I give Volvo credit for evolving its styling over the last few years to today’s nice lines and, dare I say it, an appealing design identity. The XC60 looks slick inside and out, especially inside. This is a fantastic interior, in both its design and execution. The flat-finished wood trim on the floating center console is a nice touch, and I say that as someone who generally despises wood trim in modern vehicles. But with the dark cocoa color scheme, it provides a nice contrast here. Again, the execution is fantastic.

The price is high, but I think this vehicle provides a perception of luxury and quality to justify it to those who are into such things, and that’s a rarity with most similar utes that usually fail in their efforts to impress enough to excuse the price. I give Volvo credit for this as well.

On top of all that, the XC60 is a fine driver with the right amount of power and well-composed handling and road manners. Like its C30 stablemate, however, this vehicle’s design suggests that it is sportier than its actual dynamics reveal. I don’t mean to suggest there is anything wrong with its performance, but it is not going to knock your socks off if you get into it expecting an adrenaline rush.

I only drove it for one night and did not put many miles on it, so I too was baffled by the blank nav screen. I couldn’t figure out how to turn it on without consulting the manual. But it’s silly to complain about that since an owner will certainly get the full rundown on all the bells and whistles.

Read The full review on AutoWeek.

Source: Fleet Directory

The company aims to target the growing customer base which goes for the premium luxury cars here in India.

Volvo XC60 sports utility vehicle would be launched in the first half of the year.

Volvo S60 luxury sedan would arrive by the end of the year.

Source: Tech Whack

The CAR QUEST team tested the New XC60 with the assistance of the Volvo Cars South Africa demonstrator, Dolf Smuts. They were extremely impressed by the New City Safety feature.

Source: All Best News

The Volvo XC60 took first prize in the “Family Car of the Year” category in the first-ever Women’s World Car of the Year competition.

All told, 21 cars competed in four categories when eight female motoring journalists from seven countries voted for their favourite cars.

“It is naturally immensely gratifying that women appreciate the Volvo XC60 and that our product meets their requirements. With the Volvo XC60 we feel we have truly succeeded in creating a car that appeals to many different customer groups,” says Johan Rasmusson, Car Line Manager for the Volvo XC60 and XC90 at Volvo Cars.
Over the past year, eight female motoring journalists from Britain, the USA, Canada, South Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand put 21 selected cars to the test. The group and the award were created to educate the world’s car makers about female customers’ requirements.

Read the full story on Automotive.

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.

Volvo Auto India which will not be participating at the Auto Expo in Delhi in January 2010, has plans to launch the 2010-spec S80 luxury sedan in India priced around Rs 38- 40 lakh. Reports in media indicate that a conatiner carrying S80 sedans is already on its way to India and is likely to hit Indian shore by beginning of January 2010. In addition, the company is also proposing to roll out XC60 compact SUV in the first half of 2010 and the S60 saloon, both of which it believes are well suited to the requirements of the Indian market.

According to Volvo, the luxury car market (comprising of cars costing Rs 25 lakh and above) in India grew by 11 per cent in 2009, while sales of Volvo cars in the country grew by 16 per cent during the year. Volvo Auto India sold 900 cars last year and expects to beat the 10 per cent increase it had earlier projected for this year.

Even after delinking its business from Ford, VCI has stated that it is quite upbeat about the country’s operations and would also be intruding its global models in a phased manner. It has also been learnt that Volvo India is keen to set up a car assembly unit in India, if its annual numbers touch 2,000 units. After established its presence in seven cities; Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Cochin, Chennai and Pune currently in India, the company is now chalking out robust strategies to enhance its dealership base to Goa, Kolkata, Bangalore and Ahmedabad and Coimbatore.

Read more: Volvo lines up S80, S60 sedan and XC60 SUV for India in 2010 – WheelsUnplugged Automobile Industry News
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Keeping occupants from harm has become a religion at Volvo’s Gothenburg works, so that’s where the company directs its energies. And a lot of Volvo R&D is designed to make a vehicle that’s smarter than its driver — in some situations.

For instance, Volvo studies have found that in 50% of all collisions below 30 km/h, the driver takes no action to avoid impact. Enter the 2010 XC60 crossover, the first to get Volvo’s new City Safety low-speed-collision avoidance/mitigation system as standard equipment.

At speeds under 30 km/h, City Safety uses a laser sensor to calculate the closing rate between the XC60 and the vehicle in front. If a collision is imminent and the driver takes no action, 50% of braking power automatically is applied. Volvo saysthe

system can eliminate collisions entirely at speeds under15

km/h and lessen the severity up to 30 km/h.

City Safety sees” only large reflective surfaces and does not react to pedestrians or bicycles. Wisely, Volvo engineers have located the sensor behind the windscreen, where grunge can be cleaned away by the wipers, making the system operable in all kinds of weather.

It’s a bit of a leap of faith to put your fate in the hands of some lasers and computers. But as I find in repeated demos with an XC60 AWD, the system slows you to the point where you can safely bring the vehicle to a full stop.

Our test car also has the blind spot information system (BLIS), which is part of the AWD package. With this, an orange light glows on either outside mirror if a vehicle is approaching from the rear, and might go unnoticed. This, too, really works.

All XC60s come standard with four-wheel anti-lock brakes (ABS) with electronic brake distribution (EBD) and emergency brake assist (EBA) plus six airbags, Volvo’s side impact protection system (SIPS) and whiplash protection system (WHIPS).

Read the full review at standard-freeholder