Driving the diesel first meant I was in even more familiar territory. The XC40 is smaller and lighter than its “cousins” who get a D4 engine choice overseas. At 1.7 tonnes, 400 Nm makes it feel peppy and it effortlessly gets up to highway cruising speed, that’s over 100 km/h on these lengths of Spanish highway. It’s quiet. The sound deadening is good. The road noise is non-existent – down to the quality of the roads more than anything else. The drive modes– Eco, Comfort, Dynamic and Off Road – change the dials from blue to red and set the mood accordingly. The steering feel is reasonably light in ‘Comfort’ mode and it turns in quite precisely with good feel. This is enhanced in ‘Dynamic’ mode. The XC40 does feel larger than it is. You sit quite high, and the visibility is good, as mentioned earlier.
The standard BLIS (Blind-spot Information System) warns when changing lanes. Adaptive Cruise Control is standard, as is the auto brake function. There’s also an oncoming lane mitigation and lane-keep assist which uses autonomous steering inputs. Let’s not talk about the park assist, 360° camera, park pilot, safety cage design, ABS, EBD, corner brake control, torque vectoring, run-off-road protection, rollover mitigation, road-sign recognition, rear collision warning, and the many airbags again. The kit’s all there.
The bits of winding mountain road, when taken at close to triple-digit speeds, allowed some roll to present itself. It’s not that small a car. Wonder what the petrol will feel like. We have to head back now to make the swap. I rub my hands gleefully at the thought of the T5 R-Design – with Pilot Assist I could do that without actually crashing.
Jump out of the D4 and into the T5. It’s got a black interior and feels sportier. The petrol engine is near silent as I twist the knob and set the sat-nav for those mountains. The additional 57 PS arrives quickly as the petrol engine happily piles on revs. It sounds nice, too. No sound through the speakers or any of that rubbish. Cabin sound levels are determined solely by your foot’s relationship with the pedal. It’s a quick car. And even lighter. Double digits under 1.7 tonnes.
Get to those twisties and that’s telling. The diesel’s weight sort of made it feel a little more planted. The T5 handles well, though, and for want of sound I found myself stabbing the throttle all the more. Every little bit of straight was attacked and the XC40 delivered the goods with that usual bonus of peace-of-mind that inherently comes as a result of a long paragraph of standard equipment, each of which actually work wonderfully.
Volvo have not only learned to build cars that have modern, stunning design language, but have also learned to improve even further their level of understanding of what the segment customer actually wants. This is yet another winner. And it’s going to be priced even more alluringly.
Volvo Auto India will offer the XC40 D4 diesel in a choice of trims – Momentum and a top-of-the-line Inscription. The T5 petrol will be offered with the R-Design trim, more sport focussed. Wheel sizes may be an inch lower than what we drove here, but the equipment will be all there. Priced around the Rs 35 lakh mark, the XC40 should create quite a stir. Watch for the road test once they arrive.
Story: Jim Gorde
Photography: Volvo
