Eyes Wide Open...

...and jaw on the floor after a spin in the V90 Cross Country

- Rishabh Bhaskar, Anis Shaikh

Isn’t it funny how judging something these days has become second nature for most of us? One glance, one piece of information or almost anything gets us to form an opinion, without seeing the whole picture. You could blame social media for it, or just the fact that nobody’s got the time to look closer.

Take me, for instance. After taking a good look at the pictures of the new Volvo V90 Cross Country, I thought of it as a jacked-up Volvo V90 estate with some AWD goodies to befit the Cross Country badge – the usual crossover formula. But here I am, in Madikeri, Coorg, after having driven the V90 Cross Country from Mangalore and that old adage of not judging a book by its cover has hit me, smack in the face!

We did get a chance to sample the Volvo V90 Cross Country, earlier this year, in the frigid environs of Sweden where Bert was pretty pleased overall with what the car was capable of, in those conditions. Back home, the V90 Cross Country is already starting to impress me, especially with the way it looks. Now don’t scoff at the estate car silhouette and think of it as a design dud in India.

Pictures actually don’t do justice to how good looking the car is when you see it in the flesh. The V90 Cross Country looks handsome, whichever angle you look at it from. The long body, low roofline and that tastefully executed estate rear look great, and why wouldn’t it?

The body panels, such as the bonnet and the doors, right up to the C-pillar are exactly like the Volvo S90, which in my book is among the most stunning automotive designs. From the C-pillar onwards, including the floorboard, is all V90. The dazzling, adaptive, bending LED headlamps and the signature Volvo style LED tail lamps are other design highlights. And then there’s the stance of the car. At 210mm, the V90 Cross Country has SUV-rivalling ground clearance, and those gorgeous 20-inch, 10-spoke alloy wheels are simply something else.