Hi, I'll be reviewing my Volvo XC90. I bought this car as an alternative to the Range Rover, as I couldn't afford one but still craved for the 4-wheel-drive system. The £30k XC90 looked brilliant, so I decided to plump for a new one.
It's a great car overall. I've few bad things to say about it, to be honest. It's not let me down once since new, it's cheap enough to run, has lots of room for the kids and even looks decent! Inside, it's typical Volvo: big, comfy and smart. It's a lovely place to sit, and while it may not have as much leather as a Range Rover, it's still got enough luxuries to keep you pleased.
The engine is a V6 and is very economical for such a big car. The tax is respectable and the insurance is just about do-able. It's just a car that can handle anything you throw at it.
I'll have to sell my Volvo XC90 soon cos the fuel costs are just getting daft. I reckon I average about 25 miles a gallon and I try to drive sensibly. That's not great, especially when the competition seem to be doing way more than that these days, and not just the Prius crowd either. The insurance is also pretty high for what looks like a family car.
Sad though as the XC90 is a grand car to have. We've really enjoyed having the three rows of seats, good for separating the kids when they're acting up, which is most of the time. On a few trips we've had the kids and a couple of their friends too, and we still had room in the boot for all their bags. It was only a day trip to Thorpe Park but still it performed well. With all the seats folded down flat it's a small van inside, bags of room, really good for B&Q trips. It's fantastically comfy as well, and we do quite a bit of long distances with the kids as they do regional athletics. But the downside is the fuel consumption, I feel that weight on my shoulders as we cross the country!
You can certainly tell the Volvo XC90 is a 4x4, it's always got loads of power left to give. We pull a twin axle caravan with it about four times a year on various holidays, and we had it lugging the thing up the side of a hill in France last year, didn't seem to bat an eyelid. It wasn't exactly vertical, but it wasn't a speed bump either.
It was good to have so many little gadgets come with this (we got it second hand and I think some of it was after market). The integrated satnav is brilliant, especially as it guides you around any traffic. It sometimes plays tricks on you but overall it's better than our old Tomtom. The parking sensors are good but a little bit over sensitive, especially for small city parking spots. You learn to take it with a pinch of salt though.
It's a car of two halves really. One one hand it's a stable family car with seven seats that swallows all sorts of baggage and stuff and never complains. On the other hand (when the family is not in it!) it's a real beast with loads of power and lots of fun to race around in. Really you don't think that a car this size will speed away from a standstill so quickly.
I have an 80 mile round trip commute to work, so I really wanted something comfortable for the long drives. The XC90 has got that all covered. It's good for long family trips too, although the third row of seats I've tried before and to be honest they're kind of a joke for anyone bigger than a smallish child. Great for us because we wanted it for that, but not so much if you're transporting a group of adults. Mind you the boot is still pretty big even with the third row of seats up. We had a look at some other cars with seven seats where it was either seats or boot! This car gets over that, it's well designed in that way.
There are some little things about the layout of the Volvo XC90 that have bugged me over the years. The gear stick is kind of a bit too far forward and is close to some of the main controls, easy to knock them especially with gloves on. Also the central bit behind the gear stick flaps up to reveal two drinks holders, but if you leave that down and just wanted a surface to put things on then you're out of luck because it's on a slope for some weird reason, so you can't balance anything there without it falling down into the footwell, which is stupid. The dash itself is also on a slope so you can't leave things on there either. There are lots of other spaces around the car but really I think better use could have been made of these spaces.
The XC90 is pretty tall really and my mother has some trouble getting into it. Maybe there could have been better steps up in to the car. I do like the high driving position as it makes traffic and parking really simple (especially handy since it's such a big car) but they could have worked around it for smaller people trying to get it. Likewise we looked after a friend's dogs for a week once whilst they were on holiday and the dogs couldn't jump into the boot. Having said that about parking, it is a pain in tight car parks, especially multi storey ones, but I don't see a way around that until someone invents a bendy car!
It gets through quite a bit of fuel, which is a main problem for me with a long commute. I think it's probably good compared to other 7 seaters but still getting painful these days. Insurance is also quite high, dunno why that is really as it's clearly a family car.
My Volvo XC90 looks like a giant toy car, I absolutely love it. I've never driven something so chunky and beefy-looking. It holds seven quite comfortably as long as at least a few of them are little'uns. I chose the D5 model which is diesel. It seems like you have to compromise one way or another when choosing your trim: the petrol model is apparently very inefficient, whereas my deisel is really quite noisy and a bit sluggish. But that's the only problem I have with this fantastic car.
The most obviously likeable thing about at the Volvo XC90 is how comfortable it is inside. Almost too comfortable, to be honest. It feels like you're at home, lounging about on the sofa or something. I also wanted to make sure that I bought a car which was safe, and this one most definitely is. There are airbags... well all over the place really.
One of my favourite aspects is the seats which can be arranged into pretty much any formation you like, meaning that you can transport almost whatever you like. Oh, and I must confess that I went a bit mad with the upgrades. Yes, that's right, my Volvo XC90 has a fridge in it.