I was in our Volvo XC60 a couple days ago for an early morning drive and found it to be an effective highway cruiser. The cabin is pretty quiet at speed, the driver seat is comfortable (though not as those in other Volvos) and the turbocharged inline-6 provides plenty of grunt for passes or when going up steep grades.
I also took the opportunity to fiddle around with the adaptive cruise control. Adaptive cruise control works by monitoring the distance of vehicles ahead of you. You just set your speed and the minimum distance gap. When the XC60's radar sensor detects a slower vehicle within that preset range, the XC60 automatically applies its brakes to adapt to that vehicle's speed.
Our Volvo is the only long-term car in recent memory to have this feature; it's part of the $1,700 Technology Package. Overall, the XC60's adaptive cruise control worked well for the two hours of driving on straight highway that I used it on. It's not a must-have feature by any means, but it is nice in that it eliminates the traditional need to cancel and reset your cruise speed every time a slower vehicle gets in your way. You can also just use regular cruise control if you want.
The only thing I noticed was that the XC60's cruise-speed adjustment buttons seem to bump you up or down in 5-mph increments, which is excessive. Presumably, there's a way to switch this back to the more normal 1-mph increment, but I didn't have the opportunity to RTFM.
Brent Romans, Senior Automotive Editor
e90_m3 says:
10:06 AM, 12/ 3/09
Great. Now we have their City Safety crap jamming my laser detector, and the cruise control jamming my radar detector.
Anyone who can't keep a constant distance from the vehicles in the front, or can't press the brake pedal in slow traffic, should be banned from driving.
BAN ALL RADAR- AND LASER-BASED VEHICLE SYSTEMS AND KEEP OUR AIRWAVES FREE!
crowb says:
11:20 AM, 12/ 3/09
heh heh e90_m3 is afraid to speed without his safety net. You've gone soft, my man.
rick8365 says:
11:35 AM, 12/ 3/09
"RTFM" LOL!
mortal1 says:
12:17 PM, 12/ 3/09
Acc is basically the only feature I'd really want in a luxury car. Why? Because I get tired of the constant speed up to slow down routine when dealing with left lane hogs. It's one of the few times I really loose my temper when driving. It's so aggravating I eventually just give up, and cruise along at 68mph in the slow lane.
Of course this feature would be completely irrelevant if police started ticketing this behavior (on the interstate), but driving seems to be a 'right' and not a privilage. I dream of the day when left lanes are used for passing...
yellowmiata says:
12:59 PM, 12/ 3/09
Its awfully dangerous to drive that vehicle without the seatbelt TSB fix! Beware IL drivers! (oops, I forgot to ask - did you get the seatbelt fixed?)
lazyhater says:
01:16 PM, 12/ 3/09
e90_m3, you gonna hate the future, as we progress toward i-robot, all cars will have multiple radar/laser sensors so they can drive itself. Most high end luxury cars already have Adaptive Cruise Control, and it is trickling down to cheaper cars as times goes by, the $45k Taurus SHO have it now. I love mine, another feature to make life easier. That is the point of a luxury cruiser, is you don't want to drive.
Brent Romans, the 750i and FX50 have Adaptive Cruise Control also.
bromans says:
03:52 PM, 12/ 3/09
@lazyhater
While the 7 Series and the FX50 can be equipped with ACC, neither of those long-term cars is so equipped.
mercedesfan says:
06:33 PM, 12/ 3/09
I LOVE adaptive cruise control. It was one of those features that intrigued me when I bought my car almost 4 years ago, but I never really thought I would use it that much. I was wrong, it is a feature I have used more than any other on my car (including the nav-system). With as much highway driving as I do, it is an absolute blessing to be able to drive along without needing to adjust the cruise control every ten minutes. And yes, the car will come to a complete stop when it needs to and then gets right back under way when traffic opens up. It's pretty neat. I still am too nervous to use the system in congested traffic, but I also really think it would work.
zoomzoomn says:
08:21 AM, 12/ 4/09
RTFM...that's awesome! Sorry, that's all i got out of it. :)
wmfamily says:
07:36 PM, 12/ 6/09
The + and - buttons increase or decrease by about 5 mph and the resume button increases by about 1 mph.
The ACC is one of the best options there is. Although you still must be aware of what's in front of you it helps with the constant engage/disengage of the cruise control.