Volvo XC90 2020: Detailed review of Volvo's supercharged AND turbocharged SUV

CarExpert

Like a good wine, the 2020 Volvo XC90 T6 R-Design still looks as good as the day it was revealed. But, with time Volvo's competitors have revealed a stack of new models and new technologies. Does this big Swedish bus still have the goods to take on Germany's best? Paul Maric gets behind the wheel of the Volvo XC90 T6 R-Design for a review, watch and find out if it's any good!  Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/review/2020-volvo-xc90-t6-r-design-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 00:46 Interior: 02:50 Infotainment: 04:04 Features: 05:25  Practicality: 07:16 On the Road: 13:45 Verdict: 19:02  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #review #volvo #xc90 @VolvoCarsAus

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. Volvo XC90, I reckon it's a bit like a fine wine, it just seems to be getting

00:04 better with age. You've got to remember that the XC90's been out now for a little over five years,

00:09 but has the luxury SUV game escaped it? Well, that's what we want to find out today. This is

00:15 the T6 R-Design version of the XC90. Prices kick off at just under $100,000, and it competes with

00:22 cars like the BMW X5, the Audi Q7, the Mercedes-Benz GLE, and it even dabbles in there with the new

00:29 Volkswagen Touareg. Now, if you do want to jump ahead to other parts of this review, you can use

00:33 the time codes up on the screen there, or just scroll down to the description where you'll find

00:37 the links. And if you haven't done so already, I'd absolutely love it if you could hit subscribe,

00:41 and also press the bell icon so you can find out every time we drive a new car.

00:45 Let's talk exterior design. See what I mean? I think it still looks really sharp despite its

00:51 age, and I think it's because of some of the colours you can get this car in. A bit like this

00:55 Nardo grey style colour, all but the base white at $2,000 extra. So, it is a lot of money to pay

01:02 for a colour that isn't just white. But if you jump down here at the front, I just love this

01:06 brushed chrome look. You've got the black highlights. The R-Design is all about looking

01:10 sporty. You have inscription and momentum in the XC90 range, but the R-Design signals the

01:15 intentions of sportiness. Deep inside here, though, you can see the active grille. That opens and

01:21 closes when the engine needs a bit more cooling, and then it stays closed as well when you switch

01:25 it on to start with, so that it can reach optimum running temperature. Big proud Volvo badge there

01:30 too. Check out these wheels. Actually, before I get to the wheels, full LED adaptive headlights

01:35 with daytime running lights, and it's got that Thor's hammer LED light built into there that

01:40 also acts as an indicator too. Okay, this is what I'm talking about. 22-inch alloy wheels.

01:46 Not bad, right? You kind of expect these to be fitted to something like an Escalade.

01:50 These are 275mm wide tyres and super low profile, 35 profile rubber. Now, in the past,

01:57 other Volvos I've driven have been incredibly firm without air suspension. I can see here this

02:03 car has the air suspension fitted. I'll be keen to see when we go for a drive whether this is still

02:07 firm. They are 22-inch alloy wheels. I highly suspect it is going to be a little rough. Coming

02:12 along the side of the car, black highlights on the side for R-Design. You get the black roof rails

02:16 as well. Then if you skip around to the back here, this design is very reminiscent of the old XC90.

02:22 You know how it had that light that ran up the side? This was also common on Volvo's older

02:26 wagons as well. It is a really, really nice looking car, and I think that if you need a

02:31 family SUV with seven seats, you want one that looks good, and the XC90 absolutely meets that

02:36 brief. Over on the back here, you'll see that you've spent money on the R-Design. You'll see

02:40 that it's all-wheel drive, and you'll also see that it's Polestar-engineered, which normally

02:44 means it's firmer than it needs to be. We're inside the XC90 now, and I reckon Volvo has

02:49 absolutely nailed this interior. It is stunning. This looks high-end, it looks premium, and it

02:55 looks like you're spending a whole lot more money than you actually are. They've got that leather

02:58 line dashboard, soft-touch materials throughout, the carbon fibre inlays for this R-Design package,

03:04 and it just looks like an expensive SUV. I think if anyone jumps into this car while you're driving

03:10 them around, they're going to think you've spent a lot of cash on it. Now, motoring journalists

03:14 always talk about soft-touch materials like I just did. We've got a tool here that tests how

