2020 Volvo V60 Cross Country Review - Better Than Subaru Outback?

In this episode, we pit the new 2020 Volvo V60 Cross Country against rain, dirt, and the Subaru Outback. Will it survive? Find out right now on Driving Sports TV. When you think of off-road ready crossover wagons, you probably first think of the Subaru Outback. Though it starts at just under $27,000, it is easy to spend close to $40,000 once you load it up with Nappa leather, navigation, and a turbocharged 260 horsepower motor. Today, we're going to look at a luxury alternative to the Subaru. This is the all-new 2020 Volvo V60 Cross Country, a proper luxury crossover wagon that starts at just over $45,000. The model we're testing here does have some extras, which pushes the price all the way to $56,990, including delivery. If you can afford the higher price, is the Volvo the better choice? Even for adventures that go off the beaten path, that is what we're going to decide. And we'll start with what's under the hood. With the V60 Cross Country, there is currently only one drivetrain available, the Volvo T5 engine, which is a 2-liter turbo 4 good for 250 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. It's connected to an 8-speed automatic transmission, and it powers all four wheels through a Haldex all-wheel drive system. EPA rates this setup at 22 miles to the gallon city and 31 on the highway. In the back, you can open the trunk with a wave of your foot or hit the traditional button. A handy privacy screen can be adjusted to multiple levels as necessary. With the second row up, it has 23.2 square feet using the SAE measuring method. With the second row folded, you're looking at up to 50.9 square feet. Added features include a grocery support, which is an option, and under the floor is a spare. Inside, the Volvo is simply gorgeous. I'm not personally a fan of white, but they also offer seven other designs, including black and brown. Passengers get touch control of their zone climate. And if you did pay the $750 option, they also get three-stage heated seats. Plus, there's a panorama sunroof and a flip-down armrest with pop-out cup holders. The airy design extends to the front cabin as well. The seats are particularly comfortable up here with high-quality leather and sculpted curves. As part of the $2,800 Pro package, it also has lovely limewood inlays and a tailored dash. This same package also includes the 19-inch double-spoke wheels, side scuff plates, memory for the passenger seat, four-way lumbar control, and four-zone climate control, as well as some other things. It's a package that is well worth it. The 12.3-inch digital driver display is standard, and it can be customized with various gauge treatments, as well as include a navigation map in between the dials. Most of the controls for the vehicle are on the Sensus Connect tablet display in the middle. This is a 9-inch touchscreen that is a perfect size. It's big enough to be useful without being overly large, and it is very responsive. Plug in a mobile device through USB for access to Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, which is standard. Our test car also came with the optional $4,000 Bowers & Wilkins sound system. Is it great? Yes. Yes, it is. Would I spend $4,000 for any in-car audio system? Personally, I would not. Even with that big screen dominating the space, you still have a volume control with a real knob, which is a nice touch. The active safety on this V60 Cross Country is pretty impressive. Intellisafe brings low- and high-speed collision mitigation to the table. That also works at night, and it will detect humans, animals, and other cars. Plus, you get lane assist and road sign information. Rounding out the safety side is blind spot identification, rear cross-traffic alerts with auto braking, and the optional 360-degree camera system. Compared to the Subaru Outback, this is a pretty comparable lineup of safety equipment. There are only a couple things lacking on the Subaru side. One is the 360-degree camera system. It's just not available. Also, Subaru's EyeSight is great, but it doesn't really do the same kind of night detection that the Volvo does. Like the Subaru, Volvo also has several drive modes available. There are Eco, which retards the throttle, upshifts the gearbox at lower revs, and avoids engine braking at speeds over 40 mph. Comfort, which is basically the normal default mode. Dynamic, for quicker steering, gearbox, brake, and engine response. It also disables the start-stop engine idle. And then there's finally Off-Road. We'll get into that later. Let's start with a look at how this all-wheel drive system responds to slip. First up, Dynamic with Traction Control on. The fronts power out, and the rears quickly follow up. Now, we'll do Dynamic with Traction Control off. Oh yeah, that's the kind of wheel spin I like to see. Lots of power going to the back. Finally, Off-Road with Traction on. It's not nearly as aggressive. On the open road is where you'll really appreciate one other option package. That's the $2,500 Advanced Package. It includes a heads-up display, that 360-degree surround-view camera, as well as a new feature called Active Bending Lights, which is an interesting innovation. Basically, it'll adapt the LED light pattern to illuminate around other vehicles. So it'll keep sides of the road, as well as right in front of you, as bright