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AMAZING INTERIOR OF THE 2018 VOLVO XC40
The 2018
Volvo XC40 is here
Marking its entry in one of the most popular
luxury segments in the country - compact SUV . While the Germans still hold forth
in almost all categories, Volvo’s car have been well-received in almost
every sense - suave yet recognizable designs, solid build quality with great
overall quality of material, a long list of features, Volvo’s class-leading
safety ratings and decent power trains too. Going by the gradual expansion of
its network and now a two-and-half-month waiting time for the XC60, the company
is slowly raking in the numbers, too.
Naturally,
the Volvo XC40 is the perfect fit to continue Volvo’s
upward surge in the
market. SUVs are a raging trend globally (even Rolls-Royce and Lamborghini have
come out with their own), and India is home to the trend of compact crossovers
and compact SUVs. It is a bit of an oxymoron, because an SUV in the traditional
sense signifies bulk, loads of space and utility, and a go-anywhere nature.
But, with congested and narrow roads, how does the urban commuter satiate his
love for SUVs? The answer, are cars like the Volvo XC40.
In the
present market, the XC40 joins the Mercedes-Benz GLA, the BMW X1 and the Audi
Q3 at the very bottom of the luxury chain. It is not a crossover, but has been
built and designed from scratch to be an actual SUV, as Sudeep Narayan,
Director of Marketing stated during the product briefing. So how, then, does India’s latest baby SUV
in the luxury market fare?
FULL SPECIFICATION
Build,
design and aesthetics
The one thing that I’ve always
loved about Volvo’s cars is how they manage to look both imposing and elegant
at the same time. There is a nice flow in terms of the design language - the
sharply-bending tailgate, the signature tail lamps and ‘Thor’s Hammer’ LED DRLs
and the rest of the body flow in unison in terms of design, and despite
tweaking a range of things depending on which series of cars you’re buying,
there’s not much that changes as you move down the pyramid. That particularly
shows in the 2018 Volvo XC40, and you can see clear semblance to the Volvo
XC60 and even the XC90 here. Volvo’s
design language is apparent from the concave front grille, the typically angled
tail lamps, the LEDs and the overall design of the body. The nose is sharp and
angular, and the bonnet rises at a near-right angle from the slightly
protruding lower front bumper lip. The wide wheel arches have 18-inch alloys
sitting underneath them, but you can upgrade it all the way to 20-inchers. The
tailgate, too, rises very sharply from the rear bumper, followed by the sharp
inward bend of the C-pillar. The India-spec XC40 will be offered only in the
R-Design trim, which gets a contrasting black roof with blackened roof rails to
complement the entire look. The only bit that I found tepid in contrary to its
youth-oriented market positioning is the side panel - the indent near the car’s
floor adds a bit of texture, but there’s no real flair like the side profile of
the Mercedes-Benz GLA. I also found the C-pillar to be a bit too chunky for my
liking, but what I found impressive is how typically Scandinavian and up market
the tail end looks. The XC40 gets a rear spoiler, a crease in the middle with
‘Volvo’ splashed across, stop lamps on the rear bumper, twin-chrome exhausts
and a scuff plate, making it a really smart design to look at. It also doesn’t
look bulky, and is very well proportioned.
The
resemblance to its bigger brothers continues in the interiors of the XC40, too.
The steering wheel has a familiar layout, and so does the overall dashboard
design. There is a big, bright digital instrument cluster, and all the controls
are minimalistic ally laid out. As with the bigger Volvos, you get Volvo’s
Senses infotainment display
with a 9-inch screen. You do get a few physical buttons right below the screen,
which include the emergency blinkers, defoggers, audio and volume toggle, a
microSD slot and a Drive Mode button. Further down, you get a slot to stow away
your Smartphone, and this housing also has a Qi wireless charging pad. There
are two USB slots with one that allows fast charging, and a cigarette lighter
beside it.
The central
column has no toggles (unlike its bigger siblings), and instead gets a bunch of
cubbyholes to store stuff, two decently sized cup holders, the gear knob and
the electric park brake with auto-hold. The central armrest is not
height-adjustable, but it does open up a decent amount of space inside, and
also has an extra space. Volvo has also included a dustbin in the car with
spring-loaded release to keep things tidy - a nice, thoughtful touch. To the
rear, you get decent storage areas on the doors, and the bins for bottle
holders can hold a one-liter bottle as well as some more (including a small
slot on the door-mounted armrest for keys and spare change). The central column
gets no extra storage for the rear passengers, but includes a 12V power socket,
dedicated AC vents and seat heating for rear passengers too, just like the
Lexus NX300 luxury.
It’s all
quite good in terms of overall build quality. Most of the plastics feel of good
quality, but there are a few ends where they feel a bit tacky, like the panel
around the IRVM with the controls for the panoramic roof. The switch gears
around the steering wheel are nice, but feel a bit too light. The leather-bound
seats are pretty decent, too. The front seats offer good bolstering, and can be
controlled electronically to adjust lumbar support, recline, pitch and height.
