By Miles Downard
The South African Guild of Motor Journalist’s announced its Car of the Year at a gala hosted by Wesbank last night. The competition has come under serious scrutiny from the public in recent years thanks in no small part to Porsche having taken three titles on the trot (Boxster, Cayman and Macan).
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One would therefore expect a year of consolidation, a year where perhaps jury members keep a sensible mindset when casting their votes. In other words I expected something a bit more affordable to come away with the ‘coveted’ award.
That wasn’t to be, however, as the Volvo XC90 took the honours. It’s a vehicle that costs near-as-makes-no-difference R1 million and that isn’t something the average South African can afford.
But let’s take a look at the Volvo’s merits before jumping on any bandwagons, or burning any Swedes at the stake. In my opinion the Volvo XC90 is the best car in it’s class. By class I speak not only of its segment, but its direct price competitors as well.
Our review of the XC90 will be on BizNews within the week where I’ll go into the specifics. Suffice to say that it might not come with all of the fancy options that you can spec on your equivalent Audi Q7, BMW X5 or Merc GL (you can get most of them) but it more than makes up for it with a fair dose of Swedish style and a brilliant interior.
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The engine options are all great. It drives well and is safer than a nuclear bunker. I suppose the only question is this: does it move the segment forward? This is a key consideration for the Car of the Year jury, and so should play a big part in the decision. And you know what, I think it does. Reason being is that the Volvo XC90 received a full five-star Euro NCAP safety rating in 2015 thanks to a myriad of highly-advanced safety systems. These include pedestrian and cyclist detection with forward collision warning and full auto brake at intersections (prevents you accidentally turning in front of an oncoming car), run-off-road protection, groundbreaking roll over prevention and other driving assistance features like adaptive cruise control and active lane-keeping assistance.
Collision related safety features include spinal protection, pre-crash protection for rear impacts, extensive use of hot-formed boron steel throughout the body (which is the strongest type of steel presently used in the car body industry) and more airbags than you can shake a stick at. The XC90’s pedestrian detection system is so advanced that safety regulators have yet to develop suitable testing protocols to fully uncover its capabilities. The XC90 was also applauded by Euro NCAP for Best in Class Safety (Large Off-road and Overall) in 2016.
It has also been awarded the Top Safety Pick+ award by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in the United States. These new technologies will take the company a significant step closer to its vision that no one will be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo car by 2020. It’s for these reasons that I think the Volvo is a deserved winner of Car of the Year. It’s a mere bonus that in every other sense its a great car to live with.
