For you who read this blog’s previous article, this is the second part of the comments on Volvo’s recent group facelift. But even if you came to this one first, there’s nothing to worry about. Since this event has involved several vehicles at once, writing appropriately about them demanded some kind of division. This blog has dedicated the first article to the traditional team of this automaker’s line, while this one is dedicated to the “subversive” group. In other words, you’re going to read about the other kind of very important Volvos.
Taking a quick look on these Swedish cars over the last decades reveals this brand was never really concerned with following each moment’s design trends. They were always reliable vehicles, with comfortable and spacious cabins and unbelievable worrying with the safety, but also just sailed through from the 1950s to the 1970s pretty much oblivious to the other brands’ dedication of creating and following new design trends. In fact, they’ve only became some sort of up-to-date in the 1980s because the whole market ended up converging into the “philosophy” Volvo had never stopped to follow – long story short, Volvo’s sedans and wagons like the 700 Series only became fashionable because everyone else was starting to use very similar stylings. Looking at the 1991 460 and 850 series led to think this decade wouldn’t change that attitude very much, but it turned out it did. This decade’s cars not only were recovering from the 1970s’ oil crises as were also approaching the long-awaited new millennium, which stimulated almost every automaker to create their own interpretations of futurism for their upcoming vehicles. Volvo started resisting to follow this creative moment, and one fact is this decision prevented it from having poorly accepted projects such as 1998 Fiat Multipla or 1994 Ford Scorpio, but that time’s market expectations wouldn’t maintain this “immunity” for too long.
Even though many of these “too futuristic” cars ended with poor sales, the overall result was the market starting to be more receptive to novelties than ever. The public started to like the idea of having different car designs, sizes and even categories, which made pioneers such as Citroën Berlingo, Renault Twingo and Volkswagen Sharan fairly successful. So Volvo finally decided to surrender, but doing it in style: it was hard to believe that the new entry line, S40 and V40, came one year before the upmarket S90. These cars were the first to make the Swedish automaker understand that sometimes even the heaviest traditions need to be revised somehow, in order to keep attracting customers. Few years later it was S80’s and S60’s time, not so “revolutionary” but still much more attractive than the replaced models. Their great acceptance by public and press motivated Volvo not only to keep updating the line as also to innovate beyond the level already established: that’s when V70 Cross Country deserves another mention. This time not for that crossover-pioneering merit, but for representing an initiative like Volvo hadn’t had in decades. After all, even with having several price ranges satisfied within the luxury class, Volvo’s reputation wasn’t too pleasant: most people became used to see these cars as rational, reliable and even sophisticated, but not enough to make worthy giving up of a German equivalent.
And now we arrive at the “Revolvolution” moment. After only starting to think about changing, releasing the first S60 in 2000 was the first firm step towards the new-millennium Volvos. Most of the station wagons carried over the boxy rear, but the overall impression was this time they were offering the same discretion of before but in a much more up-to-date style, with several elegant details such as a three-dimensional effect to make their transverse section wider from the handles’ height down than around the windows, giving imponent “muscles” which were followed by S60 and S80’s tail lights design. So since transforming those initial plans from the 1990s into actual changes were starting to get very positive feedback from everyone, the automaker started to be less “scared” of innovating. 2003 saw the very first Volvo true SUV’s release, XC90. After that, the C70 line was redesigned for 2005, and there was even a new entry-level car: C30 was a hatchback, but with a very attractive coupe-inspired styling and taking advantage from the brand being owned by Ford at that time – the compact’s platform was shared with Ford Focus’s family. The following years had some quiet time, until it was time to give S60 a new generation. And since the previous started this entire series of changes in Volvo, the second one had big expectations from the public. The 2010 arrival ended not only satisfying but also surpassing them, by a wide margin.
This is the moment when we converge to this article’s car family. Family because S60’s aggressive and sporty design has been so well-accepted that motivated its own station wagon, the also gorgeous V60… and even XC60. Once again Volvo’s changes achieved big approval, because these are very impressive cars. There brought better interior quality, cutting-edge technologies and even bigger safety package, but wrapped in a boldly attractive design. That’s why they found interesting to release an urban crossover at the same platform… and today that’s why the new facelift wasn’t so “understood”. They preserve all those qualities, but removing the two-part headlights for a conventional set with wider grille is like removing that “extra”. The great part, though, is the addition of items: the infotainment system’s display brings a new technology to enable being used with gloved hands, and offers Internet connection even as a Wi-fi hotspot for inside the car. The analogic dashboard was replaced by a TFT screen with three modes: Elegance is the traditional look, Eco brings green background with fuel consumption gauge and eco meter, while Performance throws bigger tachometer and power meter, turning the lights red. The safety package received anti-blinding lights system, Cornering Light, Pedestrian Detection, cross-traffic alert and blind-spot monitoring. Those are the only pictures so far, but we can always hope for the old boldness to return with the R-Design packages.
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