Volvo V90 Cross Country | Test Drive

The Cross Country is the representation of freedom and completeness on wheels, an elegant tool that allows total coexistence between your daily needs and that desire to escape and leave the paved road many kilometers behind.

Words by Marco Rallo / Photos by Daniél Rikkard

By now I have completely given up on the most optimistic hopes of arriving on time for my appointment. While the crew is effortlessly working on the huge V90 you may see on these pages, I decide to put my cell phone in the jacket pocket, also because after having gone for who knows how many kilometers in the deep woods I don’t even know which region we are in and with a signal who keeps remaining missing-in-action after countless attempts, I realize it is better to start thinking about what excuse to come up with my fiancée and her parents waiting for me for dinner time. The dim light of a random Thursday at the end of winter barely penetrates the semi-naked branches of the trees surrounding the path on which we brought a car that we waited for at the office with the trepidation we usually reserve for those supercars that make your heart beat to the sound of amusement park figures.

After loving the traditional Volvo V90, the Cross Country has established itself as the ultimate car in the imagination of many of us at the editors‘ office, thanks to the fact that it maintains the bloated dimensions of a 5-meter (4,939 mm) wagon, an unmistakably Scandinavian design able to adapt to any situation and the practicality offered by the extra 7 centimeters in height that this version uses to extricate itself on terrains that will no longer represent an obstacle compared to what they could instead do with the more bourgeois V90. Apart from the fact that I would never dream of buying a maple-colored car, in the end I get used to this unusual choice since, regardless of the lighting, the color scheme does not affect the square lines of the Volvo, which especially at the front and with its beautiful grille that allows the air to facilitate the cooling of the engine, has one of the strongest points of a design that remains among the most convincing in its segment and beyond. The engine, and although the new petrol hybrid unit is available as well, is one of the best bits of the V90 CC, which being diesel is logically an in-line 2-liter 4-cylinder, here capable of developing the 235 hp of the D5, an intermediate step between the less powerful 190 hp or the more powerful 250 hp petrol (mild-hybrid) and 310 horsepower.

Sounds like a necessary cavalry, also because the Cross Country’s dimensions and its mass weight, although they remain in line with those of the V90 we have driven in the past years, reach 2 tons with the driver on board, so the fact of having 480 Nm of torque available at 1,750 rpm becomes crucial when you need to move with ease. By selecting the preferred driving mode via the beautiful diamond wheel located on the central tunnel, the Volvo aptly changes its feedback, becoming softer depending on the setting you are going to choose and preferring a more relaxed type of driving, an aspect that I found evidently between curves and where the increased ground clearance makes it less agile than the standard counterpart. It is logical that with a car like this, the driving experience does not want to be defined for those canonical figures that outline a still surprising 0-100 kph (7.5 seconds), but rather for the versatility of a car that stands out in traffic and which once welcomed the driver on board wraps him in one of the best cockpits in the list. If the memory does not betray me, I sensed a more muffled driving feeling than that of the V90, slightly more quiet reactions and basically a load transfer that in this case prefers a more peaceful approach.

Then we have the well-known leather armchairs that the Swedish brand has taught us to be less bulky but equally comfortable, thus offering great space even to those sitting in the back, with a huge luggage compartment (from 560 liters to 1,953), a precise multimedia system full of tools and above all practical even for those who do not chase the latest technological discovery. And then the gearbox, an 8-speed automatic always able to assist the driver by limiting fuel consumption to approximately 5.6 l/100km, but ready to exploit the power available when you are in a hurry for your dinner together with your future parents-in-law. But the aspect that the Cross Country fully represents is that of a complete car, at ease in those cities that – let’s face it – seem smaller than usual, as in long journeys in which you can take the indispensable, useful and even the superfluous with you. And once you arrive at your destination and after leaving your luggage in the hotel – excluding the equipment for some outdoor activities – you just need to abandon the paved roads and enter the heart of some forest where the all-wheel drive and the agility of a raised body will allow you to know no obstacles until you decide to stop. The Cross Country is the representation of freedom and completeness on wheels, an elegant tool that allows total coexistence between your daily needs and that desire to escape and leave the paved road many kilometers behind.

Finally the photographer arranges his reflex in his backpack and easily places everything in the generous luggage compartment. Does that mean I can run to my date? Strangely, I am given the go-ahead and so thanks to the help of the parking sensors and the rear-view camera I can make a J-turn in the narrow path and point the nose of the Cross Country towards the same road from which we came. I would probably be late anyway, because in the end when you are behind the wheel you are assaulted by a sense of inner peace that tempts you for taking the longest road, make some detours that the usual sports cars cannot give you, but the composure of the V90 CC is inherent in its image as an immense car, in size and in fact, which stands as the ideal 5 doors to be used alongside the one you will get for those things far from its conception and its interpretation of the world. For everything else, even for a certain type (someone said mud and dirt?) of drive out of town, this will always be the ideal choice.

VOLVO V90 CROSS COUNTRY

Layout – front-engined, front wheel drive

Engine – 4 cylinder 1.969 cc – turbodiesel

Transmission – 8-speed automatic gearbox

Power – 235 hp @ 4.000 rpm

480 Nm @ 1.750 rpm

Weight – 1.882 kg

Acceleration – 7,5 sec.

Top Speed – 225 kph

Price – from € 66.250