03:19 soft-touch a soft-touch dashboard is. This is a hardness tester, it's a durometer, measures from

03:24 0 to 100, where 0 is soft and 100 is hard. I'm going to test it on that dashboard and see what

03:30 kind of number we get. Ah, that is impressive. In the 40s there. Very, very nice. And what about

03:37 this centre console? That feels much firmer. What are we looking at? Okay, that is much firmer,

03:43 but it has a soft sort of touch finish to it. So, yes, the materials in the XC90 are definitely

03:49 soft-touch. Now, what about build quality? Feels really good. I've been sort of poking around here,

03:53 trying to move things around, and it is nice and solid. This car's built in Sweden instead of being

03:58 built in China like some of their other cars, and everything feels nice and rigid, and again,

04:02 like you've spent a lot of money. Enough about that, let's move on to infotainment. Now,

04:07 if you want to see a detailed review of Volvo's 9-inch Portrait infotainment system, you can click

04:12 on the link up there to watch that. Today, what I'll do is just take you through a brief overview

04:16 of how it works and what you can expect from it. So, it's tiered. It uses a card system. Up the

04:20 top, you have navigation. Next up is radio with AM/FM/DAB+ digital radio. You then have a phone

04:26 menu, but you also have Apple CarPlay integrated. The only downside to a Portrait screen with Apple

04:32 CarPlay is that it sits in this tiny little box down here. It just looks kind of funny in that

04:37 position. With a wide screen, you can actually populate the entire thing with CarPlay. So,

04:41 looks a little bit weird here. Scrolling down from the top gets you access to the car settings

04:45 and also the owner's manual. The owner's manual is built into the screen as well. It shows you

04:48 this picture of the car, then you click on parts like the bulb replacement, and it tells you what

04:53 you need to do to make that happen. And then down the bottom, you have a shortcut button to the

04:57 home screen. All of your climate controls are down the bottom as well. It is a bit fiddly while

05:01 you're driving though, because you need to click and then set your temperature. There's no rotary

05:05 dial, so I would have preferred to have a secondary option if I needed to. On top of that, you have

05:09 apps that you can install into the operating system. So, you have TuneIn Radio, Google Search,

05:13 everything can be placed into the bottom section there and then called upon at any time. And then,

05:17 finally, on the right-hand side menu, you have all of the car's settings. So, all contained in

05:21 this screen. Works really well, it just can be a little bit fiddly at times. Let's talk about the

05:26 other standard features. You get a 10-speaker sound system, but our car has the optional Bowers

05:30 and Wilkins sound system. What I love about this is, have a look at these speakers. They just look

05:34 really cool. They've got that metal cover on them and then inside the doors, you can see them

05:39 behind there with the yellow speaker underneath. You have heated seats for the first row,

05:44 but in addition to that, you have four zones of climate control. So, one for the driver,

05:48 one for the passenger and then two for the second row. Cooling extends all the way to the third row.

05:52 Volvo's big on safety, so you get airbags throughout the car, including a knee airbag

05:56 coverage in the third row. Some SUVs don't do airbags for the third row. You get low and high

06:01 speed autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection, plus a feature that will detect if you

06:06 leave the road. If you're going to hit a tree or something like that, it will pre-pull the seat

06:10 belts, hold you in position so that in the event of an impact, you're not moving anywhere. It's

06:15 that type of technology that you really need in a family SUV. In addition to that, you have radar

06:19 cruise control with a self-steering function, voice recognition for the infotainment system.

06:24 This car's been fitted with a pretty cool looking panoramic sunroof. Opens and then goes all the

06:28 way back and there's a little blind there that you can close off with it as well. Auto-dimming

06:32 rear vision mirror. You have auto-dimming side mirrors as well. The car is loaded with a bunch

06:37 of standard equipment, but keep in mind there are lots of options you can also tick. Some of them

06:41 really should be included in the price. There's also a 360 degree camera and this is pretty cool.

