The Volvo S90 is not a German luxury sedan. And that is a good thing.
As the weather turns across northern India, so does the light. Instead of the harsh sunlight of the past six months, the early morning hue in the Western Rajasthan is soft and ideal for photography. And with a car like the Volvo S90, the perfect spot would be Meherangarh Fort, the superstar backdrop of hundreds of advertisements for Bollywood and even Hollywood movies.
The problem is that the road up to Meherangarh Fort, one of India’s top tourist attractions, is best described as pathetic. Narrow and potholed and drivers who don’t care about the concept of rules. Oddly though, a great place to try out the S90.
This is a supremely comfortable car, it is possibly the most comfortable of the luxury barges on the market today. Even when you sit at the rear, with the front seats pushed all the way back it oddly feels even more comfortable. That is because of the air suspension this car rides on which smothers potholes. So you still feel the worst of them as well as badly constructed speed breakers, but as I sat at the back of the S90 I really wondered if I wanted to drive this car, not only because it was early morning and I was still sleepy but because I really enjoyed being in the back.
The Volvo S90, which will be launched in a 190 horsepower D4 variant, comes with most of the same features you get in the Volvo XC90, the nicest of which is the tablet controller in the central console. This controller is actually a very good reason to want to sit in the front seats. Volvo has always had lovely central console units; the ‘waterfall’ design in the last generation of Volvo’s was beautiful design but was crowded. The new tablet-style control does away with most ‘hard’ controls and everything is delightfully easy to control, albeit slightly distracting if you are driving the car. But the S90 will also come with a heads-up display as standard. In fact, it will come with everything as standard because at launch it will come at only one trim level. So the nappa leather and the wood inserts, they won’t cost extra. What you see, is what you get.
The S90 also integrates Apple Music and Android Auto into their Operating System. You still use the Volvo system to control the fabulous 19-speaker Bowers&Wilkins audio system with some tremendous sound settings including the Gothenburg Music Hall. In fact, you could drive around all day in this car listening to music. And because Volvo has stated that all their engines going forward will be small four-cylinder 2-litre units on the larger cars with smaller cars getting a 1.5-litre three-cylinder unit, you do this with great economy as well.
So does this car drive wellIJ Well, one way to answer that would be to say that car does feel a bit ‘floaty’ when you turn into corners. It definitely is not the sharpest handling car in its class, but one supposes that the Volvo is not meant to be driven like one is in a rally special stage. This is not a racing yacht. But on the highways outside Jodhpur, the S90 did have one surprise in store. It can go plenty fast. The roads connecting this western outpost with the outside are mostly straight and that suited this car just fine, and on empty stretches without traffic, you could really push the S90. It lacks paddle-shift gear controls though, unlike some competing cars. And the S90 looks good as well, both inside and outside. Sometimes it is the small things, like the air-conditioning controls which have the feel of the crown on a watch. Or the little recess on the boot and the large rear light cluster and the big wheels. This car looks and feels good. So you would not feel out of place when you pull up to a meeting in this car and got out of the back. You would arrive in a good looking vehicle in oodles of comfort.
Volvo is the first manufacturer in India to have radar-enabled control. This allows for lane-assistance as well as park-assist, features that unfortunately I was not able to try out on the relatively empty spaces around Jodhpur but will be sure to try when I drive this car in Delhi. There will be some more radar-assisted features launched later when Volvo introduces a 235-horsepower D5 version of the car sometime in late-2017. But as for now, this version of the S90 which is expected to cost around Rs 55 lakh will definitely give the Germans a run for their money. Indeed, it is possibly the best buy as of today. Although next years things will change dramatically with the new 5-series and E-Class on their way.