as necessary, but shade out an area where there's a vehicle in front. So you could say that because it prevents glare to those other drivers, the Volvo is also keeping non-Volvo drivers safe as well. The Advanced Package also includes Volvo's Pilot Assist with Adaptive Cruise Control. Basically, I just hit a button here, it'll detect the vehicle in front of me, and then I can change the gap. Now, the neat thing here is if I go to the right, it'll go into Pilot Assist mode, which is auto steering. And it does a really good job of keeping centered, and that really is the goal on these modern systems. Excellent. It'll do this for about 30 seconds. Now, the whole point of this system, of course, isn't to be an autopilot per se. It's really about reducing fatigue on long trips. And this little vehicle does a great job. Let's try a 0-to-60. Let's pull up here. I want to slide downhill, but it shouldn't give it too much of an advantage. We're going to come to a complete stop, put the drive mode into dynamic, even though full throttle won't really change much. Three, two, one, and go. 30, 40, 50, and 60. Nice, nice. When I tested the 2020 Subaru Outback, it scored a similar time of 7 seconds in Onyx XT trim. So in terms of acceleration, the Volvo is right in there. It even gets within one mile per gallon in terms of economy. Of course, the Subaru has a CVT, and the Volvo has a traditional 8-speed automatic transmission. I prefer the feel of a standard automatic over a CVT, but I understand that is down to personal preference. Both get the job done, and as you can see here, both get it done fairly quickly. The Volvo is smooth and quiet on the road with responsive steering and a very comfortable cabin. It also handles the corners quite well. It uses brake vectoring to help rotate the vehicle. Basically, it'll add a little bit of brake to the inside wheel to help counter understeer. This is something that we've been seeing on other vehicles, and it's nice that Volvo has added it as well. And yes, the Subaru Outback also has this technology. Before we even head into the forest, I know many buyers will look at this and go, you know what, that's good enough for me, park one in my garage. But this is a cross-country. It's the Volvo for more adventurous drivers. So now it is time to find out if this is really up to more challenging conditions. Will I regret this? I hope not. I'm going to go ahead and select the off-road drive mode, which is good at speeds under 25 miles per hour. What it does is it optimizes traction control. It also modifies the stability control system, as well as steering and throttle inputs, to make it as easy as possible to crawl over slippery objects at low speeds. Does it do a good job? That's what we're going to find out. Unlike more expensive Volvos, this one doesn't have air suspension. Instead, it relies on traditional shocks and springs. But it already has 8.3 inches of ground clearance, so it doesn't need additional ground clearance. It's ready to go all the time. And we're out of off-road mode because I can't drive that slow on a road like this. It's too much fun! Now, I have to be careful because this has 19-inch wheels on it, and that's not a lot of sidewall. Boy, the suspension does a great job of soaking up these irregularities, though. This road can be really brutal with some cars. This one? No, no prob at all. Nicely done. Do a little low-speed slidey around the S-curve. Let's see what we got. Oh, the seatbelt! It pulled me. It thought I was going to crash. I wasn't. Unnecessary. Even in this corner, you can see that the rear wheels are really working it. Lots of power getting pushed back there, helping to rotate the vehicle. Unfortunately, it just rotated right into squishing me with the seatbelt. But, you know, safety. Volvo. Okay, one thing we've learned is that this car does not like to be driven aggressively on loose surfaces. It freaks out. It thinks you're going to crash. I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just saying that's kind of annoying. Head up deep into the mountains. We're going up to the Rock Garden, which should help us test this all-wheel drive system. Now, this system is very similar to the Volkswagen Tiguan system because it is based on the Haldex fifth generation platform. That means, basically, that it'll transfer power front to back as necessary, pushing up to 50% of power to the rear wheels. And unlike earlier Haldex systems, this one's not shy about putting power to the rear wheels. This one does it all the time. And so it's a system that I actually rather like. It works really well. And it uses open diffs on the front and the back, and so it uses brake distribution force to be able to re-channel spinning wheel power back into the system. So this should be interesting. Before we get started on the Rock Garden climb here, we're going to set up the vehicle. I'm going to go ahead and set drive mode to off-road mode, which they say is for rough roads. This definitely is a rough road. When I do that, it tells me that hill descent control is enabled up on top. It also puts the transmission into off-road mode, puts the steering into an off-road mode, and then also retards the throttle slightly so I have smoother starts at lower speeds. This is an eight-speed automatic, and the off-road mode basically will just optimize it for this kind of work. Let's go ahead and