On the road: Volvo XC90 – <b>car review</b> | Technology | The Guardian |
| On the road: Volvo XC90 – <b>car review</b> | Technology | The Guardian Posted: 28 Aug 2015 09:59 PM PDT Friends of mine already have the Volvo XC90, the previous incarnation, which to all intents and purposes is the same, only not so safe. (When I say "not so safe", that is within the margin of "extremely safe: I would look as safe to an inhabitant of the 80s or 90s as a Bugaboo would look to a person on a ski lift".) The new version has its sensors and its autobraking, its blind spot information system, its cross traffic alert (a lane discipline feature, basically) and its intelligent cruise control, which effectively enables you not only to stop driving but also to go to sleep. It's a progressive version of the mega-car, cocooning its inhabitants but paying more than lip service to the fact that it is also nice not to kill cyclists. Back to my friends – I asked them what they thought of the previous model, and the man said: "This is really a criticism of myself more than the car – when all you ever do is drive two miles down a gentle hill, and then two miles back up, this is the worst car imaginable." The woman said: "I like the automatic tailgate, it's designed so you can sit on it and take your wellies off. But when all you ever walk on is pavement…" It's not an urban car, or if you think it is – you see them everywhere – then you're not an urban person. Imagining you're in the country, it's got a huge amount to recommend it: the acceleration is beefy but steady; the fuel consumption is better than you'd expect. It is an active pleasure to hear it moving through its gears (it's an eight-speed automatic); finely tuned, pushing the most out of each one, never any strain. It has the solidity that is the entire reason anyone would become an executive rather than live in a tree: nothing will fox this car, not your active lifestyle (it could take 100kg of bike on the roof), nor your ridiculous boat (2,700kg on the tow ball). And that's before you surrender to the leather plushness, a nine-inch satnav screen so sharp and clean you could watch Top Gun on it. Nevertheless, the size and height of it – two metric tonnes of smooth electric silver, a driving position that dwarfs everyone but bus drivers – means that it's like wearing boots when everyone else is wearing shoes. What this does to your driving personality will depend very much on your regular personality. I had to have a very hard look at myself at the end of this review, and I didn't like what I saw. I did like the car, though, so you know, swings and roundabouts. You would not have liked me on a roundabout.
Price £61,880  |
| On the road: VW Polo GTi – <b>car review</b> | Technology | The Guardian Posted: 14 Aug 2015 10:00 PM PDT The Polo GTi, a 1.8-litre engine, 190bhp – it's as poky as a Scotch bonnet, and as ready to go as a man in a pub whose eighth pint you've just spilled. It comes as a surprise to your fellow road user, who might mistake you for a regular Polo driver. But a regular Polo can't pull you out of bed, while this can get you from zero to 62 in 6.7 seconds. It is somewhat ridiculous – the fabric on the seats looks like the kind of tartan a low-level conman might wear after he'd got married and his wife had told him to tone it down a bit – but it is extremely fun. You can choose between manual and automatic. I had the six-speed manual: the efficiency is not as good. It's in the same band as the automatic, but 10 extra g/km will be significant for some. But it is a droll little drive, more like a delinquent companion than a car. It's about as small as it could be, and pulls off like a rocket. Motorway driving is a blast: even in 6th, you get lots of torque. "Nobody's more surprised about this than I am," said my face as I hurtled up the rear carriages of the other motorists. It has an ESC sport setting borrowed from the Golf, whereby you can turn off the traction control and swoosh all over the place. I prefer it with traction control, frankly – the sports setting is for track driving and maniacs. But people who like this kind of thing will be thrilled that they can do this kind of thing. Then I realised with a start who this car is actually for: it is the perfect sweet spot between the 19-year-old cooking up ways to injure themselves, and the parent buying the car, dreaming up obstacles to those injuries. A huge amount of thought has gone into the sporty effect; the handling is pin-sharp, partly thanks to the XDS Plus system (another Golf steal, it compensates for understeer); every unnecessary kilo has been trimmed; every trim has been super-trimmed. But the safety consideration is surprisingly prominent; VW is proud of its automatic post-collision braking system, which, as the name suggests, brakes as soon as the car is involved in an accident, reducing kinetic energy and consequently the chances of another smash, which is apparently where a lot of injuries come from. Downsides are that there isn't much space, particularly in the boot. They talk a good game about the Isofix safety feature for kids, but I preferred the drive as a child-free zone. Look, you have to want to drop 20 grand on your own amusement. That is some hurdle. But once you've cleared it, the amusement will surely follow. Price £19,530 |
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