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The 2022 Volvo XC60 SUV adds a new layer of safety technology called Steering Assist, which steers the motorcar out of the way of trouble on the highway and in town. The XC60 also includes a quieter, more luxurious cockpit that comfortably carries four adults.

The 2nd generation of Volvo's compact premium SUV is mod and competitive with the all-time from Germany, Asia and the US. That's skillful. As with other premium automakers, however, Volvo puts some desirable driver and safety assists in $1,000-$two,000 options packs. Blind spot detection and adaptive prowl command are package options, not standard the way nosotros'd prefer.

Volvo's safety in activeness

Volvo's 2 (just) USB jacks.

I drove Volvo's top-of-the-line XC60 T6 Inscription, which as tested cost over $60,000 with virtually every pick including the $i,800 air suspension and a $three,200 B&Due west audio organisation. The XC60 T5 Momentum, the entry model, starts at $42,000. In boondocks and on highways, the XC60 is swift, serenity, light (a panoramic sunroof is standard) and airy. The rear seats hold three and are quite comfortable for two adults traveling long distances, as long as they don't need USB ability; the front console has the auto's only two jacks. Apple tree CarPlay and Android Automobile are standard.

The standard safety assists include lane keep aid, run-off road mitigation (pulls the motorcar back if it starts to become off-road), run-off road protection (protection of the spine if the car lands hard), commuter drowsiness alert, route sign recognition, auto-brake after collision, the latest iteration of Volvo Urban center Safety, and telematics with crash notification.

My test car had the optional head-up display, office of the $1,900 advanced package that as well has steerable LED headlamps and environment-view cameras.

Steering Assistance enhances 3 commuter help technologies

There'southward a new version of Volvo Pilot Aid in the XC60 that combines full-range adaptive cruise control and lane go along assist, activated with a single button on the steering wheel. Pilot Assist is role of the $2,000-$2,200 convenience parcel. Volvo'due south LKA implementation warns if you lot're nigh to cross over a lane marker. It then steers or brakes you dorsum into lane, just won't center itself in lane as would, say, a Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, or Acura.

Volvo added Steering Assist to 3 existing technologies. With Steering Assist plus blind spot detection, if you lot try to change lanes when there's a car coming up fast in the blind spot (and if you ignore the alerts), Steering Assist nudges you lot back. If yous veer across the middle line and there's an oncoming vehicle, you'll exist steered back; Volvo calls this Oncoming Lane Mitigation. The jack-of-all trades Volvo City Safety (that detects cars, cyclists, people, and large animals, and slows or stops to avoid them) volition provide additional steering try if you lot try to steer around an obstruction at depression speed. Steering Assistance is standard, every bit is City Safety. Bullheaded spot detection is office of an $ane,100 vision package, along with parking aid and dimmable rear view mirrors.

Sensus center stack brandish

Volvo is near-unique in offering standard a vertical 9-inch center stack display, Sensus. It mimics a tablet, including a home button simply below the display, and the ability swipe left or right for additional menu pages: car functions and applications. Volvo said it has improved the touch-screen interface, although others reviewers exam driving the motorcar said they found information technology at times confusing. Volvo said drivers become more comfortable after a couple weeks.

The standard fonts on the Sensus screen will seem a bit minor to some, an result that afflicted others such as Ford Sync in its early years. The 12.3-inch digital Driver Brandish, or digital musical instrument panel, is legible, with 1 exception: Some secondary prompts, including navigation info, are hard to see on sunny days; they're in a medium blue font on a black background.

Better than Mercedes, more disruptive than Honda

People think of Volvo as the safe-car company. (It is.) It can slug toe-to-toe with Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz and come out ahead: Lane go along assist and LED headlamps are standard only on the XC60.

But Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 have a simpler story to tell: Buy our small SUV and the fundamental safety stuff comes standard. Honda calls it Honda Sensing and (except on the low-volume entry 60) the CR-Five comes standard with stop-and-go adaptive cruise control, lane go along assist, and blind spot detection. Toyota Safe Sense-P (TSS-P) gives every RAV4 the same, except bullheaded spot detection is an option.

Volvo goes beyond what CR-V and RAV4 offer, just for the cadre driver rubber assists — ACC, BSD, LKA — Volvo requires $2,200 and $1,100 options packages. Volvo might want to consider a simpler, more than inclusive approach downwards the road.

Is the XC60 worth waiting for?

The XC60 comes ii years after the breakthrough Volvo XC90, a midsize SUV that was the beginning to use Volvo's Scalable Platform Architecture technology to build different size cars, wagons, and SUVs out of a common architecture. SPA cars have one engine family unit available in turbocharged (250-hp T5), turbocharged and supercharged (316-hp T6), or turbocharged and supercharged with a hybrid-electric motor (400-hp T8). So far, the SPA platform has hatched the XC90, S90 sedan, V90 wagon (this summertime), and XC60.

The XC60 is a polished vehicle, enjoyable to drive or ride in, and non at all cramped at 185 inches long. Most users will exist happy with the Momentum trim and either the T5 or T6 engines. They will accept to choose carefully to get the right features and technologies.

My suggestion: Start with the XC60 T6 Momentum, which costs $45,895 including $995 freight. If you're serious about safety and technology, you'll desire three more than options packages: the $one,100 Vision parcel, the $1,900 Avant-garde package, and the $2,200 Convenience package. Dropping back to the turbo-merely T5 engine saves $3,000. Only the XC60 Inspiration, $three,800 more, provides admission to the ventilated, massaging, premium leather seating package with heated steering wheel and heated front/rear seats for another $3,000. The 15-speaker Bowers & Wilkins premium is fantastic, but information technology'due south $iii,200; the base organisation has 10 speakers.

The 2022 Volvo XC60 is already in production. The US gets showtime deliveries in late summer, with the hybrid arriving in fall. In Europe, the shorter, taller first-generation XC60 has been the top seller among compact luxury SUVs for several years; here, the XC90 rounds out the top ten. Volvo hopes to sell almost 30,000 new XC60s in its starting time full year hither, which would put it in the top v.

Volvo expects 60 per centum of sales will be the entry XC60 Momentum, most 20 percent the peak-line Inscription, and about 10 percent sporty R-Design. Based on Volvo's technology and rubber, the 2022 XC60 arrives on equal ground with the best from Audi, BMW, and Mercedes, as well as the premium Usa and Japanese makers of compact SUVs. Volvo is back.