Volvo XC90 (2002-) Review

On the road

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The XC90 is a big car that's as easy to drive as many smaller cars... most of the time. The controls are light, the view out is great and you're sufficiently well insulated from bumps, noises and general unpleasantness to find yourself perfectly content, if not entirely engaged with the driving process.

The flipside is that it's a blighter in car parks. The width and height can make it nerve-wracking to negotiate low-roofed, many-pillared multi-storeys: and it's not unheard of for XC90 drivers to manoeuvre themselves into parking spaces with much to-ing and fro-ing, only to discover that they don't have room to open the doors.

For the first four years there wasn't a really quick XC90: the twin-turbo T6 gave adequate performance, but it was nothing to write home about, so everyone bought the diesel. The T6 has been replaced by two naturally aspirated petrol engines, neither of which is going to challenge the Porsche Cayenne, but they're rapid and responsive enough to bring a smile to your face.

With the facelift and new engine line-up comes a new chassis option, offering a ride and handling set-up that puts more of an emphasis on driving pleasure. SE Sport spec - available with all three engines - involves stiffer anti-roll bars, firmer shock absorbers and revised speed-dependent steering that gets firmer as you go faster. Volvo's self-levelling system, Nivomat, has also been fine tuned for greater cornering stability.

Don't get this out of proportion: all XC90s are essentially soft, heavy cars. But the Sport chassis is a lot less woolly and 'shrinks' the car slightly.

The two naturally aspirated petrol engines are both restricted to a top speed of 130mph. The 3.2-litre straight six makes 235bhp and 236lb-ft of torque, with a perfectly healthy 0-60mph time of 8.9sec.

Meanwhile, the 4.4-litre V8, which, like the 3.2, comes with Volvo's six-speed Geartronic automatic transmission is not just quicker on paper, it generates much more excitement on the road. The engine makes 311bhp and 325lb-ft of torque, and it does 0-60mph in 6.9sec, which is around the same as the similarly priced ML500 and quicker than the less expensive Discovery V8.

Especially when combined with the Sport chassis set-up, the V8 can be a lot of fun for overtaking and back-lane charging, while also, like the other versions, being highly capable as a cruiser and indeed an around-town tool. The fuel consumption will drain your wallet horribly quickly, though.

The 3.2 straight six would be a neat compromise between the thirsty V8 and the frugal D5 were it not for the fact that the D5's refinement is so good and, in the real world, it's powerful enough too. No wonder it's the big seller.

In its current form, Volvo's five-cylinder 2.4-litre turbodiesel makes 183bhp and a handy 295lb-ft of pulling power, and comes with a six-speed manual gearbox as standard; the six-speed autobox fitted to the petrol models is an option on the diesel. It's 20bhp more powerful than the D5 fitted in the earliest XC90s, but it's still very much not the performance choice: top speed is 121mph, and the 0-60mph time is 10.3sec for the manual or 11.1sec for the Geartronic. The ML280 CDI is considerably quicker, but it's also more expensive.