The minute I
drove the 2003 XC70 Cross Country out of the underground garage at
Volvo Canada's
HQ, I had a sense of deja vu.
I'd never before been in a Cross Country, yet I knew this vehicle.
With the XC70's balance, it's
higher-than-normal ride height and the way I sat tall in its big,
comfortable driver's seat, it felt remarkably like the old AMC Eagle
station wagon I owned in the winter of 1991-92. And I hope the nice
folks at Volvo (and they are) don't take that as anything but a
compliment.
I liked that Eagle. With four-wheel drive technology that seems
ancient by today's standards (you couldn't even shift from 2WD to 4WD
on the fly), it got me through a winter even
worse than the one we're enduring. And if all of today's luxury SUVs
should pay homage to the first of their line, the Jeep Wagoneer, all
of today's "crossovers" owe a debt to those old AMC 4x4
wagons. They were ahead of their time.
The Cross Country really reminded me of that Eagle when I drove it
home, 100-plus km, in the worst ice storm I've experienced since that
winter of 1992 - a night on which the outside temperature display
showed 0* C from the time I left the Sun to the moment I pulled into
my driveway.
Unlike the Eagle, though, I didn't have to pull over and stop when
the roads really got bad to shift into four-wheel drive. The XC70 is
always in AWD mode, with no buttons to push and no switches to flick
- the kind of invisible, on-demand and no-brainer system modern
drivers love.
And, unlike the Eagle, I didn't have to stop periodically to get out
and knock the heavy ice buildup off the wipers. Despite carrying a
ponderous load of ice, the Volvo's wipers kept on cleaning a wide
swath of windshield.
I could tell the surface of the 401 was bad
because even the 18-wheelers from Quebec (well, most of them) had
slowed to well under the 100 km/h speed limit. I slowed down, too,
just because it seemed the right thing to do. But I experienced no
slipping or sliding and no loss of control, just remarkable grip from
the Gislaved Nordfrost III tires from Sweden.
I realized conditions might be even worse than I suspected when I
turned up the steep, winding road I live on, and a competitor's 4x4
coming downhill slid sideways around my corner. Then I pulled into my
driveway, put one foot on the pavement - and fell flat on my keister.
It was glare ice. All the way home, I'd been driving on ice without
even a nanosecond of doubt my vehicle was under total control.
The unusual
tread of the Nordfrost IIIs (see photo) make them simply the best
winter tires I've driven on. And they're not expensive, either
- just $134 each for the 215/55/16 size on the XC70. They're
available at Volvo dealers, and you don't need to own a Volvo to buy
a set.
Usually, I complain that whenever I have a 4x4 test vehicle, I get a
week of beautiful weather and bare pavement. Not this time. But the
story of my stormy experience hasn't left me much space to talk about
the other things I like about this Cross Country.
And there's a lot to like.
For instance, like all Volvos it comes with enviable safety equipment
anchored by a four-channel ABS system and precise four-wheel power
disc brakes. The front seats, arguably the most comfortable in the
industry, are equipped with Volvo's whiplash protection system (WHIPS).
As well as driver and front passenger dual threshhold air bags, there
are inflatable side curtains (IC) and a side-impact protection system
(SIPS) with side-impact air bags (SIPSBAG) and pre-tensioners to
reduce upper torso injuries on all five three-point seat-belts. And
all of this in a cabin built inside a high-strength safety cage.
The XC70 derives its power from Volvo's workhorse 2.5-litre inline
five. With a light pressure turbocharger w/intercooler, it produces
208 hp and is coupled only to a silky five-speed automatic.
Tap the gas pedal and this combination results in the smoothest
application of power this side of a continuously variable
transmission. And the Cross Country is no slouch, either,
accelerating from 0-100 km/h in 8.4 seconds, and from 80-120 in 5.4.
The standard eight-speaker sound system is an audiophile's delight.
(An example: the opening baritone sax on Elvis' recording of Return
to Sender felt like it was being played live, in concert, just to the
side of my left knee.) It's one of those distortion-free systems
where you can crank up the volume until the neighbours yell for
mercy.
