Volvo XC60 is posher than posh

31 Oct 2026

Ian Lamming enjoys the latest upmarket approach of the new Volvo XC60

A few years ago, a friend treated herself to her first ever ‘posh car’.

It was a Volvo XC60 and I remember thinking ‘aww bless’. That was then and a couple of models back. If she bought an XC60 today she would be incredulous because the popular SUV has moved on leaps and bounds.

Slide demurely inside its capacious interior and the first thing you notice is the detailing and design.

Too many cars nowadays exhibit lazy design work. Get a plastic moulded dashboard and slap a couple of touchscreen TVs on them – yeah that’ll do.

Well, it won’t unless the car is a cheap throwaway, designed to get you from A to B with little thought or finesse.

That’s okay for a certain market of traveller but not those discerning customers who still require quality, engineering, peerless design and great driving dynamics.

Those customers, who often turn to look at their car in the drive before walking into the house, or sneak a glance as they leave it in the company car park, demand more and Volvo has been sating their needs for decades.

These appreciative folk, who also drive other prestige brands, will definitely look up from their phones and enjoy the aesthetics of the latest XC60.

It has a sheen, an aura, an indiscernible quality that catches the eye.

It’s a sizeable SUV with recognisably Volvo grille, lights and lines, which give it great presence on the road.

You’ll most certainly wash it in your drive regularly or take it to the local valeter on a weekly basis to keep it spick and span.

Inside, designers have gone to town. The quality of trim, fixtures and fittings is exemplary and the blend of textures, leather, soft touch materials, metal detailing and shapes are delightful on the eye and to touch.

A mixture of proddy buttons and dabby touchscreen look after major and minor functions intuitively and those tasks are myriad. This car wants for nothing.

The multi-speaker sound system is superb adding to the overall ambience and shouting that this is a prestigious motor.

XC60 T8 is a plug-in hybrid. So you can add a powerful electric motor to the even lustier 2.0 four-cylinder turbo.

Combined output is a very useful 406hp. Economy is good while the electric side is charged, it will even do 45 miles on volts alone, but once it has gone then economy drops to low 40s, which is still ok.

Not that you will use it, the 0-62mph sprint time is 4.9 seconds, which is quite impressive for a large jalopy. More real world is the enormous mid-range which makes overtaking slower movers an absolute breeze.

Handling is a curate’s egg. So, on the one hand, the XC’s suspenders smother the lumps, bumps and craters of modern roads extremely well.

You can also influence the weighting of the steering at a dab of the touchscreen, but I failed to find any way to stiffen the air suspension and, for me, there’s a bit too much rocking and rolling through the bends.

It has the performance but the handling doesn’t encourage its use down country roads. It isn’t an issue unless you want to hustle and the XC60’s other splendid traits tend to lend themselves to a more relaxed approach.

Being a Volvo, the XC60 is one of the safest vehicles on the road. Volvo invented safety so it shouldn’t come as any surprise. But the clever bits, hidden from plain sight, monitor you and those around you who try their best to injure and take appropriate action.

So, my friend, how the new XC60 has improved on the creditable vehicle you spent your hard-earned pennies on?

In every respect the latest Volvo is improved on previous iterations. What’s posher than posh, I hear you ask. The new XC60, that’s what.