Volvo XC90 review

All XC90s come with electric adjustment for the driver’s seat that includes adjustable lumbar support, so finding a comfy driving position shouldn’t take you long. In fact, it’s one of the most comfortable cars in the class to get behind the wheel of, helped by Volvo’s perennial ability to develop brilliantly supportive seats. The sports seats in R-Design trim are particularly good.

The pedals line up nicely with the steering wheel to ensure there’s no skewed driving position, while dashboard buttons are kept to a minimum with most features operated from the large, tablet-style 9.0in touchscreen.

This isn’t as great as it sounds, though, because while the dashboard looks clean and minimalist, it’s not always easy to use the small on-screen buttons without diverting you attention from the road. Even the climate control has to be operated via the screen – this is far more distracting than using old-school physical controls.

Happily, large windows all round make the XC90 easy to see out of, and relatively slim front pillars help when navigating roundabouts and junctions. Even the over-the-shoulder view is good for such a large SUV (unless the third row of seats are in use, of course).

Not only that, but every version comes equipped with front and rear parking sensors as standard, making it easier to manoeuvre the XC90's large bulk into a tight car park. You also get reversing camera, while a 360deg bird's eye view camera is on the options list.

As said, Volvo has chosen to go down the touchscreen route. Now, as these systems go, it has its plus points, such as a large, extremely high-definition 9.0in tablet-style screen. As with most touchscreens, though, small icons are trickier to use on the move than physical buttons or options selected using a dial controller. And with so many operations incorporated into the screen, the menus can be confusing to work through. We firmly believe that the least distracting infotainment systems are those controlled using a dial – as found in the BMW X5 and Mercedes GLE, for example – rather than touchscreens.

You get DAB radio, Bluetooth and voice control as standard. However, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which allow you to use your smartphone’s apps from the screen, cost extra. The standard 10-speaker stereo sounds good enough, but there’s an excellent 18-speaker Bowers & Wilkins upgrade available if you fancy pushing the boat out.

The XC90’s interior is typical Volvo quality, with a mix of smart materials across the dashboard and around the centre console. There are soft-touch fabrics across the top of the dash, plus gloss-black fascias around the infotainment screen and gear lever. As is always the case, you get what you pay for, so the top-level Inscription trim feels the plushest, with fine-grade Nappa leather seats and dashboard trim. T8 models have a unique touch: a blown-glass gearlever, sourced from a specialty Swedish glassmaker, that looks and feels particularly splendid, even if it does tend to refract sunlight directly into your eyes.

But even entry-level Momentum trim offers what many will agree is a sharp-looking, high-grade interior finish. Quality materials are used in all the key places, along with substantial-feeling switches and buttons; R-Design models add sporty metal inlays, too. It has to be said that you don’t get quite the sense of impeccable robustness that you do from a Q7, but that’s Audi pushing to extreme boundaries rather than Volvo dropping the ball.