06:46 You can select the different cameras that you want to see on the screen and in addition to that,

06:50 it can help you park in and out of tight parking spaces. Now, what does the key look like? Let's

06:55 have a quick sticky beak. I love this. It's got like a leather, probably not leather, but some

07:00 material that looks like leather padding. The Volvo symbol there, blank on the back and then

07:05 on the side you have a panic button and then lock, unlock and boot. Pretty sleek looking key. It's a

07:10 proximity sensing key, so you just keep it in your pocket, pull on the door handle and then you have

07:14 a stop/start switch here. Okay, let's talk practicality. Where are you going to store

07:19 your things? So, we've got our phone here. It kind of fits anywhere. There's loads of little places

07:25 you can store your phone, which is good. Bottles. We have two bottle holders here. A third one here

07:32 that doesn't have the little grip tabs on it and then inside the door you have a big pocket for

07:37 bottles and also other odds and ends. Just next to my knee I have another hidden storage area here.

07:43 I don't actually know what you could put in there, but it's huge. And then the glove box. Look at

07:47 this. You don't open it by prying it open. You press this button here, it drops down. Now, it may

07:52 look like a lot of space with its little air conditioning hole, but it's deceiving because

07:57 as you close it that space compresses up against the manual, so there's not actually that much room

08:02 to put anything in there. And the centre console is pretty reasonably sized as well with two USB

08:07 ports hidden away in there. What about comfort? These seats look incredibly cool. They've got

08:12 this Alcantara suede material. It's perforated. Nice headboard on it with our design. They hug

08:18 you in really tightly. They're on the firmer side of comfortable. They're probably just a little bit

08:23 too firm for a longer distance drive. And the cool thing is your controls on the side here as I play

08:28 around with these. There's one that works as a double control and then it tells you here on the

08:32 screen what it's doing and you can adjust the cushion or the lumbar using that little switch.

08:38 Now, what about the back seat? Your big SUV is going to work well for kids and also adults. Have

08:43 a look at this. I've got heaps of knee room there, lots of toe room as well. These seats are extremely

08:50 comfortable. Each seat is its own individual seat, so it feels like it hugs you in nicely and then

08:54 you can move it forwards and backwards and you can also recline it as well if you want to relax a

08:59 little bit. You have the centre armrest here with a couple of cup holders. We'll see how that fits

09:06 our bottle. Oh, that's annoying. Our bottle sort of doesn't fit. You kind of have to wedge it in

09:11 there and then it's hard to get out as well. Strange that it's not bigger. That's a fairly

09:15 standard sized bottle. Your bottle then goes in the doors as well. There's a slot for it there plus

09:20 an area for odds and ends. I love with the Bowers & Wilkins sound system, just like in the front

09:25 there, your rear passengers get that metallic cover and then the yellow speaker underneath.

09:30 Looks really cool. Map pockets in the back of the seats. You then have air vents in the B-pillar,

09:35 so you can direct those to your face instead of having them down here, but you've also got them

09:39 down here as well with your four zones of climate, so each of your two rear passengers can set their

09:44 own temperature and then have a combined fan speed. Have a look at this. Under this little

09:48 garage door is a power point, so you can plug in to get 220 volts of power and 150 watts. This is

09:55 an option, but I think it's a pretty good system to have because in addition to USB, you can plug

09:59 in devices to charge. Speaking of which, there is no USB back here, just a 12-volt outlet, which is

10:05 pretty disappointing given this day and age where everyone has a device they need to charge or do

10:10 something with. Then on the side you have blinds to go up to give you a little bit more privacy.

10:15 You then have ISOFIX on the two outboard seats plus this nifty feature, a little booster seat,

10:20 so you can sit a little more upright. So you're buying an XC90 because you want access to a

10:25 third row. Volvo says that the third row in the XC90 can seat adults, so I'm going to test that

10:30 in a second, but I want to point out a couple of stupid things here with the second row, especially

10:34 how usable it is and how functional this whole backspace is. So if you want to get into the

10:39 third row, you can slide this seat forward and then it has rails so you can easily access it,

10:44 but if you do want to drop the second row, you can't do that from a central spot. With a lot

10:49 of these three-row SUVs, you're able to do the dropping of second and third row from the boot.

10:53 Can't do any of that here, so let me show you what you have to do to drop the second row. So each one

10:58 of these is individually controlled, so that folds out of the way, then there's a separate control for

11:03 this as well. Now if you do want to get into the third row, you're going to have to get rid of the

11:07 cargo blind. Again, unlike a lot of three-row SUVs, there's actually nowhere to put this,

11:12 so if I grab this, I'm going to slot it down there for the moment, or you can leave it on the

11:16 garage floor at home and probably forget about it. Now can you imagine if you've got kids all over

11:22 the place and you need to get the third row up? There's no easy way to do it from the boot, so

11:26 you've got to do it from here. They're pretty heavy. I'm going to flick them into place. Same story here.

