Cars.com's Mike Hanley takes a look at the 2010 Volvo XC60. It competes with the Acura RDX and Land Rover LR2.
Transcript
(upbeat music) <v Announcer>Cars.com auto review. (upbeat music) Hi, Mike Hanley with cars.com and we're here at the Chicago Auto Show. And this is the Volvo XC60.
It's an all new compact luxury crossover from Volvo that competes against models like the Mercedes GLK 350 and Audi Q5. It's getting to be a crowded segment in the luxury market, but the Volvo distinguishes itself by having unique safety features. (upbeat music) The XC60 has a pretty sleek shape overall. It looks a little bit like a large hatchback, and Volvo uses unique lighting elements to help distinguish the vehicle and on the street. You can see here, it has these led lights running from the top of the roof all the way down to the side of the car, coming around to the side. XC60 comes with standard 18 inch alloy wheels, and Volvo also uses lighting in the front of the vehicle to help distinguish it with these slanted running lights on the inner portion of the headlights. (upbeat music) I recently had a chance to drive the XC60 before this show. And overall it's a pretty sporty vehicle for a crossover. It comes standard with a three liter turbocharged six cylinder engine, and that makes 281 horsepower and 295 pounds feet of torque. Now all that torque comes on at low RPM, which translates into strong performance in the real world, even on mountainous roads. The suspension tuning in the XC60 is on the firm side, but that also yields sporty performance on twistier roads. (upbeat music) In this segment, you have to have a high quality cabin to be competitive, and the XC60 does. You can see here that some of the things that separate it from some of its competition include these two-tone seating treatments, which are a no charge option over the standard leather seats. This is the espresso and beige pattern. It also is available with this light wood trim in the center console. It's called Nordic Light Oak, and it goes in place of the standard aluminum trim. (upbeat music) The XC60 debuts a new Volvo safety feature called City Safety. And it's designed to reduce the severity or eliminate rear-end collisions. Now it's a laser-based system that's constantly monitoring traffic in front of the vehicle. And if it senses a collision may occur, it can aggressively brake the vehicle. (upbeat music) The XC60 starts at $37,200, and that makes it not the cheapest crossover out there, but it comes well-equipped and it goes on sale this March. <v Announcer>For more car related news, go to cars.com or our blog, kickingtires.net.
