Volvo XC60 ride & handling

As we’ve written so many times, what constitutes a great-handling mid-sized SUV is a complicated thing to define.

In outright terms, the answer may simply be ‘a Porsche Macan’, but for someone who wants the comfort, isolation, versatility, space and convenience that most cars of this type afford – and that, in many cases, the Porsche does not – that answer may be as good as useless.

It’s as secure in extremis as anyone could want a Volvo to be.

Matt Saunders

Road test editor

However you prefer to define that idea, few would expect the new XC60 to set the premium SUV class standard on handling dynamism and so perhaps few will care that it doesn’t. It's quite a limp car to drive and doesn't respond well to any enthusiastic intent from its driver. 

But while in air-suspended form the XC60 doesn't stand out for its handling, it is much improved in its ride quality from when we first tested it back in 2017. It's comfortable to drive at all speeds and is fanatic in particular as a motorway cruiser, even in terrible weather conditions. It's relaxing and almost comforting in this department. 

We’d bemoan the fact that the XC60’s ‘Dynamic’ driving mode doesn’t do a better job of producing much of a sporting driving experience (body control ranges from decent downwards) – admitting the same caveat with which this section started: that, in all likelihood, an owner won’t care. We simply can’t pretend that we don’t.