Volvo has endowed the XC60 with a generous supply of standard features, including trip computer, leather seats, electric-adjust driver’s seat, cruise control, electric parking brake, climate control, hill descent control, rear parking sensors and six-disc CD high-performance audio with eight speakers.
The XC60 is only the third Volvo to be equipped with the 3.0-litre turbocharged six-cylinder engine. It’s a refined and intuitive engine and won’t shatter your eardrum, owing to a growly note that highlights the glaze of turbo whistle under acceleration. This unique powerplant is mated to a standard six-speed automatic transmission.

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Automatic transmission, Business, Compact Disc, Cruise control, Parking brake, Straight-six engine, Transmission, Turbocharger

Attention, jaywalkers and drunk pedestrians: The car you want to stumble in front of is the Volvo XC60 crossover. Its City Safety feature brings the car safely to a stop when it detects an object in front, be it human, animal, car, at speeds of 10 mph or less. And this feature is standard, not a thousand-dollar option. Add in Volvo’s other safety features, and it’s a solid choice as one of the 2010 Digital Drive Top 10 cars.

The XC60 is a small-to-midsize crossover SUV new for 2010 and comes standard with Bluetooth and a USB adapter as well as City Safety. A technology package adds active cruise control and lane departure warning for a reasonable $1,700. But then, Volvo is part of Ford, which specializes in good technology cheap. One exception to the cheap tech mode is the combo navigation system / backup camera package at $2,700. The keyless go smart key system, which Volvo grandly calls the Personal Car Communicator (PCC) with Keyless Drive & Heartbeat Sensor, reports, when you’re within about 100 yards of the car, if you remembered to lock the doors and – perhaps playing to women’s fears regardless of the statistical odds – whether someone is lurking in the car. At $550, this is half the price of some smart keys that provide remote unlocking and keyless start but not two-way capabilities.

I’ve used City Safety and it works even better than advertised. Some stops are gentle, others are aggressive. Volvo privately says that while the XC60 should mitigate the effects of a collision between 10 mph and 20 mph, in many cases “mitigate” will mean “stop without hitting anything.”

But: The ride is European car firm, not Lexus pillow-soft (not necessarily a drawback), and the navigation system is only so-so given the price.

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Backup camera, Bluetooth, Crossover, Cruise control, Ford Motor Company, Personal Car Communicator, Universal Serial Bus, Volvo XC60

In tested the Volvo XC-60 Adaptive Cruise Control:

I was in our Volvo XC60 a couple days ago for an early morning drive and found it to be an effective highway cruiser. The cabin is pretty quiet at speed, the driver seat is comfortable (though not as those in other Volvos) and the turbocharged inline-6 provides plenty of grunt for passes or when going up steep grades.

I also took the opportunity to fiddle around with the adaptive cruise control. Adaptive cruise control works by monitoring the distance of vehicles ahead of you. You just set your speed and the minimum distance gap. When the XC60’s radar sensor detects a slower vehicle within that preset range, the XC60 automatically applies its brakes to adapt to that vehicle’s speed.

Our Volvo is the only long-term car in recent memory to have this feature; it’s part of the $1,700 Technology Package. Overall, the XC60’s adaptive cruise control worked well for the two hours of driving on straight highway that I used it on. It’s not a must-have feature by any means, but it is nice in that it eliminates the traditional need to cancel and reset your cruise speed every time a slower vehicle gets in your way.

The only thing I noticed was that the XC60’s cruise-speed adjustment buttons seem to bump you up or down in 5-mph increments, which is excessive. Presumably, there’s a way to switch this back to the more normal 1-mph increment, but I didn’t have the opportunity to RTFM.

Automobile, Brake, Cruise control, Driving, Recreation, Turbocharger, Volvo Cars, Volvo XC60