give it a try. We have to be really careful here because this has 19-inch wheels, which are on the big side. I'm just going to start off real slow here. So we have 8.3 inches of ground clearance, which is a little less than the Subaru Outback, but quite good for this kind of a workout. So far, I'm not even getting any wheelslip. This has been super easy. But the challenge is right ahead. Okay. Phase one done. This next one's going to be tough. This is where it trips up every single vehicle other than the hardcore off-roaders. Let's see how it does. So creeping slowly. Crawl ratio seems to be fine for this kind of stuff. Slow momentum. Oh, I can hear it. Ooh, shifting power. Yes. Wow. That's really good. It did a really good job of shifting that power around. Oh, this looks deeper than last time I was here. Okay. This is unexpected. This is a really deep... It's gotten way deeper. Okay. Let's see if it does it. First off, turning off that parking sonars. Now, it looks to me that the... Ooh. The front overhang is actually pretty shallow. So that should be really helpful here. Oh, come on. Power, power, power. Whoa. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Wow. Like butter. Like butter. That wasn't a problem at all. Okay. Let's do the hard part right here. This kills almost everything. We have to usually really work here. Yeah. So we'll see how it does. Come on, come on. Oh, oh, oh. Lifting that rear wheel. Power struggling to get around. And it does it. Wow. Really impressive. Really impressive. Wow. Okay. Hill descent control. Let's test this first. Now, because I'm in off-road mode, it'll automatically put it into hill descent. I'm going to just take my foot off the brake. Can I slow that down at all? That seems really fast. Matt, that hill descent control is too quick for this. Whoa. Slippy slidey. To steal a phrase from a famous celebrity chef, I think it's time we kick things up a notch. That means it is time to put this V60 Cross Country against the CrossCut Climb. This test is usually reserved for dedicated off-roaders with locking differentials, like the Jeep Gladiator or the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon. The challenge comes from the cut in the hill that steals traction from two wheels as the vehicle attempts to climb the 40% grade. It will be interesting to see just how far this little cross country with its open differentials can get up the climb. Yes, I understand the absurdity of this test, but to make an omelet, you gotta crack some eggs. So I'm going to set up the vehicle, put it back into off-road mode. And that's it. Let's see how it does. Really going to test that all-wheel drive system and that 8.3 inches of ground clearance. Come on. Okay. Into the hole. Into the hole. Yes. Come on. Can you do it? Come on. Oh, are we asking too much of it? Can't even get up into it. Try that again. Nope. I have a foot to the floor. Let's try a little more momentum into it. Come on, come on, come on. Can you do it? Two wheels. I feel like it's creeping forward. It's almost getting it. It's almost getting it. These tires aren't good enough. Come on. I feel like it's so close. It just can't get grip. Okay, let's try again. And we're going the wrong way. Okay, there we go. Come on. Keep momentum. Keep the wheels straight. So we have maximum thrust. We're probably seeing a lot of the power shifting, but it just can't do it. It doesn't have enough grip. It rained a lot recently, and I'm sure this surface is super slick. Okay, I think we're going to have to call it. So the Volvo didn't make the cross-cut climb. I have to say, the mud was particularly slick today, and that didn't help. Plus, the ditch was even deeper than usual. Then there's the all-season tires. Yeah, they're not really designed for this kind of stuff. Also, this is the first open differential all-wheel drive vehicle I've ever tested up here. And I think it is really impressive just how well the V60 cross-country performed. It never overheated. It tried really hard. It just couldn't get grip. Without a doubt, this vehicle does have abilities that will exceed most buyers' expectations. It's hard to say if the Subaru Outback really would have done any better today, but I think it is safe to say that Subaru has some stiff competition here. So if you want something different, and you can afford it, the Volvo offers an elevated luxury experience without compromising performance and capability. Plus, you've got to admit, this wagon looks great. If the price here is too rich, and you're still interested in parking one of these in your garage, remember with Volvo you can also subscribe to a car. And in the case of the cross-country, you're looking at $750 per month if you qualify. That does cover 1,500 miles a year, insurance, and after the first year, you can change to a different model if you want to drive something different. I'm not sure I'm sold on the idea of a car subscription, but for those who don't want to really commit to a car and have the cash, it's an option. And that brings us to our question this week. Would you take the Volvo V60 Cross Country or the Subaru Outback XT? Post a comment below and let's talk about it. For Driving Sports TV, I'm Ryan Douthit, thanks for watching. Please subscribe, we have a lot of great videos coming up that you won't want to miss. Also, like and share. We'll see you again next time.