They are, however, a bit on the harder side, although even after a five-hour
journey, it didn’t make us feel uncomfortable. The rear seats are similarly
bolstered, although they feel a bit too upright. The central armrest feels a
bit light again, but overall build quality is decent otherwise.
The
interiors are available in two color schemes - only black and lava red, and are
lined with faux wool. This material feels nice to touch, and work well as floor
carpets. The lava red shade, though, is polarizing, and is only available with
the white exterior shade. It’s all lined up nicely in terms of aesthetics, and
the cabin is a good overall place to be in. There is loads of storage too -
along with the aforementioned ones, you get a decently-sized ventilated glove
box, and there is space below the front seats to keep your tablet. The boot has
a 460-litre volume with all seats up, and the parcel tray can be neatly stowed
away underneath the boot floor. You get a space saver spare and a toolkit
underneath the carpet, and there is no loading lip which gives way to a flat,
easily loadable luggage area. There are also tons of hooks around to tether
your luggage and not have them slide around during difficult journey.
On overall
terms, the Volvo XC40 scores well in terms of design build quality and
aesthetics. The exterior feels tall and upright, and doesn’t seem like a merely
smaller, redesigned XC60. The interior feel good too, and gets the same
minimalistic treatment as Volvo’s other cars. There are a couple of things that
could have been a bit better, but none that makes for a deal-breaker.
The
technology arsenal
It is here that the Volvo XC40
is heads and shoulders above its competition. The full list of its technology
and electronics package include radar and infrared sensors to the exterior
along with a central road-sensing camera and a rear-parking camera with parking
sensors to the front and rear, electronic stability control with active torque
distribution and permanent all-wheel drive, lane-keeping assistance, automatic
start-stop, satellite-linked road sign recognition, adaptive cruise control,
dynamic rear camera with one-step zoom, assisted hands free parking, adaptive
auto-bending lights, autonomous collision avoidance steering aid, driver
distraction and fatigue alert, digital instrument cluster with embedded
navigation, 9-inch Volvo Senses infotainment system with Apple Car Play,
Android Auto and satellite-linked navigation system, 13-speaker Harman/Kardon
stereo audio system with 660W amplifier and sub-woofer, voice-based commands and
controls, car status and performance logs, automatic climate control with air
purification filter, heated front and rear seats, hill start-stop assist,
electrically-adjustable front seats, wireless charging, electronic tail gate, cooled
glove box and a digital instrument cluster to boot.
Beginning
with the radar elements, it is certainly dependent on lane markings and road
signs, without which it will not work. On roads that do have markings, they
work like a charm and make driving a breezy affair. The purpose of the
semi-autonomous technology on board the Volvo XC40 is to assist the driver and
not drive for him/her, and Volvo has included hepatic feedback via the
instrument cluster and the steering wheel to ensure that no one takes their
eyes off the road despite the assistance. Nevertheless, the Volvo XC40 is adept
at maintaining its lane by itself, and with adaptive cruise control, we
actually went through stretches where we just sat as a passenger while the car
steered, maintained speed and distance from surroundings all by itself. Again,
do not try this just yet.
What the
XC40 misses out on is a rear-facing radar package, and simultaneously does not
include a blind spot monitor, which would have made it even more adept. Still,
this is only a glimpse of what is to come with future cars, and once you get
used to letting a car steer for you at speeds of 130kmph, it becomes an
incredibly relaxed affair to be on the wheels. However, it does not brake
autonomously, and if you do not respond to the driver alert warnings within
five seconds, the car starts veering off course without slowing down. This is a
bit of a flaw in the system, since in case the driver is unable to respond,
semi-autonomous cars typically have inbuilt redundancy to slow down by itself,
come to a halt, open doors and switch on blinkers by itself. The Volvo XC40
only starts alerting people inside the car, without doing the rest.
Fusing
excellence into the semi-autonomous drive on the highways is the Harman/Kardon
audio system, and it is by far the best-in-class. A total of 13 speakers and
tweeters are placed strategically around the car, with the sub-woofer mounted to
the front of the dash and the air-conditioning vents engineered to act as
bass ducts. The surround mode allows you to select the degree of sound staging
that suits you, as well as select how you want the sound output to be -
driver-oriented, front passenger-oriented or centralized for all passengers.
You do not get a manual balancer for this, but it’s not needed. The Volvo
XC40’s audio system delivers some of the best mid-ranges, with songs sounding
wonderfully warm, clean, full-bodied and strong at volume levels even around
40.
