Almost everyone likes the latest generation of large Volvo models. Mostly for those who would like to combine elegant shapes with the old legend of the unbreakable Swedish tank. Let’s put it this way: they are beautiful cars, but for the outrageous amount of money they could have been nicer.
We first encountered the Volvo S90 (sedan) and V90 (station wagon) in the second half of the nineties. At that time, it was a rebranded 960 model, i.e. an old, angular classic with a longitudinally mounted six-cylinder engine and rear-wheel drive. A car that didn’t embarrass itself even in front of the theater, while it needed less space to turn backwards than the Felicia, and from whose purposefully angular and richly glazed bodywork, there was a wonderful view. In addition, everything could be controlled even in mittens.
The current namesakes, produced since 2016, are the exact opposite of all that. Function subordinated to pleasing shapes, low position like in a rocket, turning diameter of a bus. Under the hood, an exclusively transverse two-liter four-cylinder with different levels of turbocharging and hybridization. On the dashboard, a large touch screen of the Sensus system, with which you can even control the heating. The corresponding control icons are elegantly small, so adjusting the heating or turning down the seat heating on a bumpy road means driving a kilometer blind. It’s strange that the security-obsessed Swedes don’t mind this. But let’s be calm, we won’t be allowed to kill ourselves at a speed higher than 180 km/h from the 2021 model year…
The entrance fee has become more expensive
The price level has also changed a lot. The basic model started at 1.3 million, and it was realistically no problem to climb up to double that – with the rare high-end plug-in hybrids T8 Twin Engine (today T8 Recharge) loaded with full extra equipment. Which also adequately raised the prices of used cars. Back in the days of the previous S80/V70, it was true that a six-year-old car cost an average of CZK 300,000. For the successor S90/V90, get ready for twice as much. Meanwhile, the average annual mileage of executive large Volvos has not decreased in any way, so the first dilemma surrounding the bargain S90/V90 starts with whether you find it adequate to pay, for example, 600,000 CZK for a car with 200,000 km.
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