SA Roadtests
South Africa
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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Most, but not all, the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live.
My most recent drive is on the home page. Archived reviews and opinion pieces are in the active menu down the left side. Hover your cursor over a heading or manufacturer's name and follow the drop-down.
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Posted: 5 June 2017
The numbers
Base price: R829 400
Engine: 1969 cc, DOHC 16-valve, four-cylinder turbodiesel
Power: 173 kW at 4000 rpm
Torque: 480 Nm between 1750 and 2250 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 7.0 seconds
Maximum speed: 240 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 8.4 l/100 km
Tank: 60 litres
Boot: 500 litres
Warranty and maintenance: 5 years / 100 000 km
Time goes by. Things change. Truths alter. BMWs and Audis progress from being sporty cars to luxurious sporty cars. Mercedes-Benzes go from being luxury cars to luxury performance cars. Mass marketers Toyota and Nissan step up to the newly attractive market with Lexus and Infiniti. Jaguar sheds its Old Man’s Car persona to go opulent, quick and beautiful.
And more recently Volvo the Viking, Tsar of Safety, elected to shake off the boring image that goes with the title to join the migration - while remaining protective, naturally.
Step One was to reclaim his sporting car heritage by coaxing more power out of legacy motors, improving handling and going saloon car racing. Step Two was to develop new engines, streamline production, cut costs and hammer-blast his way to technological leadership. Step Three was to step confidently up-market with his 90-Class cars.
Why the hell not? Niche markets and luxury cars are where the real money (with accompanying profitability) lies. Ask Porsche and others. According to a 2015 Standard Bank survey over 135 000 South African households earn in excess of R1.5-million per year while a further 65 964 families wallow through on R2.36-million plus.
Marking Volvo’s return to the large executive sedan segment, S90 offers upscale Swedish luxury, supreme comfort and space, modern Scandinavian design, Drive-E (the new engine line) efficiency and semi-autonomous driving as standard on all models. S90, like XC90, is built on Volvo Cars’ Scalable Product Architecture (SPA), offers a range of petrol and diesel engines, and is available in three trim levels to cater to a wide audience.
Our test car came with D5, Volvo’s most powerful diesel and in mid-range Inscription trim. You have seen the “D5” tag before. It belonged to a 2.4-litre, five-cylinder engine that put out either 147 kilowatts and 420 Newton-metres or 158 kW/480 Nm. This is not it. The new, four-cylinder D5 displaces only 1969 cc but produces 173 kW with 480 Nm of torque.
Part of its secret is PowerPulse technology. Driving all four wheels, it features two-stage, series-sequential twin-turbocharging with variable geometry; augmented by a two-litre tank of compressed air. The air feeds through on demand to the high-pressure turbo, both on pull-away and under light throttle, for instant spool-up, effectively removing turbo lag. The tank is quickly topped up each time to ensure that another burst is always available. Volvo Car is the only manufacturer currently using this technology.
It does what it says: Power feels huge, the car accelerates strongly, the gearbox always seems to have exactly the right ratio ready and it does so quietly. Cruising at 120 km/h in eighth needs only about 1900 rpm.
All S90s have dual zone climate control, satellite navigation, LED headlights with active bending and dipping, ten-speaker sound with the usual inputs (CD is optional), Internet connectivity, voice control and ability to view pictures and video programming. Smartphone integration, that allows you to take full advantage of iOS or Android applications, is a R4000 option. S90s feature semi-autonomous driving ability too. Read about that in our review of the T6 petrol version we drove a couple of months ago.
Much has been written about Volvos’ ability to detect pedestrians, cyclists, large animals and cars stopping suddenly in front of you and then to brake appropriately. They also detect danger approaching from behind, flash warnings to the perpetrator and apply brakes to prevent or lessen secondary collisions. Then we have distance alert, drowsiness warning, lane keeping, lane departure, and road sign monitoring.
Have we mentioned the collapsing front seats recently? If, despite the car’s best efforts to keep you between the painted lines and autonomously braking to save you, and you still manage to drive off the edge, the chairs feature built-in collapsibility. The idea is to absorb as much impact as possible so you stand a better chance of keeping your vertebrae intact.
About the only safety items left to add, as options, are blind spot information (BLIS), a head-up display and cross traffic alert (CTA).
Immediately noticeable once seated in the front office is that there are very few buttons and knobs. That’s because almost everything is selected, deselected, chosen or adjusted by means of the 9“ display screen on the central dash. Technophiles love it. Technophobes mutter darkly about ultimate wet dreams of 14-year-old boys who, they hasten to add, could never afford the car themselves.
On the upside, it looks very tidy and, once you have rented a tame teenager to select your favourite defaults, you can leave things as they are and get on with driving. Driving quietly, comfortably, safely and with all the space you need, of course.
Test unit from Volvo Car SA press fleet
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This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.
I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material.
If ever I place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with a very similar vehicle already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.
Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. There are no advertisers and no “editorial policy” rules. I add bylines to acknowledge sponsored launch functions and the manufacturers or dealerships that provide the test vehicles. And, as quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so you can see I do actually exist.
Comments?
Want to ask a question, comment or just tell me you completely disagree with what I say? If you want advice or have a genuine concern, I will be happy to hear from you. All I ask is that you write something in the subject line so I know which vehicle you're talking about.
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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8