My final 3 visits to a National Arts Festival in Grahamstown (now Makhanda) have been undertaken in Volvos. I’ve finished a nearby 1000km tour in an XC90, V90 Cross Country and in 2018 an XC60.
It only arrange of happened that there’s always been a new Volvo launched during that duration and a Cape Town to Grahamstown outing is a good exam for a vehicle.
It needs to be comfortable, powerful, spare and safe. Hmm, about a safety.
The one overarching thesis of all these cars is their reserve features. The XC60 is a A-student in a class, scoring 98% in a Euro NCAP exam for adult occupants. On this year’s trip, a XC60’s commander assist, city reserve and crafty LED headlights were a stars of a show.
Pilot assist: Via sensors a automobile knows when a automobile has veered over a (broken) white line and will warning we with a slight quivering in a steering wheel. It’s a semi-autonomous engineer assistance complement that takes caring of steering, acceleration, and braking on well-marked roads adult to 130km/h.
City Safety: This is an unconstrained puncture braking complement that now facilities steering support for when involuntary braking alone might not assistance equivocate a intensity accident.
Volvo has also combined ‘oncoming line slackening with expostulate assist’ (primarily to support in a box of a head-on collision) and ‘blind mark information complement (BLIS) with expostulate support functionality, has been combined to revoke a risk of lane-changing collisions.
Automatic high-beam assists: A elementary switch activates a high beams that use sensors to establish if a brights need to be on and irradiate a area of a highway that’s dimly illuminated or totally dark.
The complement even manages to ‘bend’ around cars in front of we while educational a area around a other engineer so as to not blind other highway users.
A post common by Wheels24 (@wheels24_sa) on Jul 1, 2018 during 7:33am PDT
A week with a XC60 Inscription D5
So, what’s it like to drive? Our exam section is powered by a 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine producing a absolute 173kW and 480Nm. It uses a permanent all-wheel-drive complement to keep things on an even keel, even on sand roads.
It’ll send energy to a circle that needs it a many as partial of a intelligent traction control complement too.
An 8-speed automobile does avocation and thankfully a exam automobile wasn’t propitious with paddle shifts, that we find a sum rubbish on an SUV.
The electric-steering complement felt good on twisty pieces of a highway trip, nonetheless many of a track was consigned to a inhabitant highway that is sincerely straightforward. Admittedly, we enjoyed pushing a mid-size oppulance SUV some-more than we customarily would. The high centre of sobriety and turbodiesel engine means it’s not prohibited induce though it positively has a possess pushing charm.
The cabin is high-class, furnished with a brew of polished-metal, wood, and soothing plastic. I’ve praised a pews in prior Volvos I’ve driven, though these were sanctified with a massage function. Goodness, that done a outrageous disproportion on a trip. They can also be exhilarated and cooled.
The 505-litre feet gobbled adult luggage for 5 adults and everybody remarked how gentle a tour was.
The Bowers and Wilkins sound complement was a large boon, as we trust song is an essential partial of a highway trip. It offers frail Seamless formation of Apple Carplay also helped to make personification song from a phones.
I did take a XC60 off road, into a Addo elephant inhabitant park between Port Elizabeth and Makhanda. Its 210mm belligerent clearway was some-more than adequate to understanding with a sand highway in a park and we was duly impressed.
To be fair, that’s substantially all a XC60 will be used for as owners would substantially not be removing concerned in any chaotic off-road action.
A post common by Wheels24 (@wheels24_sa) on Jul 3, 2018 during 6:05am PDT
In summary
For a purpose of a trip: a spare SUV with space for 5 adults and luggage travelling opposite dual provinces, a XC60 didn’t skip a beat.
The XC60 has some unbending foe in a form of the: Mercedes-Benz GLC, Audi Q5, Alfa Romeo Stelvio and BMW’s X3. They are all good cars in their possess right.
However, we didn’t find many things wrong with a Volvo. we averaged around 8.6-litres/100km, that was considerable deliberation how most bucket a automobile was carrying.
Yes, it’s taken tighten to 10 years for a second era to arrive in Mzansi, though a XC60 is excellent. Just make certain we widen a legs with a highway outing or two.
Price: R776 800 (D5 Inscription)