volvo xc90 tft display quotation

Upgrade the Adaptive Digital Display with a 12.3" active TFT screen (Thin Film Transistor) for a bigger screen than the standard 8" active TFT screen. This further enhances the car"s exclusive look and makes driving even safer thanks to the clear onscreen information.

Upgrade "Adaptive Digital Display" with en 12.3" active FT screen (Thin Film Transistor) for a bigger screen than the standard fitted 8" active TFT screen. It further enhances the car"s exclusive look and makes driving even safer thanks to the clear on-screen information.

Clever interior packaging means the XC90 Recharge is more practical than many large SUVs. There are flashes of utilitarian brilliance everywhere from the children’s booster seat which pops out of the centre of the second row (see the images) to the way the XC90 can crouch down like an elephant to make it easier to load stuff into the boot.

The XC90 Recharge is a seven-seater, and like all SUVs with third rows those seats in the very back only offer enough room for kids. The second row is spacious even for me at 191cm tall with plenty of leg- and headroom. Up front as you’d expect has good head-, elbow- and shoulder room.

My family is small – there’s just three of us – and so the XC90 was more than what we needed. That said, we found a way to fill it with holiday gear, shopping, even a mini trampoline.

The local launch of the 2016 Volvo XC90 should, then, be treated as the arrival of a new king, as the completely revised seven-seat family SUV is without a doubt the most important model in the Swedish brand’s 88-year history.

Important because it is the first new car to be wholly developed with the partnership of Chinese owner Geely since its buyout of Volvo in 2010. Important because the new Scalable Product Architecture that underpins the XC90 will drive all future model development across the range, not forgetting that Volvo needs to realise the $11 billion investment made in developing this car. And important because the previous-generation XC90 was the biggest-selling model for the brand in many key markets, so this one has big shoes to fill.

However, in our mind the most important role of the new XC90 is that of ambassador for a brand who has helped build so many memories. Memories crafted with cars bearing the responsibility of carrying generations of families safely and securely.

Growing up, a Volvo was regularly the ‘Ward Family’ car. There is a photo of me standing next to a brown 245 on the shores of Loch Ness, looking for monsters in the early 80s. There was an orange 240 estate at one point and a blue 264 at another.

And so the new XC90, a car developed for the next generation of Volvo families, loaded with the responsibility of carrying not only its precious cargo, but the style- and technology-focussed growth of the brand, has arrived.

The auto-brake at intersection system will automatically stop the car should you turn across into oncoming traffic. This is combined with the standard city-safe AEB braking technology and rear collision detect and cross-traffic alert (optional on the Momentum variant at $1275), to produce what Volvo claims is the world’s safest luxury SUV.

The 2016 XC90 is longer (4950mm v 4807mm), wider (2008mm v 1936mm) and lower (1776mm v 1784mm) than the previous-generation car. It’s still shorter, but is now wider, than the new Audi Q7 and fills its proportions well.

Initially the XC90 will be offered in two variants — Momentum and Inscription — in a choice of 11 colours (metallic paint is a $1750 option). The sporty R-Design version arrives in Q4, 2015, and brings two exclusive colours with it, Passion Red and Bursting Blue Metallic, ensuring no one mistakes you for anything else on the road.

The XC90 suits its size and shape well, and looked classy in all the (safe) colours presented at the launch — surprisingly the ‘Luminous Sand Metallic’ car looked much better and more premium in the metal than it does in the brochure.

For the driver and front passenger, the XC90 is a plush and luxurious chaperone to points unknown. The seats are comfortable and electrically adjustable in all models, the frame-less rear vision mirror looks plucked from a Vogue Living shoot and the 12.3-inch iPad-like centre stack display features high-resolution graphics and a (mostly) intuitive interface that feels immediately familiar to anyone from the iPhone generation.

The small steering wheel (although bigger than the ol" side-plate in the Peugeot 308) is nicely balanced in your hands and the multifunction TFT instrument display is perfectly suited to the rest of the layout and techno feel of the car.

