Volvo S60 Cross Country First Drive Review – Raising the Game

Volvo give their S60 ‘Cross Country’ genes, making it the world’s first crossover sedan, thus creating a new segment altogether, one that blends elegance and capability unlike anytime before. We take it for a spin.

Story: Jim Gorde
Photography: Aditya Dhiwar

One of the best things to give someone who doesn’t know what they want is something they thought they never needed. That’s something Volvo have been rather good at. How is that? Well, their safety research goes deeper than most imagine and the neat outcome of that is that all their cars have some unique and extremely relevant features, many of which most car-makers do not offer, that end up being the difference between a major accident and a minor incident, or even life and death. Safety features are things that many people don’t know they need until an incident highlights the importance of something the car had that they probably didn’t even know about.

This is similar, except, it isn’t under the skin. It is the skin. While the world got busy giving their hatchbacks stilts and aggressive bumpers, Volvo did that to their S60, and added the ‘Cross Country’ suffix. This, then, is the world’s only crossover sedan. And, dare I say, it makes sense; especially in India, where a sedan with a boot is considered to be a massive status symbol and the inconsistent infrastructure calls for something with good ground clearance.

So, the S60 CC has ticked all the right boxes, then. You get 201 mm of ground clearance, and the same comfort, equipment, interior quality and safety features as the regular sport sedan. It isn’t rocket-science build-wise; it’s just something no one did. It’s the simplicity of the whole thing. Both are nothing new, but together they achieve something no-one knew was in demand. Like gum-boots for dogs.

Back to the car. The exterior is similar, if not identical. The only difference, visually, is the higher body and a revised set of alloy wheels with slightly higher-profile tyres. The addition of front and rear skid-plates and side-skirts, together with the 201 millimetres of ground clearance, inform the onlooker that this sedan isn’t just that.

The S60 CC is like a sigh of relief from the confused car-buyer embodied into a car. Personified, even. And the benefits carry on inside. The interior is the same, except, when you look out of the window, the ground is 65 mm further away. The Inscription trim is standard for India so what you get is the choicest selection of perforated leather on those masterpiece-of-ergonomics seats along with several other details and goodies that make it seem like money well spent. Our car had a two-tone brown and black interior. And the contrast, rather complementing, stitching surely raised the needle higher in the graph in terms of quality. The sun-roof and large, tinted, infrared-reflective windscreen help let in the light but not so much heat into the cabin. The driver-centric centre console — complete with the seven-inch screen, reverse camera and sat-nav — the soft-touch steering wheel and matte aluminium accents all make for a very pleasing interior.

The rear, while specced with the best equipment and material, does lack in one area: room. Once I adjusted the seat to my fancy, there was enough room for young children at best, with an average adult able to fit snugly. Of course, it can be a chauffeured car, too, so long as no really tall person is seated in the front seat. While I’m not complaining, seeing as how the S60, and most Volvos in general, are bought by those who value safety and drive themselves. And, perhaps, those who want to stand out from the crowd. This, then, is the most sensible choice if you want a unique sedan that doesn’t cringe at the sight of a pothole or a speed-hump, which, let’s be honest, the standard S60 with its 136 mm of ride height definitely did. With speed-humps around the country growing faster and more sizeable than most people and their salaries, this was, essentially, the need of the hour. Then there’s the driveline.

Tags: 4x4, allroad, car, cc, Cross Country, Drive, economy, family, india, luxury, New, offroad, Review, S60, safety, saloon, Scandinavian, sedan, volvo