2017 VOLVO V90 CROSS COUNTRY REVIEW
Channel: Auto Today
Date: 01/02/2017

In today’s Kardashian world, even car brands want to be instantly recognizable from any angle. So we see jumbo, gaping, and occasionally grotesque grilles; bodacious curves; and overwrought lighting signatures. The notion of understated elegance is quaintly obsolete, even among the old-money luxury automakers.

Then there’s the new Volvo S90. With clean lines that flow smoothly from nose to tail and a coupelike roofline, the S90 looks classy without any visual histrionics. It does have a largish rendition of the traditional Volvo grille, but it’s tastefully blended into a clean nose with harmoniously shaped air intakes and headlights.
Of course, the S90 does have its own lighting signatures, with daytime running lights in a Thor’s Hammer configuration within the headlight assemblies and distinctive taillights. The Scandinavian furniture style known as Danish modern relies on pure, unadorned, yet beautifully executed shapes rather than intricate designs, and the S90, appropriately enough, continues this heritage.

Inside, the Volvo maintains this design idiom, with an uncomplicated dashboard layout that is less elaborate than those of its competitors, although it’s not as spare as Scandinavian furniture once was. There’s a nice mix of light and dark leather, matte-finished open-pore wood trim, and polished aluminum. The retractable, multipanel wooden cover that hides the cupholders and stowage area is a particularly rich execution.

Perhaps the S90’s greatest interior distinction is its vertically oriented LCD center-stack infotainment screen, which operates much like a tablet. As you swipe among its screens, you control almost everything in the car—there’s only a thin strip of buttons below the screen—so you’ll need to get familiar with a touchscreen if you’re not already.

Backsound credit by bensound.com