The Sensus
system has been retained from the bigger siblings, which is a good thing. As
always, it is incredibly smooth in response, and offers three screens from where
you can control everything. The left screen houses all audio sources, and
shortcuts to access car alerts, audio settings, car settings and Android
Auto/Apple Car Play. The central screen has four tabs, each of which
expand/collapse at one tap. The navigation system is smooth and responsive, and
even offers PoIs and perspective views. It is satellite-linked to recognize
speed limits and road signs (like ‘go slow’ and ‘school ahead’), making it a
notch above most others. The screen also splits in half when you enable Apple Car
Play, making it the only system to do so among all the cars that we’ve used it
in so far. The last screen is where you can make all the adjustments to the
semi-autonomous systems, including disabling them if need be. You can also
enable hands free parking and rear camera as required, from here.
The Volvo
XC40 scores the highest in terms of its technology package, and there’s nothing
else in this category that matches its sheer level of gadgets. You can also
open the panoramic roof’s curtain to get a roomier cabin, and it also
completely opens in half if you love driving top-down. The digital instrument
cluster is slightly low-res, but you only see this upon closer inspection. It
does a good job of showing all media and navigation data within itself, and you
will never need to take your eyes off the road.
Drive
and ride quality
The Volvo XC40 is coming to
India with only one variant - the fully-loaded R-Design trim with Volvo’s D4
engine that produces 190bhp and 400Nm of torque. This is mated with an Aisin
8-speed automatic gearbox, fourth-generation Haldex intelligent all-wheel-drive
system and, unfortunately, no air suspension. By default, it runs on incredibly
good-looking 18-inch alloys and Pirelli P-Zeros are offered as standard tyres,
which is absolutely brilliant. If you wish, this can be upgraded to 20-inches.
While the
engine is fairly competent and is very well refined in terms of noise, it is
not the most engaging or enthusiastic, in particular. It is strong, though, and
all the torque comes in between 1750-2500rpm, which is around the band in which
it feels the boldest. It feels like a strong engine that has a lot of body and
enough power in the mid- and high-bands, but feels a bit strained once you push
beyond 5000rpm. The eight-speed gearbox is an absolute charm, and shifts
smoothly and adjusts ratios brilliantly in both highways and city snarls. You
also get manual controls with the gear knob and paddle shifters, which allows
you to hold revs and shoot out faster, but the default gearbox is fast enough
and overtaking is never an issue at all.
The steering
wheel is delightfully light in city, and weighs up well to induce confidence on
highways. It could have been a bit heavier and given a bit more feedback, which
would have made driving the XC40 even more enjoyable. Not complaining here,
though, the combination is a winning one and is enough to keep us happy. Volvo
isn’t particularly gunning for high speed glory, as made clear with all the
technology inside. Despite that, the XC40 isn’t a slow coach - our tests
recorded 0-100kph in 8.58 seconds, and when you leave it to the auto ‘box alone
in the flat-out Dynamic drive mode, it took 11.6 seconds to reach 100kph from standstill.
It did feel a bit timid towards the end, but high speed braking fared really
well, which induces further confidence in the car.
The Volvo
XC40 also gets drive modes - Eco for those obsessed with mileage, Comfort as a
median with a slightly restricted engine response, longer gear ratios and a
lighter steering wheel, Off-Road with active torque distribution and
monitoring, Dynamic with flat-out engine, heavier steering response and shorter
gear ratios, and Individual that can be configured from car settings. With the
XC40 not getting air suspension, you can’t tweak that to your preference.
Which brings
us to ride quality - the high-speed ride is absolutely brilliant, ironing out
any road aberration without breaking a sweat. It also feels particularly
planted and solid, and while you do not get the pillowy floating effect of air
absorbers, the steel springs with non-adjustable dampers do well out on
highways. In city roads, however, it does show a bit of weakness. There is a
slight sense of firmness on bad roads that makes for a bit of lateral movement.
Nothing, though, is particularly jarring here, and you feel more or less
comfortable all along.
The rear
seats, however, could have and should have been significantly better. While
legroom, head and shoulder spaces are all more than enough for six-foot frames,
the seat themselves are rather hard and a bit too upright, and therefore gives
the tendency to feel a bit stiff after a point. Sitting three abreast may be a
bit of an issue too, since the bench is not particularly wide. You do feel the
slightly higher stance of the XC40, and there is a little bit of body roll
particularly if you approach corners too fast.
Final
verdict
All things considered, the
Volvo XC40 is a winner in our books. It presents an excellent entry point for
luxury SUV buyers who are looking beyond the already-available options, and
makes a particular splash with all the technology inside. The semi-autonomous
technology works and is reliable as long as it gets its supply of road signs,
the audio system is fabulous, and the car gets enough electronics to keep you
happy. It is also fairly comfortable, presenting good ride quality with a
well-bodied engine and an excellent gearbox. Add the faux wool aesthetics and
Volvo’s minimal approach to the inside and slightly snazzier exterior, and you
have an SUV that can actually be a runaway hit. In Europe, Volvo has already
gathered over 80,000 pre-bookings and is dedicated its entire production line
in Belgium to the new XC40, and will hope that it gets to do the same in India,
too.
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