2008 Volvo XC90

E-Volvo-lution

The distinct-looking Volvo XC90 is fun for the whole family -- until it's time to fuel up.

by Jim Gorzelany, ForbesAutos.com

Volvo XC90

Volvo's best-selling model, the midsize XC90, mines the Swedish company's reputation for safety and adds a dash of flair to create a family-focused alternative to station wagons and larger SUVs.

Its main drawback is lackluster fuel efficiency, even with fuel-saving front-wheel drive paired with the smaller of two available engines. But it does offer lots of features at a competitive price. Plus, it exudes enough Volvo-ness to appeal to brand loyalists and tempt most buyers looking for a midsize premium family vehicle.

The XC90 is a crossover utility vehicle (CUV), meaning it has the underpinnings of a car with the looks of a sport utility vehicle. Volvo recently redesigned it to be more car-like than ever.

It shares some technology with Volvo's top sedan, the S80. Of all its recent updates, the most important is a new 3.2-liter six-cylinder engine. It's not that much more powerful than the turbocharged five-cylinder engine it replaces — 235 horsepower versus 208 horsepower — but it's smoother and not as mechanically complex.

For those who like strong acceleration and don't mind getting worse gas mileage to achieve it, a 311-hp, 4.4-liter V8 is available in the top model. A "Sport" variant of the XC90 has a tauter suspension and other upgrades that complement the V8 engine's added muscle.

At $36,210, the XC90's base price has risen over the past few years but still manages to undercut the Lexus RX 350 by around $1,500. Our test version came with the six-cylinder engine, all-wheel drive and a few options, including all-wheel drive, which pushed the price up to $45,950, including a $695 destination charge. The better-equipped V8 model has a base price of $48,505.

Volvo XC90

Though the Lexus beats the Volvo handily in the power department, with its 270-hp, 3.5-liter V6 engine, our XC90 did come with a couple of family-oriented features that the Lexus lacks — a flexible second-row seat with integrated child booster seat, and a third row of seats, which expands occupant capacity to seven.

The third-row seat is optional on the base, six-cylinder model we tested and comes with the $2,250 Versatility Package, which also includes a self-leveling rear suspension, third-row air conditioning vents and the second-row integrated child booster seat. All of these features are standard on the V8 model.

Because this is Volvo's quintessential family vehicle, we invoked a panel of judges ideally suited to test it: an 8-year-old, 10-year-old and 11-year-old. They were jazzed at first, but their sugar-fueled enthusiasm crashed once they discovered that the XC90 at our disposal did not come with the $1,800 dual-screen rear-seat DVD player.

Won over with a promise to employ a Radio Disney disc as a means of testing the vehicle's audio system — specifically, the track "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions" by Queen — they settled in, if you could call it that, and let forth an incessant stream of opinions. The kids weighed in on everything from ride comfort to ergonomics to whether they would hurl if we put them through one more neck-snapping panic-braking procedure. We did; they didn't.