Let’s face it we car lovers like to read about the expensive, the fast, the exotic, and the rare. We don’t want to read about cars that are practical, economical, slow and mundane. Writing about a Prius for example would probably be more suitable for bedtime material. If you own a diesel powered Volkswagen you would probably love to read about bio-fuels and mpg figures. German yes, exciting no! We want to read about asphalt eating, tire punishing, mega-horsepower super cars that seem to defy the laws of physics and personal bank accounts! It would be like choosing to read an article about Ralph Nader or Lindsey Lohan? Ralph who you ask? Well who cares. The important lesson here is that we must know what civilized practicality really looks like to understand its counterpart. We must know the Swedish way of transport. Allow me to introduce to you the venerable Volvo V70R.
So now that I deflated your expectations of the next supermodel supercar, let’s try to understand why the Volvo wagon is so, well, popular. I think the core of what makes soccer moms do the hippie dance and little league dads cheering over a Volvo is safety. All modern day cars have safety belts, airbags, antilock brakes, stability control, tire pressure monitoring, soon to be mandated back-up cameras and a plethora of other safety accoutrements. Obviously, Volvo is no exception to these features. In fact, Volvo’s engineers have set the standard for what safety looks like in the passenger automobile and continually raises the bar. If we dig a little deeper we will find that Volvo seems to have taken a more proactive approach to design safety whereas the other manufactures design in a more reactive manner. It’s like you are either the twitterer or the twitteree. Do you use Facebook or did you invent it. The other automobile manufacturers are continually watching over their shoulders to see what Volvo does next so they can follow suit. That is what makes Volvo owners loyal to their cars.
Okay so the brand is synonymous with safety and civility. What you may not know is Volvo does dabble in the sporting end of the automobile sect. We are not talking Porsche of Ferrari territory but they do make some fun to drive and rather handsome vehicles and the V70R is one of them. This car is equipped with a 2.5 liter turbocharged engine that produces a few ponies shy of 300 making it the first car to soccer practice and the grocery store. With that kind of power you can easily shame a few Subaru WRX drivers even when you have a full load of groceries and kids! With its all-wheel-drive, sport suspension, large alloy wheels and massive brakes beating the crowd to “Mount-A” is no problem. So, you can have it all in an all-wheel drive Volvo V70R.
Drive safely and happy motoring!!!
