To Be Surprised by a Volvo

The people of Volvo South Africa dropped of the sexy v40 v40 Cross Country D4 by the offices in Rosebank on a Wednesday morning. I got the chocolate brownish colour one, I don’t know, I expected it to be in red for some reason or white. I have always thought Volvo is a boring brand or it’s a brand that is not speaking my language as black man. The first thing you get as soon as you enter into the new v40 is that its updated but its not everything, which is confusing at the same time.

The design of the exterior is done so well, you can tell that Volvo has a new design team or design head. I love how they use the lines and how everything is just sexy and aggressive to a certain degree. When you drive the v40 Cross Country for the first time you realize that this car is very responsive and aggression is some sort of a surprise, well a pleasant surprise. I had a meeting in Randburg so that was my first driving experience with the actual driving and you get it quickly that this car is very intuitive and it helps with keeping you safe even when you can’t. Since the Mini Cooper JWC, I’ve been introduced to new technology that I believe that they should just come standard in any other luxury brand.

Things like “keyless feature” is amazing and it should be a standard in every luxury brands, I love the fact that I just need to be in the presence of the car for me to lock it and unlock it. Did I mention that the sound system is amazing? Well it is, there is nothing better than having a car that has a good sound system. The new v40 is actually easier to drive, it thinks for you most of the time from automatic lights to calculating the distance of the car in front of you. Even when the sound is loud, and you are about to get into an accident then music gets lowered automatically and the car starts to make a sound to alert you of the danger.

I don’t have a family but if I had one child and a wife, this would be the perfect car that would merge the two in a seem less way possible. I will go out and say this is probably the safest car I’ve driven and I love the that its also responsive at the same time. One other feature that I liked was the over taking guide, the car lets you know when it’s safe to move to the next lane, I found it very helpful (my first encounter with this feature was when I test drove the Range Rover convertible). The space at the back and the boot is big enough for a family vacation. The only thing that I didn’t like was the old school looking section under the navigation system that reminded me of the old Volvo. The v40 Cross Country is a smart car that looks nothing like the old Volvo, the new Volvo looks nothing like the past but looks like a better future, a safer and faster future. This car is a good one for any new fathers or those who are married and want to start a family soon.

The navigation system is not easy to get used to but as soon as you get the hang of it, everything just connects easily and the sound quality doesn’t change if you are connected via USB or Bluetooth, which is impressive. The dashboard has all the information that you require with regards to the status of the car, I love design and I know the amount of work that goes into building great designs – the new Volvo is designed well both inside and out.

With regards to consumption, I had the D4 which is diesel – I must say that I am slowly falling in love with diesel cars compared to petrol. There was a point when I was just trying to just drive anywhere so that the gauge could move, because if it was petrol I would’ve filled up twice by now.

I cant wait to test drive the rest of the Volvo fleet, because design wise I am excited, they have upped their game in the automotive industry and now more than ever they seem to be a good option.