The answer to who makes the best 4x4s might seem obvious. It’s Range Rover of course. But not so fast. There’s a new kid on the block looking to dethrone the king. That kid is Volvo.
Well, perhaps Volvo shouldn’t be called a kid since the car company has been around for decades. But it’s the manufacturers’ foray into 4x4s that has everybody so excited.
The old XC90 was an OK 4×4. It was robust and relatively reliable. But it wasn’t much to write home about. The looks, for one, weren’t all that great. And although it reduced your chances of having to call a car accident lawyer, it still wasn’t the safest ride on the market either.
Fast forward a decade since the original release of the XC90 and we’ve just got a whole new model, built from the ground up. Volvo’s new offering has gotten a lot of people very excited indeed. For one, the new look is classy. The Volvo now competes in the looks department with Range Rover’s best offerings. Some might say it looks a little more stylish that what Range Rover has managed to produce.
Inside the car, that sense of style is retained. The upholstery is of a high quality and there is plenty of space. Under the hood, the Volvo comes in a couple of options. There’s the petrol engine version that delivers 320bhp. And then there is the diesel version that outputs 225 bhp. Volvo expects the diesel engine to be the most popular because of the quieter performance and superior mileage.
Speaking of which, Volvo claim that the diesel model will do about 50 mpg on a good run. And that’s quite impressive when you consider the fact that 50 mpg used to be good performance for a small car. The Range Rover Discovery Sport does about 53 mpg, so regarding fuel economy, there isn’t much to separate the two cars.
Where the Volvo really shines is in its advanced safety technology. Volvo has made it a company mission to reduce the number of deaths of people in their cars to zero by 2020. It’s a bold goal. And, frankly, it seems impossible from today’s perspective. But Volvo is going for it nonetheless. That means that the new XC90 was always going to be packed with safety features that made it stand head and shoulders above the competition.
It won’t come as a surprise that the car got a 97 percent adult protection rating and five stars in the Euro NCAP tests. That was partly because of the advanced materials out of which the cabin is made. And it was partly down to the airbags that run along the length of the cabin. The Range Rover, of course, does not have the same advanced features.
Neither does the Range Rover have external cameras to detect pedestrians or seats that deform in the event of a crash. It means that Volvo has a strong contender here for the best 4×4 on the market. And that’s something that not many people were expecting.
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