

[creek]

Perhaps you should have looked under the hood.  It is an inline 6, not a V6.

[wing]

Tactful

[inco]

Creek - you might be up it!    I don't recall any mention of it having a V6. It is an inline 6 and IIRC Wing, it does use regular fuel too?

[wing]

I'd have to check on that, I thought it did use Premium but perhaps not.

[johngenx]

Interesting.

If you want a luxury CUV/SUV on a budget, look at the RAV4 V6 LTD or Forester XT.  ...They did not give up much in the way of amenities...

I agree!!

An XT-level Forester with leather, sunroof and "multi-media" (or whatever it's called) is VERY well equipped and the price is substantially lower than the base Volvo.

[opg21]

Mr. Tester,

This is a bit of a startling comment:
"The collision avoidance system that illuminates a row of red lights on the windshield when you follow too closely to another vehicle is simply annoying."

Following too close is a major cause of accidents, and one doesn't have to go too far on a freeway to see many frightening examples. Perhaps Mr. Bergeron you are one of those drivers? Perhaps you should learn from it rather than trying to turn it off?

opg21

[safristi]

..Crickey someone sewed on an EXTRA CYLINDER............wot 'appened ta the 5 BANGERS......someone add some mash and eat 'em UP..........needs a sharp pencil on the bean counters part to be competitive.....sounds like an old Rolls Royce ..ya need an "engineer" riding shotgun ta monitor all the DOO DADDS  ..hows aboot an I SNOBdrive dongle.................bite me.....