Volvo XC60 D3: Road Test

There have always been brands that everybody knows about – big marketing budgets and aggressive strategies turning otherwise unknown entities into household names. Take Audi, BMW and Mercedes for example. These are car manufacturers that need no introduction – they were well known as machines to aspire for even before they made their debuts in our market and the road has been single-minded for them. All they’ve had to do is fight each other.

There are other brands like Nissan and Renault that have had to make themselves known before they can even think about taking on the big Germans. But then there are yet a third kind of brands that have to outgrow a set mould in terms of their image and try and re-establish themselves as forces to reckon with.

This has always been the challenge with Volvo and while the whole of India got the Swedish manufacturer’s name synonymous with luxury early on in the last decade, it was more akin to big buses than suave passenger cars. Aggressive marketing is the need of the hour to change that but for some reason that doesn’t seem to be happening – and that’s quite the shame really because if you take a good look at Volvo’s portfolio, you’ll be quite impressed.

With four models that you can pick from, Volvo’s range features two really good sedans complemented by two awesome SUVs – all of which are not only extremely capable machines but also visually attractive propositions as well. The flagship sedan is the S80 with the massive XC90 SUV right by its side while the S60 and the XC60 make for the lower range. These cars have been selling in India with a nice mix of petrol and diesel engines and it’s good to see that the company isn’t sitting still with the little that they have achieved – but are actually bringing in more and more to add value to the Swedish brand even further.

So while the D5 diesel engine was the ruling oil burner all these years, it is now getting pressured by a much younger and smaller engine and as far as the customer is concerned, it’s nothing but a win-win situation. Pop those hoods and say hello to the D3 turbodiesel. In a nutshell, this is what you get with improving technology – smaller capacities proving their larger brethren completely wrong and in most cases rendering them near obsolete.

TECHNOBABBLE

The D3 engine is a little bit of a marvel in itself and unlike what most people will  think – it is not just a downscaled version of the bigger D5 five-cylinder 2.4- litre mill. In fact, the D3 still retains its unusual inline five-cylinder layout with the overall capacity down to 2 litres. The biggest difference on the D3 compared to the D5, apart from the capacity of course, is a different type of piezoelectric fuel injector which is claimed to increase fuel efficiency with a more precise control of the injection pulses.

The D3 also lets go of the D5’s sequential twin turbo induction in favour of a single turbine which actually ensures a whole lot of power just above idle speeds – delivering its peak torque of 400Nm right from 1400rpm and keeping it up there till the rev counter touches 2850rpm. It also has lighter camshafts, connecting rods and crankshaft as well as a new vacuum pump, flywheel sensor and piston rings. All of that makes this 1984cc oil burner churn out 165PS of power at 3500rpm.

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Power comes with responsibility on the Volvo D3 engine and along with all those horses comes a brake energy generation which further helps keep CO2 levels down to just 179g/km. Then there’s a maintenance-free particle filter that effectively brings down the soot content in exhaust gases and along with advanced emission control technologies makes the D3 comply with Euro 5 emission standards. If you think the Volvo D3 engine is already worth whatever money the Swedish are charging for it, there’s more!

The D3 engine has made its way to the engine bays of the S60, S80 and the XC60 which is great in itself but if there’s one thing that Volvo is known for all over the world it is its uncompromising attitude towards safety and luxury.

Volvo is known for many firsts in the automotive safety world and those who don’t really know about this aspect much need to simply google it for a long-drawn love affair with making cars safer. The Indian D3 models are no different and making it standard to all three cars is Laser Assisted Automatic Braking that automatically brakes the vehicle in case of an imminent collision – a really handy tool to have in our cities where other cars, bikes, pedestrians, dogs and everything that can be moved is a threat on road. Adding to the features list are Whiplash Protection, Active Bending Lights, Dynamic Stability Traction Control and an Interior Air Quality System.

THE COMPLETE PACKAGE

Diesel seems to be the new petrol and with everybody scrambling to get themselves a diesel hatch, sedan or SUV, the XC60 seemed like the best test of the D3 engine – after all if it works well in the not-so-big SUV, it’s got to work well on the sedans too, right? At 1746kg, the XC60 D3 isn’t really super light by any standards but the way the engine puts down all its torque just above idle rpm and keeps it there through the normal operating range is remarkable.

Most times while driving through cities on your regular commutes you’d hardly go beyond the 3000rpm mark on your tacho and the XC60 D3’s six-speed Geartronic automatic transmission does well to keep the engine in that band thus ensuring you always have all the shove you need to accelerate out of sticky situations without batting an eyelid.

The driveability on this car is one of the best we’ve seen in recent times with next to no turbo lag while at it. Stretch its legs and the D3 has enough grunt to get you into three-digit speeds in the shortest time possible but even with all that weight to lug around on a 2-litre engine, the XC60 returned respectable fuel efficiency figures all round.

Volvo claims the XC60 will return 14.7kmpl in the standard cycle but real world conditions meant that it went almost 10 kilometres to a litre of fuel in our tests and that isn’t really as bad as it sounds. Consider the superb suspension set-up that the XC60 has always had and which is pretty much carried over to the D3 variant and you have a comfortable vehicle loaded with technology that gives great efficiency and will save your back from buckling while on broken roads as well.

Mind you, the XC60 D3 is a soft-roader and it won’t really take you off the beaten path as much as you would want it to, but that’s what it was made for – battling the everyday rigours of the urban jungle. Which is also why it sheds its All Wheel Drive badge and settles for a more conventional front-wheel drive set-up. Trust the car’s electronics to keep you well in control though and on a very wet expressway drive between Mumbai and Pune it never once scared us even a tiny bit.

SHOULD YOU BUY ONE THEN?

The XC60 D3 is a gorgeous machine – especially if you soak in all its visual details. It has loads of equipment coming as standard as well including what is arguably the best set of headlights we’ve seen in the Indian market. On the inside it is extremely comfortable and will tickle your auditory senses with a state-of-the-art music system.

The air-con is fabulous and the seats are so supportive you’d want to sit in them all day. The XC60 D3 does everything that the D5 does – in some cases in a grander way than the bigger capacity engine ever did. That simply means that the D5 is good for just a few fractions of a second saved in traffic light GPs and for a pseudo smirk just because it’s got more cylinder volume than the D3.

And then comes the price – at Rs 33.99 lakh for the base Kinetic version and Rs 36.99 lakh for the Summum (ex-showroom, Delhi), the XC60 D3 is also big value-for-money. So do we recommend it? Of course we do – it’s a great option for those who want an urban SUV of that size and are looking at a little exclusivity too. The only problem is, with only eight dealers listed on Volvo’s official website, you’ve got to find a showroom in your city first!