11:31 It's just not a really good system, so let's see how much room there is in that third row for

11:40 adults. Okay, let's test this adult theory. Okay, so getting in is not too bad. I'll just slide into

11:50 my position here. Okay, so how much space have I got? I've got plenty of shoulder room. Headroom

11:57 isn't that good. It's sort of rubbing on the top there, but in terms of accommodation, you could

12:02 fit an adult in here in theory. That second row slides forward, so I would have enough knee room

12:07 there if that was out of the way. Then off to the side, you have two cup holders, and then I love

12:11 this little cubby hole here because on the door there's a spider's web and a spider. Not real

12:17 though, so it's all good. So yes, the second and third row configuration is pretty clumsy, but the

12:22 upshot is that you actually get a lot of storage space. In a lot of the ute-based SUVs, you don't

12:27 have much room behind the third row. Here in the Volvo, on the other hand, you have a little over

12:30 300 litres, and that means you can actually fit a full-sized suitcase in there, plus other odds

12:37 and ends. So big space there behind the third row. You don't need to sacrifice anything. Let me show

12:42 you some of the other nifty features here. So storage on the side there, you have a 12-volt

12:47 outlet, and then I love this. So with the optional air suspension, one push of that drops the rear

12:53 end, making loading luggage and other pieces easier. Now what happens with the rest of this

12:58 space? Let me get rid of this third row quickly. There's this thing, and I don't know exactly what

13:04 this does. I think it's a divider between that space and this space, or is it a baby change area?

13:10 Kind of looks like you can store stuff under there, but when it drops down, there's no additional

13:14 room. So let me know in the comments below what this thing is actually for, or what it's meant to

13:19 do. Under here though, we have our space saver spare tyre, a jack as well, and then if we lift

13:25 these, the optional air suspension canisters are here as well, or NOS, depending on which option

13:30 box you tick. All right, let's get our luggage in there for a bit of reference. So you have just

13:36 under 700 litres of space when the third row is retracted, and then if you drop the second row as

13:41 well, there's almost 1900 litres of cargo space here. It's like a van. So we've hit the road in

13:47 the XC90. This is a big, big bus. It doesn't feel overly big on the road, but it has its moments,

13:55 and you can't escape that. We'll talk about visibility and what it's like out here on the

13:59 road in a sec, but let's talk engine first. Under the bonnet is a 2.0-litre turbocharged

14:04 and supercharged petrol engine, so they're both able to combine so that the supercharger

14:10 fills in the low end of the rev range and the turbocharger fills in right at the very top,

14:14 and that allows the engine to output 246 kilowatts of power and 440 newton metres of torque. It's a

14:22 really nice and healthy number and makes this big SUV feel pretty sprightly on its feet.

14:26 All of that torque is routed through an eight-speed automatic transmission, and this car

14:31 uses what they call a Haldex coupling, so it's like a clutch pack that enables the all-wheel

14:34 drive system to work when it detects slip. Pretty efficient system for the most part.

14:39 You don't really notice it in action, which in my opinion is the sign of a good all-wheel drive

14:44 system. Now the good thing about that twin-charge setup, Volkswagen used to use this ages and ages

14:48 ago in the Gulf, is that when you get on the throttle, it's always good to go. Like it just

14:53 snaps into action, you've got the supercharger ready to go, and you can hear a little bit of

14:57 supercharger whine as well, which I reckon is pretty cool. It doesn't need to be over the top,

15:01 but you know that it's there, and then the turbocharger takes care of everything at the

15:04 top end of the rev band. That means it's good for a 0-100km/h run of just 6.4 seconds,

15:11 and this is what that looks like.

15:13 Now here's the curious thing, this car currently has a top speed of 230km/h,

15:26 that's what it's governed at. Volvo made an announcement just recently that from now on,

15:31 all of the cars they produce will have a speed limit of 180km/h. They think people shouldn't

15:38 drive any faster than that because they don't really understand the consequences of speed.

15:42 So that's an interesting theory, not an issue in Australia where the maximum you can go is 130,

15:46 but in other parts of the world, such as Germany, where you can really get up and dance,

15:49 you're going to be limited in terms of how fast you can go. In terms of fuel economy,

15:53 Volvo claims 8.5 litres per 100km. That is a very, very ambitious claim. We are sitting on

16:00 13.2 litres per 100km at the moment. This engine is really nice, it is peppy,

16:06 but the downside is that it can be pretty thirsty.

