What is it?
Germany’s ‘big three’ have had the compact SUV market pretty effectively cornered for most of this decade. When the Range Rover Evoque came along, however, it proved how well an interesting premium alternative could go down among the segment’s buyers – and this year, three other debutants will seek to emulate similar success.
So far, we've had preliminary drives in all of them – the DS 7 Crossback, Jaguar E-Pace and this, the Volvo XC40 – but have yet to run the road test ruler over any of them in greater detail. If you’re in the market, don’t worry: that last situation will change very soon.
Volvo has proven particularly successful at pitching good-looking alternative SUVs at the German mainstream options of late, and you might even call the XC40 an unlikely improvement in its already rich vein of form. This is a really striking and bold design with a character all of its own, unlike the 'Russian doll’ Audi Q3.
You’ll eventually be able to buy the XC40 with a choice of three turbocharged petrol and two diesel engines, with a choice of two or four driven wheels and effectively in six different trim levels, but the earliest XC40s offered for sale in the UK will be fully loaded 247bhp 2.0-litre T5 AWD petrol, or 187bhp 2.0-litre D4 AWD diesel, First Edition models. Our first taste of the car on UK roads came in one of the diesels.
Join the debate
Einarbb
Definitively like this ...
... ahead of the latest entrant in the same field from Jaguar.
Sundym
I'll take the Jag e ta
xxxx
£40,000 before extras. The worlds gone mad!!
Very Korean looks and no more expensive looking than a Tiguan from the outside, but nice inside if you like black holes.
If I wanted to blow £40,000 on a family SUV I'd save for few more months and get a far quicker £46,000 Porsche Macan, you'll get the money back come resale time anyway.
typos1 - Just can’t respect opinion
Marc
xxxx wrote:
Likely that Volvo is filling the cost space left by the XC60 which, with the new model has now moved up to occupy the previous XC90 space. Volvo like JLR have pushed the boundries on what they can get away with when it comes to list prices with their new generation of models.
Andrew1
xxxx wrote:
Well, many people really like the new Volvo looks and would rather think the Macan is ugly as hell, especially because the Porsche looks doesn't fit well with a SUV. Moreover, some don't buy cars just to sell them later.
xxxx
IMHO
I think you missed the 'I' part, it goes without saying some people perfer the looks of one car to another. Back to the car in question, not my prefences.
typos1 - Just can’t respect opinion
bomb
xxxx wrote:
There are no extras, that's why it's £40k.
xxxx
?
Never said anything about extras?
typos1 - Just can’t respect opinion
si73
xxxx wrote:
Bomb used the wrong quote as your previous comments title did indeed state £40k before extras. As bomb said all extras are added and after the initial first editions the price will start below £30k. Personally I like its styling though still dont want an suv.
AddyT
si73 wrote:
Owned xxxx.
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