MOTORING Forget the bricks of the past, now


Volvo rolls with it


Ask anyone of a certain age to describe a Volvo car and they’ll tell you the brand is Swedish and makes very safe, reliable, comfortable vehicles with the aerodynamics of bricks. But times change and while safety, reliability and comfort are still paramount, the big, square wardrobe-luggers have been relegated to history in favour of sleek, stylish, mainstream executive cars more than capable of holding their own against some incredibly good executive-level competition. Nick Jones has been finding out just how good Volvo’s new S90 is.


The word Volvo means “I roll”, from the Latin volvere. The brand name was registered in 1911, intended for a range of ball bearings – for which it was quite apposite. But in 1927 the name appeared


on a car, the Jakob. A year before the Jakob hit the


market, those behind the Volvo brand – which had already been removed from the bearings - decided it should be a byword for quality. And for decades their Swedish


factory produced cars where function was prioritised over form. Only in 1961, with the launch of


the P1800, as driven by Roger Moore as Simon Templar in TV’s The Saint, did any form of sporting pedigree attach to the marque. But the sex appeal lasted only


until 1966 when Volvo launched the 144. It was slab-sided, square- fronted and had a back-end that literally looked like a wardrobe laying down. And that’s how Volvo is


remembered – big, square, lumbering cars built for comfort and safety and trying to compete with the sporting heritage of the big Audis, BMWs and Mercedes for executive market share. Even though some of the models


were quite quick and in the 1990s Volvo entered the British Touring


56 business network April 2017


FACTFILE MODEL: Volvo S90 D4 diesel PRICE: £32,555 PERFORMANCE: Top Speed 140mph, 0-60 mph 8.5 seconds CO2 EMISSIONS: 118g/km FUEL CONSUMPTION: 64.2 mpg


Cars Championship racing series with the 850 Series estate, the basic design didn’t change much. Few people would attach “small


and sporty” to the marque, even though Volvo continued to make three-door coupes long after the demise of the now classic P1800. ‘Sexier’ cars started to roll off the


Volvo production lines only after the company entered a joint venture with Japan’s Mitsubishi and the Netherland’s Daf in 1991 and the S40/V40 emerged. The S90 is the latest iteration of the genre. Continuing the history lesson


briefly, Ford bought Volvo in 1999 – leading many to wrongly brand the S and V models as Swedish Ford Mondeos – and sold it to Geely Autos, of China, in 2010. Most Volvo cars are still made in Sweden but not the S90, which is made in China. But don’t let that put you off, the S90 is a credible, full-sized, luxury


saloon, and, I think, a great-looking and distinctive car. At the front it has a concave


grille with huge headlights and neat, integrated driving lights. The profile is both sleek and


‘executive’. At the rear, the light clusters


would meet in the middle were it not for the Volvo badge. Inside, it oozes quality like never


before, and yet has a familiarity to it. There is a real retro feel to the dash layout, led by the square air vents with vertical chrome centres which work well design-wise when set against the vertical touch screen in the centre which controls, well, everything except the main driving bits. It creates an interior that is


modern and amusingly creative. Soft leather seats and lashings of


handcrafted wood cosset the driver and passengers and the detailing


really does set the bar quite high. Rear seat passengers get good


head and legroom and the boot is cavernous. There are seven engine options, including diesels, petrol and hybrid. All S90s come with a standard


8-speed automatic gearbox but there is a manual option. Pricing starts at £32,555 for the


D4 diesel manual edition, rising to £42,100 for the current-range topper. You may say that’s rather a lot of


money, but the Swedes have gone high-tech and premium to take on the very capable and established opposition. As with all Volvos, safety remains


paramount and that means the standard kit includes a raft of airbags and protection systems, plus a detection system against pulling out into oncoming traffic and another for detecting large animals – just in case a suicidal moose should leap into the road in front of you in Nottingham city centre. Personally, I don’t see it posing


an instant threat to Audi, BMW or Mercedes but it is an alternative and it will attract buyers who want mile-munching luxury and to stand out from the crowd. Don’t sign on the dotted line for


your new executive motor until you’ve tried it. You will be surprised. It is a worthy addition to the sector.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60