The Volvo V60 Cross Country is an SUV for sensible people. Tall 4x4s roll around corners like Sir Toby Belch and cost more at the pumps because of their obese aerodynamics. Yet despite these rather unattractive qualities, high-sided SUVs are the most lusted-after category in Cartown. The estate car has almost been forgotten, a throwback from the Nineties. But here we have a thoroughly modern estate car that has off-road abilities, that is rugged and can tow a horsebox or carry a brace of school trunks just as well as a Range Rover.
We mention those last two examples because the Cross Country has a whiff of old money about it. It’ll look good outside your once-stately now-crumbling pile, when you probably should have spent the £38,270 fixing the roof. Choose the greenish pine grey paint and popcorn-coloured leather and it’ll match your Barbour and cords. In an SUV, such bucolic pretences would be unbearable, but the Volvo has an authenticity that allows owners to carry it off.
It’s probably because Volvos are driven by nice people. They always have been; people who are discrete, self-assured and place a paramount on safety. The V60 is all of those things, but it is also a beautiful piece of contemporary design. It is Swedish in the best possible sense, with a hint of noir. You could be a livestock farmer, sure, or you could be a forensic pathologist en route to a grisly crime scene. Either way, best take rubber gloves.
The Cross Country adds 60mm of ground clearance to the standard V60 and all-wheel-drive, hill-descent control and suppler suspension. The off-road mode, which operates at up to 25mph, calibrates the twin-turbo D4 diesel, the eight-speed automatic gearbox and AWD system to handle slippery surfaces and heavily rutted tracks, upping power assistance to aid steering. It won’t take you off the map as far as a Land Cruiser, but it’ll get you home in the snow or out of a soggy rugby match car park, rest assured. In addition to the raised ride height, the Cross Country can be identified by its rugged charcoal-coloured plastic wheel arches and beefier bumpers.
The all-important boot can take up to 529 litres of stowage with the seats up and 1,441 litres with the seats down. So, it is ultra-practical, just like its owners. And the safety equipment ticks every box. At an extra £1,625, the “IntelliSafe Pro” pack is a worthwhile investment, with connected “Pilot Assist”, lane keeping aids, large animal detection and collision sensors and various other useful driver alerts. The “Xenium” pack (£1,800) takes the stress out of parking with a 360-degree camera and “Park Assist” function.
So, it’s a very safe and practical car, as you would expect. It’s not a fast car. The 187bhp D4 is good for 42.8mpg, but it takes 8.2 seconds to hit 62mph. Top speed is 130mph, which will shortly be considered outrageous vitesse for a Volvo: the company has announced it’ll limit all new models to 112mph from 2021. A more powerful T5 petrol is coming later this year and we will probably see a hybrid version not long after. But the diesel, while unfashionable, is still the towing choice, boasting 295 lb ft of torque.
All this makes the D4 V60 Cross Country sound a bit dowdy. In fact, it is extremely stylish. The interior, with its creamy leather, Bowers & Wilkins stereo and nine-inch portrait touchscreen is one of the most relaxing places you can sit. It’s not as big or as brash as an SUV and that makes it a quietly satisfying car to drive.
In the 1990 movie Crazy People, comedy legend Dudley Moore played an advertising executive inspired by honesty. One of his ads read: “Buy Volvos; they’re boxy but they’re good. We know they’re not sexy. This is not a smart time to be sexy anyway, with so many new diseases around. Be safe, instead of sexy.”
Yet in 2019 responsibility is the new sexy, right? Sometimes, restraint can be seductive.
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