Having kept my Volvo 850 Estate from new in 1994 I gave up on Volvo when it was taken over by Ford. Now the Chinese-owned company has announced that they will no longer import estate cars into the U.K.. I also have a Mercedes E Class Estate and if the current sales growth trend for the ridiculously large S.U.V.’s that inhabit our unsuitable roads continues I expect other manufacturers will follow suit.
Great review - many thanks! My impression of the V90 from a recent test drive, particularly in comparison to its V70 / XC70 predecessor and the Mercedes E-class estate was of a rather "claustrophobic" feel - even though the model I drove had light-coloured seats and headlining and the panoramic sunroof. The large "black box" of sensors between the rear-view mirror and windscreen doesn't help, particularly for tall drivers like me. Additionally, although I knew that the bootspace was curtailed, I hadn't realised the degree of this. The dealer said that Volvo themselves were implicitly marketing the car as a "lifestyle" one rather than what I would consider to be a "proper" estate. It seems to me that the only reason for referring to the V90 as a "large" car is because of the length of the engine bay, which to me is rather disproportionate to rest of the car! So maybe we shouldn't be surprised to hear that the V90 is being discontinued in the UK market. So I am now looking for a tidy XC70 instead! Onwards by going backwards!
