Editor-in-Chief | Zhong Kun
Author | Yellow Beats
Edit | Chen Shuhao
Reports from car hoist circles
Because of its high latitude, Northern Europe has always been synonymous with cold, and the Nordic people who have lived here for a long time have also left an indifferent impression on the world because of the climate, but rather than being indifferent, I think the more appropriate adjective should be "slow heat". In Northern Europe, not only people are slow to heat up, but cars are even slower.
Speaking of Nordic cars, it must not be able to bypass Sweden, whether it is Volvo or saab, which has gone bankrupt, or Scania, the leading big brother in the field of commercial vehicles, all give people a slow and hot impression, so in order to better experience this so-called "Nordic cold wind", I found a Volvo family's "popular fried chicken" - Volvo XC60 B5 Zhiya Luxury Edition.
In the various TV series sponsored by Volvo, XC60 seems to be the favorite of the white-collar elite, a few years ago, many survey reports showed that among the owners of XC60, lawyers, doctors and university teachers have a high proportion of the three professions, in the eyes of most people, these three professions are undoubtedly bright and exquisite, so most Volvo owners also leave a delicate impression.
As the mainstay of the Volvo family, since its launch in 2008, the Volvo XC60 has achieved a total sales volume of nearly 2 million vehicles in the global market, behind this achievement, is the consumer's recognition of Volvo's luxury and safety concept.
Slow heat is Volvo's exclusive label
All along, Volvo has been criticized for not being luxurious enough, and it is inconsistent with the identity of a luxury brand. Indeed, if volvo is compared with the same level of BBA and second-tier luxury brand models, it is indeed a bit stretched in the creation of a luxurious atmosphere. However, Volvo is such a slow heat, it will not make you "into the eyes", you can only slowly get along with it, in order to gradually accept its concept of luxury.
In Volvo's hometown of Sweden, environmental protection seems to be an extremely deep consciousness imprinted in the minds of local citizens. In the XC60 car, the interior materials are almost all environmentally friendly materials, most of them are flax fiber, the use of environmentally friendly materials, it is indeed impossible to compare with the leather material in the creation of luxury, but this move undoubtedly pokes at the psychology of many consumers, in the increasingly serious environmental pollution at the moment, environmental protection has become the lifestyle pursued by many elites.
To put it simply, even in the summer of more than 30 degrees Celsius, after the hot sun exposure XC60, there is no slight odor in the car, in order to achieve such an effect, in addition to the application of environmentally friendly materials, Volvo XC60 also has a "killer", that is, the air quality control system and the cockpit cleaning system, with the help of these two systems, the air in the car can be kept in the cleanest state all year round.
Enough motivation but not enough passion
In luxury brands, BMW is known for its handling, and Audi is known for its performance, but on Volvo, the control and performance are not its slogan, leaving it with only elegance.
As we all know, this generation of Volvo XC60 series has introduced a light mixing system, consisting of a 2.0T turbocharged engine + 48V light mix, which is divided into B4 (145 kW) and B5 (184 kW) specifications according to the different price. The drivetrain is matched to the 8AT gearbox from Aisin.
The model we test drove was the B5 version, which is the 184 kW model. First of all, let's say driving experience, starting moment, even with the help of light mix technology, XC60's throttle is still a bit heavy, heavy means that there is a virtual position, that is, stepping on the light does not go, stepping on the heavy channel, such a power response for a luxury brand that costs thirty thousand yuan, it is indeed somewhat unsatisfactory.
In terms of motivational performance, I first give the point of view, that is, there is enough home but not enough passion.
After starting, that is, in the low- and medium-speed areas, the power response of the XC60 will be improved to a certain extent, but the overall output characteristics will still maintain a non-impatient style. Although the maximum horsepower reaches 250Ps, it does not give the driver too strong a sense of pushing back, even in the state of "Kick Down", the feeling of pushing back will only last for about 2 seconds, and the actual acceleration feeling may not be as good as the 2.0T low-power model of the BMW B48.
This transverse 8AT gearbox from Aisin, the overall tuning style is more comfortable, in the daily driving process, almost do not feel the frustration, even in the state of rapid acceleration, the moment of downshift, is also extremely silky. But the gearbox's ride is achieved by sacrificing gear change speed. This gearbox has a certain gap in shift speed and the same level of dual clutch or ZF's longitudinal transmission, not so sharp, not very suitable for intense driving. But this feeling is quite good in daily driving, after all, when traffic jams stop and go, a silky car with a gear shift is really a plus.
In addition, XC60's steering feel also needs to be improved, compared to BBA, XC60's steering feel "electronic taste" is too thick, low-speed area, transformation feel is too light, there is a "distortion" effect, and with the increase of speed, XC60 steering feel with the speed gain is also more strange, after the speed range of 60 km / h, XC60's steering system is like no help, although this calibration logic is for safety considerations, However, the two steering feels that are completely different from low speed and high speed are really not easy to adapt.