16:09 Let's talk drive modes. So there is a little dial here, you give that a click and it presents you

16:13 with Eco, Comfort, Polestar Engineered, and then Off-Road. Now you can just leave it in Eco or

16:20 Comfort for just day-to-day driving, but if you do stick it into Polestar Engineered,

16:24 everything becomes a little sharper, you've got better throttle response,

16:27 it tucks in nicely to corners, and the suspension hunkers down as well if you have the optional air

16:32 suspension system. It's surprising how much you can throw this car around, it doesn't complain

16:37 a great deal, it just feels nice and sporty, and I guess that's that sport in sport utility vehicle.

16:44 Volvo's really worked to give it that sharp feel behind the wheel. In terms of steering feel,

16:48 it's not overly weighted, it's not overly light either, so it does feel a little sporty with that

16:53 intention. Same goes with the brake pedal feel, it's nice and soft, but it's confidence inspiring,

16:58 so if you do need to jump on the brakes at any point, they are going to respond straight away.

17:02 Let's talk off-roading. You're clearly not going to be going across the Simpson Desert in your XC90,

17:07 but there is 238mm of ground clearance, and then there is an Off-Road mode as well which uses that

17:12 air suspension to jack the car up a little bit and adjust the traction controls, so that'll give

17:17 you the ability to do some light off-roading if you're going to go camping or on a muddy trail

17:21 or something. What about ride comfort? Okay, so this is the bit that kind of lets the R-Design

17:26 down a little bit. They are low profile tyres, so you're getting a ride that can be a little

17:31 firm at times, but it's made even worse if you don't option the air suspension. I've driven a

17:36 Volvo before, an R-Design car, on coil springs, and it is rough, really rough, so if you're doing

17:41 any country driving, any driving over potholes, it's going to send you mad. So make sure you

17:46 tick the air suspension box, and you'll end up with a ride that is really nice, but on the firmer

17:51 side of comfortable. Let's talk cabin noise. It's surprisingly quiet in here, despite the fact it's

17:56 rolling on low profile tyres. Volvo's managed to create an ambience that just feels comfortable.

18:01 We're out on a country road at the moment, it's a course chip road, and there's not a huge amount of

18:05 noise intrusion in the cabin. It also gives you a chance to soak up that killer sound system as

18:10 well. Interested in towing? Well, don't get an XC90. 2,400 kilos of braked towing capacity. It's

18:17 not a huge amount. If you go for something like a Q7 that has 3,500 kilos, that's going to be a

18:23 much better option if you're doing any caravanning or any towing of any great description. Visibility

18:28 out of the cabin is really good. Yes, it is a big car, but I can clearly see the front, the sides,

18:33 and then also very clearly see out the rear. Often rearward visibility is compromised by

18:38 headrests and other bits and pieces in three-row SUVs, but here it's really great. The wing mirrors

18:43 are big and they have that blind spot monitor built into them as well. It's not gargantuan

18:48 like the old one was when it comes to the turning circle either. 11.8 metres, which is fairly

18:53 reasonable for a big SUV. Remember the last generation of XC90, you needed like a four-lane

18:58 freeway to turn around because the turning circle was horrendous. Okay, I've said this plenty of

19:03 times before, if you must have a seven-seat SUV because you've got kids and stuff everywhere,

19:09 you might as well have one that's good-looking and practical and fun to drive, and that's what

19:13 the XC90 is. It is still a really good-looking car despite its age. It is very practical and it's

19:18 very fun to drive. It is let down by some big options pricing and it's also let down by a fairly

19:23 firm ride, so make sure you get air suspension if you're buying this car. Your back will thank you.

19:29 This is a really good way to spend about $100,000 on a seven-seat SUV without having to go down

19:33 the path of all that German stuff. So let me know in the comments below, have you bought one of

19:37 these? What's it like as a longer-term proposition? Is it expensive to run? What could be improved?

19:42 Let us know in the comments below, and if you enjoyed this video, I'd love it if you could hit

19:46 'like', follow it up with a 'subscribe' and also press the bell icon so you can find out every

19:51 time we drive these SUVs that everyone seems to be buying. But until next time, take it easy.

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