2016 Volvo S60 Cross Country Review – The Sport Utility… Sedan? [Video]

I understand the logic behind the modern crossover, especially in Sweden.

Sweden’s 360,000 mile network of public and private roads is only 30-percent paved. That leaves some 252,000 miles of unpaved glory to explore. This high percentage of unpaved roads explains why Volvos have long had reasonable ground clearance, why the Swedes invented the headlamp wiper, why the XC70 exists and why Haldex was founded there.

The concept of the crossover is to give you the efficiency of a traditional “car” blended with some offroad ability normally found in a truck-based SUV. (Of course, the modern American crossover is little more than an all-wheel-drive minivan with less practical seats.) While other companies created boxy crossovers like the Highlander and CR-V, Volvo took a European approach by starting with a station wagon, adding all-wheel drive and jacking the ride height up to create the first V70 Cross Country. The result was more aerodynamic than an SUV, had the ride height of a crossover, the practicality of a station wagon and the driving position of a car. Hold that thought.

The soft-road wagon is the automotive Capri pant. It’s like a regular wagon, just a little higher off the ankle. This type of crossover has been successful in Europe where we find a variety of quirky vehicles with increased ride heights and all-wheel drive. Heck, Fiat even makes an offroad Panda. In this light, a high riding sedan makes sense. You get the style of a sedan, which is preferred by Americans to station wagons by about a million to one, with the soft-road ability of a Highlander, Escape or Cherokee.

The interesting thing is the creative process that birthed the S60 Cross Country was also the impetus for the X4, X6 and GLC coupé. But wait, those are coupé-crossovers! To that I say two things: first, they have two too many doors to be a coupé for the modern use of the word, and second, if you squint you’ll see exactly the same side profile on an S60 Cross Country and a BMW X4. Don’t believe me? Let’s review:

Now there is a visual difference here: the X4 has a D-pillar behind the rear door while the S60 gives us a hair more trunk. BMW’s Sport Activity Vehicle is really just a liftback with a sedan profile riding on modern crossover underpinnings. How BMW and Volvo arrived at essentially the same profile is worth discussion. BMW took a 3-Series and inflated it to become the X3, then they squished the rear of the X3 until it looked like a 3-Series GT. Still with me? The result is a higher beltline than a traditional sedan and a bulkier front but essentially the same windowline and roofline. Volvo took the more direct path to the same result and just jacked up the S60 to Jeep Cherokee heights. While this form may end up the answer to the question precious few were asking, it is ultimately the same question that caused the X6, X4, ZDX, Crosstour and Mercedes GLC coupé.

Exterior

Interior

Like the regular S60 sedan, the rear seats in the Cross Country are a tight fit. The S60 is one of the smaller luxury sedans in its category. Personally, I am a little surprised that Volvo didn’t use the stretched S60L as the basis for the Cross Country as it would have solved the cramped rear seat problem. The S60 CC’s cargo area is where we see the biggest consequence of Volvo’s decision to leave the S60’s body intact. The trunk in the regular S60 is tight compared to the large hold we find in the 3-Series and it actually shrinks in Cross Country form. You see, the regular S60 doesn’t have a spare and the chassis wasn’t designed to accommodate one either, which is evident in the lack of spare tire well in the trunk. Because Volvo knew this wouldn’t work in a vehicle with a more rugged mission, they raised the trunk floor to squeeze in a donut. The result is more of a cargo slot where the trunk opening is as deep as it is high. The floor of the truck is almost level with the opening of the trunk door.

Infotainment

Volvo’s Sensus system continues to keep up with most of the entries in this segment by adding features to their snappy interface. The system is well laid out, intuitive, and Volvo oddly allows access to essentially everything while the vehicle is in motion. This allows passengers to enter information using the on-dash control wheel without stopping the car. The driver can use the same knob or a control wheel on the steering wheel to control system functions.

Volvo trims the S60 Cross Country only one way — almost fully loaded. That means the normally optional 650-watt Harman Kardon surround sound audio system with HD/XM radio and navigation is standard.

