As iPod interfaces go, the one in our 2010 Volvo XC60 is a little disappointing considering the car's luxury badge. We covered the interface as part of a whole XC60 technology review on Edmunds Daily, but I felt it was worth calling out specifically here.
To control an iPod, the XC60 offers up its center stack's four-way rocker pad and the "Enter" and "Exit" buttons. Hitting Enter brings up the iPod's main menu (songs, artists and so forth). From here you use the controller to scroll down or move left or right to navigate. You can also use the tuning knob to move up or down. However, there's no quick scrolling function like you'll find on some other cars (like our Camaro's, for instance). To move through a list, you just have to hold down the up or down button on the pad. After a few seconds of holding, the scroll speed does increase, but it's still annoying if you have a long list of things to go through.
My other complaint is that there's no one-step back button once you're playing a song. Hitting the Enter button just takes you straight back to the main menu. So if you want to go back to whatever folder you happened to be in, you need to go through the whole process again.
I do like the top-mounted audio display screen. It isn't all that pretty, but it is closer to your field of vision, which I appreciate from a safety standpoint. And really, all the XC60 needs is a couple software updates: make the tuning knob work like the Camaro's and allow one-step-back functionality during audio playback. Then you'd have an interface that's on par with the best.
Brent Romans, Senior Automotive Editor @ 7,427 miles
jstandefer says:
02:49 PM, 11/16/09
Unfortunately, this is a huge step forward for Volvo! For the $48k that Volvo thought the '06 S60 R we had was worth new (no, we would not and did not pay anywhere near that price), it's factory iPod interface was just the terrible 'let's fool the head unit into thinking an iPod is a CD changer' type. All it would display on the dash was the disc number and track number, and all that was on the iPod was the Volvo logo. It sucked almost as much as that car's computer-controlled suspension (Comfort = too soft, Sport = too harsh, Advanced = did I leave my kidneys back there?). At least the Dynaudio system made up for it in sound quality.
bkochuk says:
06:26 AM, 11/17/09
the display looks like a Mac Classic!