Designed to improve the life of the person using the object?

Volvo is proudly Swedish.  The company says their Scandinavian designers always start with the person who’s going to use the object, and ask what they would do to make this person’s life better, easier and more comfortable?

When designing the XC60, these designers were clearly thinking outside the traditional Volvo squareness box, and could the person who will use this object find their XC90 too big, or the estates such as V60 too low?

Being one of the first companies to come up with the raised-height estate when they took the V70 and turned it into the V70 Cross Country (which became XC70) by adding rugged plastic unpainted bumpers and mouldings, and a criss-cross grille, plus high suspension.

The Volvo XC family has grown, with the V40 Cross Country added as a small hatch/estate combo, with toughened-up stance. The big XC90 lived a long life, so is up for replacement with Thor’s hammer inspired lights theme – as the new elegant XC90 will only arrive locally in August 2015, the XC60 fills the SUV role at Volvo, for now.

It was added to the Volvo stable in 2008 (February 2009 in South Africa) as the new modern curves Volvo… with extreme new safety features such as the pioneering City Safety, which uses cameras to scan the road ahead, and if an obstacle is detected, it will show warnings to the driver, and if traffic ahead is approached too quickly, the clever Volvo would brake by itself to avoid a rear-ward collission.  This accident-avoiding tech is flowing out to more and more cars.

As a new kind of product for Volvo, the XC60 needs to cater for a variety of tastes:  the current line-up, simplified, consists of D4, D5, T5 and T6 badges – but don’t trust the numbers anymore, as the D4 was a 5-cylinder which changed to 4-cylinder, T5 is not the 5-cylinder you’d come to expect from Volvo, but rather a 4-cylinder, while the T6 is either 4-cylinder front-wheel drive or 6-cylinder AWD. 

Only the D5 does what it says on the chrome – Diesel 5-cylinder.  Initially the 2.4-litre D5 produced 136kW and 400Nm, but having tested this exact version, it felt somewhat slow to respond and suffering from low-down sluggishness due to turbo lag, and not as economical as expected.  Shortly after its introduction the unit was raised to 151kW with 420Nm, now at lower revs, along with much improved consumption of diesel.  In 2011 it again increased to 158kW and 440Nm, where it currently stands.  Claimed fuel consumption is 6.4 l/100 km combined, and corresponding emissions of 169g.  This is an achievement by those engineers, who kept improving this engine, especially as this is an All-Wheel-Drive and 5-cylinders.  The gearbox is the 6-speed Geartronic, where newer Volvos have seen a shift to 8-speed.  The engine and gearbox works well together – the engine giving both the gravelly typical 5-cylinder sound and a muted diesel thrum.

The August 2013 facelift of the Volvo XC60 saw it lose the twin small vertical parking lights between the grille and headlights, winning a more elegant and cleaner frontal appearance.

The large large option-fitted sunroof gives an open feeling and panorama views – and when locking the XC60 with the comfort closing via remote control, not only the windows and sunroof close, but also (thoughtfully) the sunroof’s electric sunblind.

The LCW (Lane Change Warning) and BLIS (Blind Spot Information System) are both great safety items (though at extra cost):  LCW warns the driver when unintentionally changing lanes (with an audible warning rather than a vibration on the steering wheel as in other cars) while BLIS will flash a bright orange warning triangle in the door mirror to warn the driver if another vehicle is in one’s blind spot.  With Volvo’s safety-conscious heritage, it is good to know these items will improve one’s safety and could even save one’s life, though not so good that most of these are only options.

The overall feeling when sitting in the Volvo XC60 is one of understated relaxed comfortable luxury – simplistic quality.  You can choose from various models, starting at the D4 manual front-wheel drive in basic Essential specification, priced at R 512 700 as at September 2014.  The XC60 D4 is also available in an automatic, and the T5 Essential petrol starts at R 515 900.  The XC60 D5 tested costs R 582 000 in Excel trim, with T6 Excel at R 587 600.  Trim choices, depending on engine, are Essential, Excel, Elite or R-Design.  Topping out the Volvo XC60 range is the powerful T6 AWD 3.0-litre 6-cylinder turbo at R 660 000, with R-Design sport-pack standard.

If you’re in the market for a premium cross-over and/or SUV, the Volvo XC60 fits the bill nicely.  Others it would be willing to take on include Infiniti QX50, Subaru Forester, BMW X3 / X4, Land Rover Range Rover Evoque or upcoming Discovery Sport (which replaces Freelander), Audi Q5 and Volkswagen Tiguan.  The Jeep Cherokee misses out here, by not offering a diesel engine option.

Designed to improve the life of the person using the object?  For sure.  Volvo has its own place in the market – a respected restrained car company.  The XC60 is a smart premium example of how a good product design can improve one’s life.