Volvo XC60 first drive

Ditto the way it drives. Volvo says the 90 series cars are meant to be ‘relaxed’ and that the 60 should make you feel ‘inspired’, as if the two are differently perfumed shower gels.

Whatever, the XC60 is a way off being the most dynamic car in the class, but despite the fact that you and I enjoy driving, I don’t have a particular beef with that. Confident and predictable is what Volvo has gone for and confident and stable is what it has achieved.

The ride comfort is particularly good, better I think than anything out of the 90 range so far. The XC90, for example, has fine body control for an SUV but a sometimes over-brittle ride as a result; the S and Volvo V90 lope along quite nicely but with an amount of float that you couldn’t allow on a taller car, like the XC60, because it would feel dreadfully boaty.

Showing the kind of progress that suggests Volvo’s engineers are learning how to get the best from the SPA platform, then, the XC60 rides both smoothly and yet has decent enough control of its body movements. There are more agile-feeling SUVs in this class – Mercedes and Audi and BMW make them – but if you want an agile-feeling car, I’m generally inclined to think you shouldn’t buy an SUV in the first place. The XC60 makes confident, relaxing progress. It’s as if Theresa May is the chief chassis engineer: strong and stable, lads, strong and stable.

The steering, at three turns between locks, and with a decent turning circle, is of good speed; it’s accurate and mostly pleasingly weighted, too. And although it’s a little easy to whack some of the steering wheel controls, and it’d be nice if all versions had gearshift paddles, it’s a good-sized and shaped wheel. If you push on a bit, the XC60… look, let’s not pretend buyers have any intention of finding out, shall we? But like most SUVs, ultimately it can surprise you with how fast it can go, albeit body control gets a bit loose.

When mooching about, though, the 232bhp D5 engine, with its ‘power pulse’ compressed air lag-reduction system seems quieter than in early SPA installations. I’d want a back-to-back test before saying for sure how quiet – or, I still suspect, gruff – it is compared to, say, the equivalent Audi or Mercedes unit. And in Comfort or Eco modes – for you do, inevitably, get driving modes to choose from – the gearbox’s response can be overly relaxed when you ask something of it. That’s why standard paddles, to easily get you into the right gear, would be handy. But you can select an Individual driving mode, where the chassis can be left in its more compliant setting but have the powertrain turned up to Dynamic, which gives a better response. It’s still quite calm: Volvo’s idea of dynamic is not like, say, Porsche’s.