Volvo Launches Successor To Subaru Outback SUS

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

The Volvo V60 Cross Country makes sense. But this?

The S60 Cross Country, much like the former Subaru Outback SUS, is a sedan with the ride height of a crossover. Powered by a 2.5L 5-cylinder engine, the AWD sedan is probably not what Volvo needs to gain a bettert foothold in the U.S. market.




Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

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  • Tekdemon Tekdemon on Jan 09, 2015

    Am I the only one who doesn't understand why the hell there is both a V60 Cross Country and an XC60 to begin with? The V60 CC is more money but has less cargo capacity despite being the exact same length (ok, it's 0.2 inches shorter). So it's for people who want a taller crossover but don't want it quite that tall?! I'm guessing it has better fuel economy but it seems like all this effort would be better used fine tuning the XC60. Volvo seems to be trying the BMW strategy of having a weird niche sized vehicle in every shape and form but I don't think they have the budget to be wasting it on cars that are going to sell 5000 units a year.

  • Scott25 Scott25 on Jan 10, 2015

    Amazing. By far the greatest car idea I've seen in the last little while.

  • Kjhkjlhkjhkljh kljhjkhjklhkjh A prelude is a bad idea. There is already Acura with all the weird sport trims. This will not make back it's R&D money.
  • Analoggrotto I don't see a red car here, how blazing stupid are you people?
  • Redapple2 Love the wheels
  • Redapple2 Good luck to them. They used to make great cars. 510. 240Z, Sentra SE-R. Maxima. Frontier.
  • Joe65688619 Under Ghosn they went through the same short-term bottom-line thinking that GM did in the 80s/90s, and they have not recovered say, to their heyday in the 50s and 60s in terms of market share and innovation. Poor design decisions (a CVT in their front-wheel drive "4-Door Sports Car", model overlap in a poorly performing segment (they never needed the Altima AND the Maxima...what they needed was one vehicle with different drivetrain, including hybrid, to compete with the Accord/Camry, and decontenting their vehicles: My 2012 QX56 (I know, not a Nissan, but the same holds for the Armada) had power rear windows in the cargo area that could vent, a glass hatch on the back door that could be opened separate from the whole liftgate (in such a tall vehicle, kinda essential if you have it in a garage and want to load the trunk without having to open the garage door to make room for the lift gate), a nice driver's side folding armrest, and a few other quality-of-life details absent from my 2018 QX80. In a competitive market this attention to detai is can be the differentiator that sell cars. Now they are caught in the middle of the market, competing more with Hyundai and Kia and selling discounted vehicles near the same price points, but losing money on them. They invested also invested a lot in niche platforms. The Leaf was one of the first full EVs, but never really evolved. They misjudged the market - luxury EVs are selling, small budget models not so much. Variable compression engines offering little in terms of real-world power or tech, let a lot of complexity that is leading to higher failure rates. Aside from the Z and GT-R (low volume models), not much forced induction (whether your a fan or not, look at what Honda did with the CR-V and Acura RDX - same chassis, slap a turbo on it, make it nicer inside, and now you can sell it as a semi-premium brand with higher markup). That said, I do believe they retain the technical and engineering capability to do far better. About time management realized they need to make smarter investments and understand their markets better.
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