The quad-zone climate control interface in the Inscription model is a lovely TFT display, with air vents on the B-pillar as they were in the original car.

There is a single 12-volt power outlet at the rear of the centre console, but surprisingly no USB charge points for either of the passenger rows. Given ‘devices’ are pretty standard equipment for today’s road-tripping Volvo family, some additional charging capability (there is a USB port in the centre console) would be nice.

Adults might find it comfortable to configure the Volvo as a six-seater (2+2+2) by folding the middle-centre seat flat and allowing more knee room for the back row, but that’s on that one day you have a sextet of lumbering six-foot blokes in the car. For the rest of the time, there is enough room to keep pre-teens happy, along with cupholders, vents and a storage cubby with a neat surprise under the lid.

From rest, the T6 pulls confidently and certainly feels ‘bigger’ than a four-cylinder. Use the diamond-cut drive mode selector to switch to Dynamic, and the confidence changes to a sense of urgency as the big Volvo gathers speed quickly.

It’s a short ride though, that initial burst of action tapering off into a more ’dignified’ pace, but certainly enough for country overtaking and urban dashing that will no doubt fill the life of the XC90.

Fuel consumption of the T6 is claimed at 8.5L/100 in a combined cycle. That’s actually lower than the old 8.8L/100km claimed with the previous XC90’s D5 diesel. Our drive loop saw consumption average about 10.2L/100km, but we look forward to spending more time with the car to see a true real-use figure.

In city traffic the stop-start system is smooth and at rest, with the engine off, the XC90 feels very quiet. We measured just over 60dB on a smooth urban A-road and up to 75dB on coarse-chip country roads at 100km/h.

Through a country touring loop, the XC90 remained solid and composed over most road surfaces. A few harsh potholes sent a slight jar through the steering wheel, but in a segment where many complain that communication with the road has been dulled, it’s not a bad thing to actually feel the bumps when you hit them.

The steering is light at low speeds, making the big Volvo easy to navigate around parked cars and tight car spots. Plus, the turning circle has been reduced by about a metre, making those supertanker-like three-point turns of the old car turns a lot less common.

It hasn’t got the same level of dynamic response and ‘sporty’ handling as the BMW X5 (which I currently own), but it doesn’t really matter. We all know that the XC90 will spend most of its time in and around inner-city suburbs — from the shops, to the school, to Saturday morning sports — so ride comfort and ease of driving is what is important here.

Our test car was fitted with the optional IntelliSafe Assist package (part of a $4000 driver support pack, or available separately for $2600) which includes radar-guided cruise control, a lane-keeping aid, traffic queue assist as well as a 360-degree parking camera and heads-up display. It is a pretty key package, and completes the technology offering of the standard car, but should it really be an option at this level?

Volvo state that close to 30 per cent of pre-orders already include this package, and that almost 70 per cent of initial Australian orders are for the top-spec Inscription D5, indicating that price, up a whopping $20,000 on the old model, isn’t really the biggest concern for buyers.

This price increase puts the XC90 in the same bracket as the Audi Q7, BMW X5 and Mercedes-Benz GLE. All cars which used to sit ‘above’ the XC90 both in purchase consideration as well as ‘social status’.

The 2016 Volvo XC90 isn’t the most powerful car in the segment, nor the most ‘engaging’ to drive, but that fantastic interior with its delicious blend of materials and family centric space and comfort shows that Volvo’s focus is still where it always was — on the people inside.

So yes, a 9/10 rating for our first local look at the new Volvo XC90. It might seem high, and it might seem glowing, but it really is a very good car. However, we very much look forward to having one through the CarAdvice garage soon to put through some real world tests.

But for now, as we bid farewell to the original shape XC90 and the thousands of family memories it shaped around the world, we look forward to another generation of Volvo families with the new XC90. The king is dead, long live the king.