Volvo XC60 D5 R-Design Premium (215bhp) Geartronic

I was looking at various mid-sized SUV's - comparing with the likes of the Audi Q5 and the Honda CRV

I hadn't considered Volvo - the brand just didn't resonate with me - however, a friend had one so I thought I'd take a look. I was really impressed.

It was on a par with the Audi Q5 in terms of quality of finish - possibly a little nicer actually. The interior was certainly nicer, with the floating dashboard which is quite a striking feature.

It drove similar to the Q5, maybe the Q5 won fractionally on this test though, but only fractionally.

The R-design is a nice added extra to have - it just makes it look a bit more sporty and classy. The downside is it has very stiff suspension, something I'd prefer not to have.

The XC60 R-Design really does look good, which I was surprised at. It also handles pretty well. Parking a large-ish car like this is always a bit tricky, but compared to the other cars we drove it was no worse than any other and better than many. It has the rear parking cameras which I'd definitely recommended to add to your confidence of moving this car around. Turning circle is a bit poor, so you'll be doing lots of 5 point turns!

As already mentioned, the interior is really classy, it drives nicely and actually packs quite a punch (0-60 in 8seconds if you have it in 'Sports' mode). It doesn't feel massive to drive and overall it's an excellent all rounder of a 4x4.

Boot space is excellent and interior space is also pretty good.

Ours came loaded with every gadget you could ever think of - maybe a few too many if I'm honest - but the biggest advantage over the Q5 is that you can get all these gadgets for the same price as a standard Q5 - it starts to make the Q5 look very poor in comparison. Relatively simple things like electric memory seats start to add up on the Q5.

Being Volvo is rammed full of safety features - eg it will automatically brake at certain speeds if you're about to have an accident. We use ours mainly in and around town - lots of traffic jams. For this usage you'll eat up the petrol, be warned.

Is the XC60 perfect? No, it's not, there's a few mildly annoying aspects - eg I dont like the position of the sat nav, I'd prefer it to raise out of the dashboard to make it a bit higher. Plus the sat nav is not a brilliant interface, give me a TomTom interface (or Google maps...) any time. There's a few other little things like this - but all in all it's a very, very good car and I would definitely recommend it.

Looking forward to seeing what Volvo do with revamping the big brother to the XC60, ie the XC90. It is apparently (over)due an overhaul so I'd be interested to see what a 7 seater looks and feels like.

We've owned it 4 months and so far have had an issue with reliability though - most of the electronics stopped working - ie the gadgets. We could still use the car, but it was annoying having to get it fixed when it's still under 2 years old (covered under the warantee it's worth mentioning)

Am I a Volvo convert? Never thought Id say it, but so far I guess I am...