Volvo V90 Cross Country Review: The Weirdly Cool Swede You’ll Want To Get Muddy

Once upon a time (well, 1997 actually), Volvo took the curious decision to jack up its V70 estate and add some tough dark plastic cladding. The semi-SUV-estate-thing was born (seriously, why has no one come up with a decent term for these yet?), and manufacturers have been copying the idea ever since.

Audi arguably popularised it with the Allroad, with the same concept eventually spreading to the rest of the VW Group and elsewhere. Even Vauxhall has given the dinky Adam city car an ill-advised off-road-ish makeover to create the Adam Rocks. But the Volvo estate crosser contraptions have always been head and shoulders above the ‘pretenders’ in the coolness stakes, and this is arguably the most noticeable in the latest one, the V90 Cross Country.

After spending a day with a V90 Cross Country, I’ve been thinking hard to try and work out exactly why I feel the need to doff my metaphorical cap to its subjective coolness. Why could I happily daily drive a V90 CC, while something like an A6 Allroad would make me feel like a a bit of a berk? I think I’ve just about sussed it out.

Firstly, like the standard V90 - and the S90 saloon, come to the think of it - the Cross Country is a superb lesson in not trying too hard. It’s stylish, but in a subtle, elegant way. It’s not at all brash or brutish like certain German rivals tend to be.

Secondly, because it’s made by Volvo, a company that’s almost synonymous with practicality, you get the feeling someone would choose the rugged Cross Country because they actually need that ruggedness. The reality is probably different, but that’s moot.

Before being sent out to drive the V90 CC, S90/V90 senior product manager Stefan Sällqvist told us how the typical Swede would want to use such a car to pack their family into, before heading into the wilderness in the direction of their winter log cabin. Granted, people in Surrey don’t tend to have winter log cabins, but it’s a pleasant picture, and puts the Cross Country - admittedly quite specifically - in some kind of context.

So there we have it. It’s cool because it doesn’t try hard, comes from the most subtly cool car company in the business and has an air of honest-to-god practicality to it. Now that’s the subjective nonsense out of the way, what’s it actually like to drive?

On the road, the answer is much like a V90. The ride height has been increased by 60mm, which does mean it tips into corners a little more than it used too. On the other hand the extra suspension travel makes it better at soaking up speed bumps and larger road imperfections, although as with the standard V90 the ride isn’t quite smooth enough to stop the £1500 adaptive dampers option from looking tempting.

It’s not a car that eggs you on to go faster, nor is it one that feels entirely happy being thrown around to the very limits of grip of its four-wheel drive system. But then neither is the V90. Volvo’s current mantra in the handling department is ‘Relaxed Confidence’, and if that’s something you don’t like the sound of, you know where your nearest BMW dealership is.

On the engine front, there’s only the choice of the D4 and D5 four-cylinder turbodiesels in the UK right now. The 188bhp D4 will be fine for most, but it makes progress feel a little laboured. Opt for the 232bhp D5, and you’ll have a package that makes forward momentum seem effortless. It’s all thanks to the Power Pulse tech, which kills lag by spooling up the turbocharger with a shot of compressed air. It’s effective, and gives the D5 an almost EV-like linear surge of acceleration.

As well as a roadtest, Volvo also let us do some light to moderate off-roading in the Cross Country. It wasn’t anything the car couldn’t handle, since Volvo probably didn’t want us ripping the sump off a brand new, £39,050 car, but it was more demanding than I expected. The offroad-ified V90 coped with it all just fine, making it all seem very easy. The hill descent control system is effective, too, and the skidplate a welcome addition. Even if your elusive log cabin is somewhere quite remote, you’re probably not going to have a problem getting there.

Like in every other 90 series Volvo though, it’s the cabin which is the best bit. You genuinely struggle to find a single switch or surface which is nasty: it’s all jolly nice, proper quality stuff. I can even just about forgive Volvo for sticking the heater controls in the infotainment system, since the touchscreen is so damn good.

Thanks to the heavily raked windscreen and relatively low roofline it does feel oddly tight and cosy up front, but I don’t mind that. It’s an awesome place to sit in, and feels massively refreshing compared to the cockpits of the German ‘big three’.

Is it worth having over a regular, very good V90? Well, if you are actually going to need the extra ground clearance and tough bits, it’s probably going to be worth your while spending the £1500 difference between the £41,900 AWD D5 Cross Country and the regular V90 in ‘Momentum’ trim (the gap’s much larger for the D4, since it doesn’t come in AWD in the UK).

We doubt many from the sizeable pool of Cross Country buyers - expected to make up 25 per cent of V90 sales overall - will need all that off-roady garb, but neither do most SUV and crossover buyers. And they won’t look anywhere near as cool as the dude a few doors down in their lifted Volvo.