Safety Meets Luxury

We were in Spain for a first drive in the new Volvo XC60. Here is how it went

- Aspi Bhathena

LUXURY CAR MANUFACTURERS are known for the type of cars they make. Whereas BMW are known as a sporty drivers’ car brand, Mercedes are famous for their luxury. While Audi seek to strike the right balance between sport and luxury, Volvo are known for making the safest cars. The Swedish car-makers were not known to make good-looking cars in the past, but that changed with the new XC90 and the S90. Now Volvo not only make safe cars, but cars that are also well-designed and luxurious.

The new XC60 is built on the new SPA (scalable product architecture) platform and shares its underpinning with the XC90 and S90. The Thor’s Hammer LED headlamps merge into the wide chrome grille and the sculpted lines on the bonnet start from the grille and merge into the A-pillars. The flared wheel-arches along with the low, wide look at the front give the XC60 an aggressive and sporty stance.

The tornado line starts from the Thor’s Hammer headlamp and runs along the wheel-arch, the front and rear doors, and over the rear wheel-arch to merge into the bracket rear tail-lamps. The flared rear wheel-arches, low roofline with the spoiler and bracket LED tail-lamps along with the twin rear exhaust give the rear a wide and sporty stance and the SUV good proportions.