Volvo XC60 T6 AWD R-Design - Built for snow, and degrees way below

By Ané Theron 

My daughter’s unassuming, pink alarm clock thunders me awake with such ferocity that it feels like the world is ending. Just what I needed - a healthy dose of adrenaline to start the day and to give me superhuman strength to see in the dark while I drive in the rain. There’s a forecast of 10-15cm of snow in the Matroosberg just outside Ceres, and I am going to drive there for two reasons: 1) I have a brand new Volvo XC60 T6 AWD R-Design (from R788 400) full of petrol (well, almost) and 2) my kids have never seen snow. So off we go.

At 6 am we pick up my brother for moral support and to be DJ as well as air-conditioning/window- demisting manager. Not that I can’t do without him for those duties - to adjust the aircon you simply tell the Volvo lady (or the “voice” inside the 9-inch Sensus Connect infotainment system) that you are too hot or too cold, and she will make the necessary changes.

The rain is coming down hard and we have our navigation set to Matroosberg Nature reserve. Auto windscreen wipers know when to wipe fast and when to give it a rest, while the optional cornering lights follow the twists and turns of the road. In the meantime, my brother connects his phone via Bluetooth and we have some quality jams coming through the stellar Bowers & Wilkins system. I’d engage Pilot Assist (Volvo’s semi-autonomous driving system that can read road markings and do much of the driving for you) but in the dark and the hard rain the system would rather not risk your life when it can’t “see” properly. When I took delivery of the Volvo the previous day it was clear and sunny, and the XC60 pretty much drove me all the way home, following in the ‘footsteps’ of other traffic, braking when the gap between myself and the car in front became too small, and turning the steering wheel all on its own to follow bends that weren’t too sharp. The system only asks that you confirm  your presence in the car by gently resuming the steering for a second or two, before resuming its piloting duties. It just takes all the stress out of traffic jams and lengthy, taxing drives.

By sunrise we find ourselves between Villiersdorp and Worcester, and lo and behold! A heavy dusting of winter-white snow, beautifully sprinkled over the highest peaks in the background. Now the kids are getting excited. They weren’t so enthusiastic at 5 am this morning, mind you.

Being the swiftest Volvo in the XC60 range, the four-cylinder T6 engine sports a super- and turbocharged two-litre powerplant with a 5.6 sec 0-100 km/h sprint time. Good for speed-freaks, not so good for penny-wise single moms when it guzzles 12 litres of petrol per 100 km. But who wouldn’t take delight in planting their right foot and overtaking that annoying truck in two shakes of a lamb’s tail? Power has its advantages, and this specific Volvo has 235 kW of it, along with 400 Nm of torque. Unfortunately it means that one 71-litre tank won’t give you the same mileage as the D4 or D5 (diesel) models would. So, for practical and financial reasons, the D5 would be the one I’d buy for myself, if my ship came in - the D4 AWD in Momentum guise will set you back R666 000, while the D5 AWD (also Momentum) will cost you R735 700. If you’re not at all haunted by the desire to go fast, R666 000 buys you a heck of a lot of pioneering SUV.

By 10 am we reach a wet and freezing Ceres, run inside the garage for a quick comfort break, and climb back into the modern luxury of the XC60. With the help of the surround view cameras I can easily make my escape out of a narrow parking bay. Shortly thereafter we reach the Swaarmoed Pass. As the road ascends, rain soon turns to sleet, and then to large, in-your-face, fluttering snowflakes. Then, a winter-wonderland becomes clearer with every thorough wipe of the windscreen. The forecast said 10-15 cm - but this is ridiculous! It’s like the somebody opened the closet to Narnia, and here we are, in some faraway, Finnish fantasy. I am looking for Elsa from Frozen (you’d get this reference if you have kids), but she is nowhere to be seen. Her phrase that goes “the cold never bothered me anyway” is evident - the Volvo’s thermometer is showing 0 degrees on-screen, accompanied by a little snowflake icon.

The road surface now sports a healthy 5-10 cm of brown slush and a traffic officer advises us to not go much further, as the pass might soon be closed. We stop at the side of the road where it’s safe, and join other families as they frolic in the mysterious, white stuff. My children are beside themselves with joy and wonder, and the first snowballs are launched. A 500 ml water bottle gets emptied so its contents can be replaced with fresh snow. Meanwhile, we are being pelted with lashings of snowflakes and ice - it’s not pleasant out there, and frequent breaks are taken from the freezing conditions outside, by hurriedly getting back into the warm, high-tech, Swedish snowmobile. A hot flask of coffee and sandwiches appear from the large, 505-litre luggage bay - my mother made sure we had snacks when we reached the Matroosberg. It’s hair-raising for my OCD, watching my kids eat in the car - the perforated Nappa leather and Nubuck textile seat-combination of the R-Design interior won’t like squishy cream cheese sandwiches very much. But my mother prepared for the worst, and both kids are innocently biting into their sarmies over their own, large lunch boxes. Not a drop of coffee nor a single crumb is spilled, and I say a silent prayer of thanks to the gods of cleanliness. Yet another reason I’d just go for the standard full-leather seats of the D4 or D5. In the top-tier R-Design variant, you have to pay for that privilege.

By the time we decide to head back, the road is icy, slippery and slushy - it feels altogether different from driving on a road that’s simply wet from the rain. The summer tyres of the XC60 aren’t perturbed though, and safety features like traction/stability control and the fact that the Volvo is all-wheel driven, instills confidence - even if you feel like the wheels are going to slip - but it never happens. Volvos are known for being almost ridiculously safe, so whatever happens, you can be guaranteed there will be a system that kicks in to save you from some terrible fate.

The Volvo XC60 will be another success story for Volvo, if buyers don’t decide they’d rather downsize a little for the trendier XC40 - it is very tempting, isn’t it? But if you do decide on a spacious, five-seater SUV that is chock-full of standard tech and safety spec (the list is truly staggering), you can’t go wrong with the XC60. Sure, the BMW X3 feels remarkably spacious inside, more so than the Volvo, but I’m still picking Sweden over Europe in this category. It didn’t win the accolade of World Car of the Year at this year’s New York Auto Show for nothing. And if you needed another reason to love the brand, Volvo recently announced that from 2025, at least 25 percent of the plastics used in every new Volvo will be made from recycled material.