Drivetrain

Sending the power to all four wheels is a re-tuned Aisin 6-speed automatic transaxle and Haldex all-wheel-drive system. Despite receiving some efficiency tweaks a few years ago, the 2.5’s fuel economy still lags behind the X4 at 23 mpg combined according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Drive the Cross Country hard, which is surprisingly easy, and your economy will drop into the 19s. This generation of Volvo’s all-wheel-drive system can send up to 50 percent of available power to the rear axle at any time, or up to 90 percent if a front wheel slips. Volvo also tosses in a brake-based torque vectoring system for improved feel on the twisties.

Pricing

The options list is short because the Cross Country already has everything else standard including Volvo’s excellent radar cruise control, active HID headlamps, premium audio, navigation, LCD instrument cluster, leather, sport seats, park assist, moonroof, and autonomous braking with pedestrian detection.

So how much does it cost you to jack up your S60? As it turns out, nothing at all. This extensive feature set means the Cross Country upgrade actually costs a hair less than a similarly equipped S60 T5 AWD. A comparably equipped Audi allroad will set you back at least $4,000 more and the X4 xDrive28i is $8,000 more than the Cross Country.

Drive

Of course, the CC gets all-wheel drive standard, and the drivetrain management software is programmed to send more power to the rear and do it more often than mass market crossovers. This means that while your Highlander or Sorento will have a moment of front-wheel slip on a gravel road, the S60 won’t. On the downside, that frequent engagement takes a toll on fuel economy and I averaged about the same fuel economy as the last XC60 that I tested.

Although the S60 CC doesn’t have the thrust of the S60 T6, the five-cylinder engine produces nearly as much torque and the car is 200 pounds lighter. Coupled with the faster-shifting automatic, our tester ran to highway speeds in 6.4 seconds in Drive and 6.2 seconds in Sport, essentially identical to our results in a 2015 BMW X4 xDrive28i. Despite having narrower tires than the M-Sport equipped X4, stopping our S60 tester from 60 to zero was achieved four-feet shorter than the Bavarian thanks to the Swede’s lighter curb weight.

The X4 parallel continues when it comes to handling and ride quality in the Cross Country. This is not the pillow-soft AMC Eagle of your childhood. The S60 is firmly sprung in every version including this one. The firmness of the suspension is, like the tire selection, at odds with the supposed offroad mission. On rough roads, the S60 manages to avoid being crashy, but your kidneys will likely be sore by the end of a five-mile dirt road. On the flip side, the S60 actually handles as well as the X4 and exhibits less body roll when the going gets twisty. It’s all down to simple physics: the S60 has a lower center of gravity than the BMW. Even without the optional variable steering, the S60’s tiller is well weighted, accurate and as numb as any luxury car with electric power steering.

Volvo’s XC70 is a very different beast: the soft suspension soaks up poor pavement, the AWD system is sure-footed whatever the weatherman brings your way, and there’s zero kidney bruising to be had when four-wheelin’ it across your organic ranchette. The S60 Cross Country, on the other hand, is made for folks that live down a short gravel road but drive on high-speed winding mountain roads for most of their commute. In other words, my demographic exactly and the same mission as Volvo’s V60 Cross Country.

I live in a home where my better half still won’t let me forget that I bought a Volvo wagon once upon a time. Since it was my daily driver for several years and I picked my battle carefully, I got the wagon anyway. Put this all together and I truly am the target demographic. I live in the redwood forest down a privately maintained gravel road, my nearest neighbor is over a mile away, I’m no longer allowed to buy a station wagon and I have 120 chickens. Don’t ask.

The problem is Americans are not a pragmatic bunch and we’d much rather commute solo on perfectly paved roads in our Cadillac Escalades. Have a gravel driveway? Want to tow a teardrop trailerette? Americans would buy a Ford F-450. Despite the S60 Cross Country being made exactly for my situation, and even taking into account my love for some Euro-funky transportation, I’d buy the XC60 instead.

The S60 Cross Country, like the X4, is the sporty answer to a question I have never asked. How about you?

Volvo provided the vehicle, insurance and one tank of gas for this review.

Specifications as tested

0-30: 2.4 Seconds

0-60: 6.2 Seconds

1/4 Mile: 14.9 @ 93 MPH

Average Fuel Economy: 21.8 MPG