Volvo XC60 boot space, practicality and safety

Enlarge1videoEnlarge116photo

• Plenty of room front and rear
• Boot space is practical, but high up
• Hybrid batteries take up minimal space

How much space is there?

While the XC60 offers generous seating space for four, there are five seatbelts. However, anyone relegated to the middle rear seat will be battling with those on either side for elbow and shoulder room. This will be ok for younger children, but not so great for older teenagers or adults.

There is plenty of legroom, though again the middle rear seat gets the short straw due to the central transmission tunnel robbing them of space for their feet. Headroom shouldn’t be an issue unless you’re transporting a team of basketball players, and that’s even with the optional panoramic glass roof.

Boot space and storage

While the boot lip is rather high – as is typical for an SUV – the XC60 has a large, practical boot space that’s access via a powered tailgate, standard on every model in the UK. The rear seats feature headrests that automatically fold out of the way when you lower them. You can even press a button in the Sensus infotainment system to drop the headrests remotely, though we can see no practical reason for this when there’s a set of buttons in the boot that do this and lower the seat backs at the same time.

Enlarge1videoEnlarge116photo

Where adaptive suspension is fitted, you’ll find another pair of buttons alongside this that make the XC60 squat down so you don’t have to lift your luggage as high to get it in. When the rear seats are folded they leave a flat (if high) boot floor that rises slightly towards the front of the cabin. A special boot mat is available that unfolds to protect both the rear seat backs and the bumper.

Because the XC60 was designed to be a hybrid from the start, the Recharge models cause no reduction in boot space since the batteries for the electric motor are housed in the central tunnel. You will find the cupholders above it are slightly shallower, however.

Is it easy to park?

As a mid-size SUV, the XC60 is taller than cars such as the Volvo V60 estate, with which it shares its fundamental structure, but doesn’t take up that much more room on the road. With the high seating position it’s relatively easy to manoeuvre in tight spaces. If you want to make life easier in this regard don’t hesitate to option the 360-degree camera system, which cleverly gives you a top-down perspective on your surroundings, allowing you to see kerbs and other obstacles very clearly.

There’s no excuse for not parking straight where this is fitted. Want more help still? Then go for Park Assist, which will automatically park the XC60 in both parallel and 90-degree spaces.

How big is it?

How safe is the XC60?

• Built to be one of the safest cars ever
• Vast array of active safety technology
• Still a long way from a ‘self-driving’ car

Volvo has built its reputation on safety, and that isn’t about to change with the XC60 – which it unabashedly describes as ‘one of the safest cars ever made.’ No surprise that it achieved one of the highest scores of any car when crash-tested by Euro NCAP at the end of 2017. The company claims it has the best standard safety specification of any rival, including seven airbags, electronic stability control and Volvo City Safety as just the highlights.

Standard active safety systems

Standard-fit Volvo City Safety is an autonomous emergency braking system, which recognizes not just other vehicles but also pedestrians, cyclists and large animals.

It also features Steer Assist, which is designed to help drivers execute emergency avoidance manoeuvres, with the aim of lessening or altogether avoiding low-speed impacts. It’s active from 31mph to 62mph. Furthermore, a system called Oncoming Lane Mitigation is also fitted as standard. This is designed to guide you back into the correct lane if you’ve accidentally wandered across into the path of oncoming traffic. This is active from 37mph to 87mph.

Enlarge1videoEnlarge116photo

A similar system operates to guide you back onto the road if it detects you’re about to drive onto the verge. Should this still somehow happen, the also standard Run-off Road Protection kicks in with the aim of reducing the severity of accidents where the car leaves the road entirely – partly by tightening the front seat belts to restrain your movements, partly though a collapsible seat structure intended absorb spine-threatening impacts.

In a bid to reduce fatalities from accidents where excessive speed has been a factor, the XC60, like all Volvos built from summer 2020, has an electronically limited top speed of 112mph, regardless of its power output.

Optional active safety systems

Looking for more protection? Volvo also offers optional blindspot monitors (called the Blind Spot Information System) with steering capability, again with the aim of guiding you back out of danger. Beyond this lies Pilot Assist, which is described as a ‘semi-autonomous’ system, but really is just a sophisticated adaptive cruise control system that can also offer minor steering inputs.

The system is designed to assist, rather than drive for you, so you’ll find that it will steer itself along roads with clear lane markings for short periods. It functions up to 80mph.

Watch: Volvo XC60 Euro NCAP crash test video