Don't measure it by manipulation
Elegance is the slogan of the XC60
Taking all the Volvo models I have personally driven as an example, whether it is a sedan such as the S60 or S90, or an SUV model such as the XC60 or XC90, or a more niche V60 or V40 station wagon, whether it is the riding experience or the driving experience, it has left me with a unified impression, that is, "hard".
Since the XC60 we got had an optional air suspension, when I first got the car, my expectations for its comfort were relatively high. Indeed, with the blessing of air suspension, the XC60 does have a certain improvement in the performance of the comfort level.
Moreover, in the daily driving process, when encountering manhole covers or poor road conditions, the XC60 suspension will always give people a subjective feeling without buffering, although it does not have any unnecessary rebound, the whole is very crisp and clean, but you are a family SUV model after all, the most basic guarantee should be comfort.
At the control level, it is not volvo's specialty, and the XC60 is still an SUV model, so it is basically insulated from the control, don't always think about going to the split and run the mountain, professional things have to be left to professional players to do. The XC60's most suitable driving style is smooth and elegant, listening to the beautiful jazz released by the 14-speaker Harman Karton sound, slowly racing against the sunset in the sunset, well, there is a feeling, I finally experience the happiness of the elite.
Humanization needs to be improved
There are no advantages to the car-machine system
After talking about the shortcomings of XC60 dynamic driving, let's talk about its car system and humanization level that still need to be improved. First of all, the first is that XC60 has only two driving modes, namely off-road and standard, in addition, there is no driving mode for drivers to choose, for most consumers, it is simply not enough, I hope that volvo can add similar sports mode options for XC60, and even directly use the way of locking the speed can be, if you can solve the small problem of power delay, you are eligible to wrench with the BBA.
On the car machine system, Volvo XC60 does perform and pass, which is beyond doubt, the built-in Ali, Tencent and Huawei ecology, can download a variety of APP, the smoothness of the operation is also worth affirming, however, I want to say, but, even if the built-in iFLYTEK voice recognition, but its reaction speed is really not fast, often after saying the command, it takes about ten seconds to make it react, the practicality is not strong. In addition, the UI system of this central control screen is indeed very simple, a simple horizontal line segmentation icon, as well as the background fill color of the fan, you will know that it is far less beautiful than the publicity map.
In addition, too sensitive 360 ring view system, as long as there is a car passing by you, no matter what function you operate on the central control screen, it will pop up the 360 ring view system by default, Volvo XC60 let me know for the first time the original too sensitive radar system, not necessarily an advantage.
Finally, the most unacceptable thing for me is the wireless charging system of XC60, first of all, the coil area of this wireless charging system is very small, and every time it needs to be placed very accurately, in order to successfully sense. And when charging, the temperature in this area is quite high, so that after the end of charging, the plastic in this part of the wireless charging area will become softened and sticky. I don't think these little problems should be on Volvo's car, and hopefully the next iteration will solve them.
Automatic start-stop peer invincible
L2 performance is still the best in the class
Of course, as a luxury brand of medium-sized SUV models, XC60 also has its advantages, first of all, the first is the feeling of automatic start-stop, as mentioned above, the entire series of XC60 is now equipped with a 48V light mix system, although this system has not improved its start, but at least in the automatic start-stop, the performance of this system is still worth affirming. With excellent sound insulation standards, XC60's automatic start and stop almost no feeling, if it is the engine start and stop of pure fuel vehicles, the experience of starting vibration is very bad, so now many people turn off the engine on the car. But on this XC60, it is usually difficult to realize the engine stop and start, and the acceleration after starting is very smooth, on the one hand, it also makes the fuel economy better.
The L2's driver assistance is also a highlight of the XC60, which can achieve ACC adaptive cruise, automatic follow-up, active lane keeping, lane departure warning and so on in the full speed domain. It greatly relieves the pressure of driving when traffic jams at high speeds. However, when the high speed is smooth, everyone should pay attention to a little in the use of this system, because it is too intelligent, it is particularly easy to get sleepy, so this point in use, we still do not rely too much on assisted driving. At present, the performance of these automatic driving is much the same, but the performance of this car is even better, especially the automatic follow-up at high speed, giving the driver full confidence, the only deficiency is that the strength of the automatic braking can also be optimized, otherwise it is easy to be frightened.
Write at the end:
After a day of test driving experience, we did find a lot of shortcomings in XC60, but all of these deficiencies are only relative to competitive models and higher positioning of first-line luxury brands, and they are also acceptable places, I admit that I do have some nitpicking, admittedly, no one is perfect, the car is the same, in terms of car manufacturing, each car company has chosen its own direction and targeted crowd, and volvo XC60's concept of environmental protection and safety has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people , straight to the deepest part of the elite class that does not follow the current, which is why it is deeply loved by the elite class!
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