16 Oct 06
I have, I think, finally made my peace with the XC90.
As regulars will know, I failed entirely to warm to its charms while living in a crowded London street and battling with all the other SUVs, each of which was equally ill-equipped to deal with an urban existence.
But once we moved to Wales and as its size stopped being a hindrance and started being a help, I stopped looking for excuses not to drive it and it fell into with family life with a harmony we had not experienced with it before.
However, I still didn't regard the idea of a three-day, thousand-mile trip to Scotland and back with it with any relish at all. It would be transport at best, provide a safe and comfortable platform for my children to wind up their parents for a several hours on end and that would be about it. But that's not how it turned out.
Until now, we'd merely lived with the XC90 but during those three days, we all but lived in the XC90. And instead of familiarity breeding contempt I actually started to warm towards it. I'm not saying I ever actually looked forward to driving it but nor did it annoy me, which is more than I can say about many cars I've driven similar distances.
