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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.

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2010 Volvo XC60 3.0T Geartronic with R-Design

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Volvo comfort, more power and a designer package

Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday January 12, 2011

Families stand together to help each other and so it is with car manufacturing dynasties.  Interdepartmental component swapping makes it easier to create many models, reasonably cheaply, from fewer parts. This helps explain how, while both were still part of the Ford family, the Volvo XC60 inherited a couple of Land Rover genes and passed on a pair of its engines to the family parts bin.

For example, the XC60 floor pan is straight off the Freelander2 and so is the fourth generation Haldex coupling that decides how much power is to be dished out to which wheels and when. Freelander kept its locking centre differential and terrain response program to itself, though - pity. As for engines, the Volvo B6304T2 used in the XC60 is a six-cylinder development of the famous five-pot machine and, despite its greater capacity and extra cylinder, is actually 1mm shorter than the original. Usable in both transverse and inline applications, it entered the communal Lego box as the Ford SI6 (short inline 6 cylinder).

As used in the XC60 with a twin scroll turbocharger, it puts out 224 kW at 5 600 rpm and 440 Nm of torque between 2 100 and 4 200 rpm, up from 210 kW/400 Nm just a few months ago. That's not all that's new - an R-Design goodie bag like that offered optionally on other Volvo models, became available locally early this year.

While the standard XC60 is loaded with all the safety kit one expects of the brand, including City Safety that helps lessen or avoid rear end collisions below 30 km/h and Pre-prepared Restraints (PRS) that warns your seatbelts when drama is about to happen, the R-Design package gives you cosmetic and handling upgrades.

There are suspension tweaks to provide a more sporty drive. The chassis is stiffened and more damping added, while steering ratios are quickened. Volvo reckons this has virtually no impact on ride quality, but more on this later. Sensibly, they didn't lower the suspension, so the XC60 still has 230 mm ground clearance.

External cosmetic touches include grille in silk metal finish with R-DESIGN badge, door mirror housings in silk metal finish, five-spoke 20-inch Cratus aluminium wheels, sill mouldings in faux aluminium, twin chromed tailpipes, colour-matched lower body mouldings, chrome-plated rear skid-plate with black mesh, sport chassis and seven body colours including the R-DESIGN-specific Passion Red.

Inside, there are sport seats with embossed R-DESIGN emblem and smooth leather upholstery. There are also Watch Dial instruments with blue accents, R-DESIGN sports steering wheel and gear selector trimmed in perforated leather, aluminium sports pedals, R-DESIGN centre stack with a new décor pattern and off-black sports mats. Headlamp washers, power operated tailgate, rain sensor, a high performance sound system with single CD/Radio, 4 x 40W amplifier (MP3/WMA compatible) and 8 speakers, iPod/USB function, rear park assist, keyless drive, Bi-Xenon active swivelling lights and Bluetooth synchronisation complete the picture. The R-Design package adds R37 000 to the list price of the standard car.

The Geartronic 'box is a six-speed device with manual override and Sport setting, found by moving the selector into a slot on the left. There are no paddles. Shifts are smooth and swift - not quite like a DSG, but perfectly acceptable. Gearing is slightly on the side of acceleration, at 2 200 rpm at 120 in sixth. One expects a turbocharged three-litre to get up and go - this one does, getting to the magic 100 km/h in less than eight seconds and on to a maximum of about 210. This car is billed as Volvo's best-handling model ever, but while it hangs in well, it probably wouldn't blow any X-series Beemers into the weeds just yet.

Interior accommodations are generally very good. The boot is generous at 655 litres with seats up and has a nice low loading sill. Rear seat backs split 40/20/40 and fold flat. Seating space for the long-legged is the interior's only shortcoming, being a bit cramped in the back. Headroom is plentiful. Front seats are a lot better, having eight-way adjustment on both, heating, decent width and the comfort for which Volvo wrote the handbook.

All SUVs get the dirt road test and this was no exception. It's comfortable enough and directionally stable over potholes and washboard, but if one was making a habit of it, it might be a plan to swap the 45-ratio 20" tyres for 18s with a higher profile.

At its price, the Volvo XC60 is good value and very well equipped for a medium-sized SUV, with kit that would cost a lot to add on to some of its competitors. It's worth a serious look.

The numbers

Price: R573 400

Engine: 2 953 cc inline six-cylinder with twin scroll turbocharger

Power: 224 kW at 5 600 rpm

Torque: 440 Nm between 2 100 and 4 200 rpm

Maximum speed: 210 km/h

Zero to 100 km/h: 7,8 seconds

Real life fuel consumption: about 11,5 l/100 km

Tank: 70 litres

Ground clearance: 230 mm

Approach/departure/rampover angles: 22/27/22 degrees

Wading depth: 350 mm

Max. towing mass (braked): 2 000 kg

Maintenance plan: 5 years/100 000 km

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.

What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.

Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax. 

So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!

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