Best Volvo Wagons

Excellent, but not perfect, family car – We have now completed 27000kms in our 2023 Volvo V60, and there are a few things that stand out and a few things not so much. The good: - This… Read more

vehicle looks amazing, I think it is well-proportioned and has a classy style. - The seats are super comfortable, adjustable in every way and heated and cooled - great for long journeys. - The suspension tune is excellent for a passive setup, it's soft and comfortable without being wallowy and it feels quite athletic in the bends. It makes a great highway cruiser. - The extra clearance is great for dirt roads and campsites. - The optional Bowers and Wilkins sound system is absolutely phenomenal; you have to hear it to believe how good it is. - Volvo's service department has been good so far, with excellent service, attention to detail, and free courtesy cars for the day. - The native Android system is excellent, Waze and Maps both work great on the central display and there are plenty of apps to keep you occupied while waiting in the car (YouTube, Netflix etc) or for music (Spotify, Deezer) - The car is connected so you can lock/unlock your car from your phone, start it up, check the range and its location and also do OTA software updates. Handy on cold mornings! - The active safety systems are really good, apart from the odd moment where the auto steering function gets confused by turning lane markings. One cool feature is the adaptive cruise shows you what speed the car in front is going as you approach it from behind.

The performance of the 2.0L turbo 4 cylinder is adequate, not much else. It has enough power for any task without being exciting and is tuned for an excellent torque spread so it's never thrashy. You never really need more power than it has, but the chassis could easily handle another 50 or 60kw. The 8-speed gearbox is smooth if a little slow at the limit, but again - perfect for everyday use.

The car is refreshingly simple, with the only drive mode being an offroad mode, and all the features of the vehicle being intuitive and easy to read.

The downsides: - The driver's display could be so much better, it's a fully digital display but not at all customisable. You can't have the trip computer displayed all the time, and only native Google Maps is displayed if Google Maps is active on the centre screen - Waze or Carplay can't be replicated on the driver's display. Thankfully the graphics are clear and easy to read, and there's an excellent head-up display as well. - The car is actually quite small; in fact, my previous car, a Skoda Octavia hatch, had a larger boot and more roomy backseat, and that wasn't even a wagon version. Rear seat space is compromised especially in leg and foot room, and the boot is fairly short for a wagon. I guess I could have gone with the V90 wagon but unfortunately, that is discontinued in Australia. - So far nothing has gone wrong with it apart from a couple of really weird electronic glitches; once setting off on an early morning trip, the car started and the driver display all appeared to work, but we soon noticed the HVAC system and heated seats weren't working, there was no sound coming from the indicators (!) and the cruise control wasn't working. After fiddling around for ages, turning the car on and off and all the rest, were were able to reset the centre display and it all came back to life. The other time the dash lit up with all sorts of warning signs for a couple of minutes and then they all turned off. Finally, and this is the most annoying, the Bluetooth audio often has no sound, especially if my wife and I both have Bluetooth on on our phones; to fix it we have to switch from one phone to the other and back again to get sound... not a huge deal but just frustrating. - The reversing camera defaults to the 360-degree view instead of a reversing camera, then you have to tap the screen and tap the rear camera icon to get it to show up. Why can't it default to the reversing camera, or the forward-facing camera if you're going forwards?

Overall though, these problems aren't deal breakers and we're very happy with the comfort, style and usability of the V60 Cross Country so far.

*Update January 25 We're now up to 40,000km and enjoying our Volvo. It's done all types of work, including city commuting, long interstate road trips, unsealed backroads to our favourite beaches etc. Haven't had any more funny glitches, the software updates keep rolling through fairly regularly over the air. The last software update included Android Auto (wired though) which never gets used as the native system is so good. We haven't had any mechanical issues either, and our dealer (Essendon Volvo) has been fantastic to deal with. I also have to mention that the B5 mild hybrid system really seems to be a marketing gimic and here's why: - It certainly doesn't help the fuel consumption much - its a thirsty little car, averaging 8.5L/100km over the last 7000kms, with a lot of that being highway trips (average speed 65km/h). Around-town trips are often over 10L/100km. - It doesn't do anything for performance, indeed the previous T5 powerplant without the hybrid bits has slightly more power than this new B5 version. So in my view the 48V system only adds weight, complexity and cost for the sake of being able to put the word "hybrid" in the brochure. Unfortunately, the bluetooth glitches and silly reversing camera setup persists, and annoy me every time!