Can't Sell Your Wagon? Call It A Crossover

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

Faced with dismal sales of the Volvo V60, the Swedish auto maker has decided to adopt a time-tested strategy for boosting sales of slow-selling station wagons: turning it into a pseudo-crossover.

Enter the 2015 Volvo V60 Cross Country. The V60 is sure to bring three things to the party

  1. All-wheel drive and a turbocharged 5-cylinder engine
  2. A minimally raised ride height and the most minor applications of dreaded “cladding”
  3. A cohort of malcontent enthusiasts and wagon fanboys ready to denounce it for betraying the Holy Crusade of Wagondom.

My own estimation of the V60 is that it’s a very nice car, but not a great station wagon, in the traditional sense of the word. If you want that, you ought to take a look at an XC70, which unfortunately, does not pass the Wahabbi-esque purity tests of the wagon jihadis (namely. no “cladding” and a marginally lower ride height, lest they be infected with the common-stock stench of crossover-dom). The fact that the XC70 soundly beats the V60 in terms of cargo and people carrying capacity is irrelevant. The wide world of wagons in America is about status signalling and ideological superiority, not the cold realities of dimensions and consumer tastes.

But I’m happy that Volvo is bringing out this model. There is no way that it won’t raise sales of the entire V60 range, which means that Volvo will make more money. And that might mean we get something like the V40 in the future. And that’s the compact wagon that I’ve been waiting for…

Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

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  • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Nov 05, 2014

    More or less Kix, although I believe there was a whole new platform designed around that concept.

    • Corey Lewis Corey Lewis on Nov 06, 2014

      What a TERRIBLE idea, as I've spent lots of time driving a dang Terraza.

  • Ihatejalops Ihatejalops on Nov 05, 2014

    Whoa, wait a minute here. I keep hearing from the a jalopnik crowd that wagons are best sellers! That if someone made it, people would buy it in droves. Are you telling me that the guys at jalopnik are wrong? That they wouldn't know the car business if it hit them in the face? I can't believe it! Ugh.

    • See 2 previous
    • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Nov 06, 2014

      @sportyaccordy Maybe he could have mentioned he was driving to return a pair of pants and then was thrown from the car making a turn; thus ruining the very pants he sought to return.

  • Kosmo Kosmo on Nov 06, 2014

    Not a bad car (hatchback, let's be real), but I think an XC60 trumps it in all regards with the addition of a set of springs to lower it 1.25 inches (still leaving around 7 inches of ground clearance!). When I bought my XC60 R-Design, I kept trying to like it less than the comparable X3, but after 3 long back to back test drives, I had to admit that I liked it more. But the pricing was stupid. Fast forward 4 weeks, and the optioned up unit I test drove was suddenly being offered at a bit more than $5k off sticker, and Volvo had some gig going where if financed at 1.9%, they would make the first $1,500 in payments. Sold, though I'll probably lose all that at resale, compared to an X3. SportyAccordy's point far above reminds me of a "marketing maxim" from an old Max Barry book called Syrup: If your product fails to sell in the desired quantities, resist the urge to lower the price, instead raising the price, imbuing the product with cachet. Watch sales skyrocket."

    • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Nov 06, 2014

      Nice, evidently I can't post figures. Yup, can't post the figures. Let this to be a lesson to those in IT, constantly subscribing to product updates is foolish as I suspect the numerous changes Wordpress did from 1.5 onward is behind this problem. You should always be at least one version behind and only test newer versioned software in a controlled environment BEFORE you release it to production. Chrome feels like its near v6789, and FF v334. Stupid stupid stupid. /rant @kosmo My initial thoughts were the R-Design package would bump it a bit and it seems with lower mileage the MY12 R-Design beats out the MY12 X3 3.5i. However with higher miles (>50) the Volvo loses out to the BMW.

  • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Nov 06, 2014

    My initial thoughts were the R-Design package would bump it a bit and it seems with lower mileage the R-Design beats out the X3 3.5i. However with higher miles (>50) the Volvo loses out to the BMW. MY12 Volvo XC60 AWD 3.0L R-Design 03/08/13 DFW Lease $35,000 31,539 Avg RED 6GT A No 07/11/14 PA Regular $26,000 57,696 Avg WHITE 6GT P No MY12 Volvo XC60 AWD 3.0L R-Design Platinum 11/08/12 PA Lease $38,000 6,739 Avg RED 6GT A No 02/15/13 DFW Lease $38,500 312 Avg RED 6GT A No 03/22/13 FT LAUD Regular $37,700 9,574 Avg BLACK 6GT A No 06/20/13 PA Lease $40,000 4,897 Avg GREY 6GT A No 06/28/13 PA Regular $34,250 28,067 Avg BLACK 6GT P No 11/01/13 PA Regular $25,500 52,433 Avg GREY 6GT P No 07/24/14 PA Lease $32,400 9,592 Avg RED 6GT P No 09/24/14 NASHVILL Regular $27,000 33,099 Avg BLU GRAY 6GT A No 09/24/14 NASHVILL Regular $22,600 60,522 Avg RED 6GT A No MY12 Volvo XC60 AWD 3.0L R-Design Premier 02/12/13 OHIO Regular $34,600 10,792 Avg BLACK 6GT A No 07/09/13 OHIO Lease $32,600 23,862 Avg BLACK 6GT A No 07/18/13 PA Lease $35,250 5,866 Avg BLACK 6GT P No 07/18/13 DARLNTON Regular $31,200 21,031 Avg WHITE 6GT A No 04/15/14 DENVER Lease $24,700 43,686 Avg BLUE 6GT A No 06/12/14 PA Lease $28,400 34,078 Avg WHITE 6GT P No 08/06/14 CEN FLA Regular $25,800 36,620 Avg WHITE 6GT A No MY12 Volvo XC60 AWD 3.0L 10/08/14 DENVER Regular $27,100 28,195 Avg BROWN 6GT A Yes 10/10/14 PA Regular $28,100 26,496 Above COS WHIT 6GT P Yes 10/10/14 PA Regular $26,000 29,868 Below BLK SAPH 6GT Yes 10/16/14 PA Regular $26,500 33,431 Avg BLACK 6GT Yes 10/29/14 NASHVILL Lease $27,800 26,622 Above BLUE 6GT A Yes 10/30/14 PA Regular $28,000 29,774 Above WHITE 6GT P Yes 10/30/14 PA Regular $26,250 22,092 Avg BLUE 6GT P Yes 11/04/14 ST LOUIS Regular $26,800 23,657 Avg BLACK 6GT A Yes MY12 BMW X3 35i 10/07/14 OHIO Lease $32,250 20,732 Above SPARKLIN 6GT A Yes 10/07/14 OHIO Lease $27,000 52,746 Avg CARBON B 6GT A Yes 10/09/14 PHOENIX Regular $28,000 21,338 Avg BLUE 6GT A No 10/16/14 PA Lease $27,500 51,649 Avg BLKSAPPH 6GT P Yes 10/16/14 PA Lease $26,000 51,942 Avg VERMILIO 6GT P Yes 10/22/14 NJ Factory $29,250 32,781 Avg SPACEGRY 6GT A Yes 10/27/14 RIVRSIDE Lease $29,000 48,660 Avg TITANIUM 6GT A Yes 10/30/14 PA Regular $30,500 44,995 Avg BLACK 6GT P Yes 10/30/14 PA Regular $24,750 54,697 Below SILVER 6GT Yes 11/04/14 RIVRSIDE Regular $31,250 26,155 Above SILVER 6GT A Yes

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