Price £23,320
MPG 74
Top speed 130mph
A nice man from Volvo phoned me up this week and asked if I’d like to go to a film premiere. How glamorous, I thought, my mind a heady whirl of flashbulbs, red carpets and starlets in strapless dresses. Car manufacturers have long used films as a vehicle (sorry) to give their cars some personality. Where would Aston Martin be without Mr Bond? Would Mini be the quirky lovable motor we take it for without the antics of Mr Bean? But who would Volvo be striking up a movie partnership with? Probably some Scandinavian beauty with a lust for adventure set in a frozen landscape.
In fact, the film stars a marmalade-munching bear from Darkest Peru – Paddington. Mr Brown, his adoptive father, is a risk assessor and drives a Volvo. Of course he does. To be fair, Paddington was created by Mr Bond, Michael Bond, and the new movie is brilliantly funny, warm and touching – though purists may raise an eye at scenes of mild flirtation, transvestism and a bout of light swearing.
The film is a perfect family movie, and what car says family more than Volvo? In 1927 the firm’s founders, Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson, laid out their vision: “Cars are driven by people,” they said, “and so the guiding principle behind everything we make at Volvo is safety.” Now the company’s stated goal is that by 2020 nobody shall ever be seriously injured or killed in a new Volvo.
The latest model to join battle to make that ambition a reality is the V40 Cross Country. It is a pumped version of the more metropolitan V40. From the outside this means juicier suspension, higher ground clearance, bash plates under its nose and tail, and skid plates down each side. But don’t let its rugged looks and aggressive detailing fool you. The Cross Country is a total wuss when it comes to confrontation. It’s been fitted with a host of smart gadgets and gizmos, which Volvo calls IntelliSafe, to keep you, your passengers and your car out of harm’s way. These technologies don’t just keep you in one piece after a crash – they actively prevent a collision happening in the first place, despite your best efforts. At Volvo they don’t recognise the word “inevitable”.
City Safety works at up to 31mph and slams on the brakes if the car senses a low-speed smash. Electronic Stability Control applies just the right amount of brake and reduces engine power to stop you skidding if the car senses the road is greasy. Collision Warning with Pedestrian and Cyclist Detection (Dog Detection is in the pipeline) takes avoiding action if the car senses… you get the idea. Hats off to you if you actually manage to crash a Volvo. Paddington has a gift for mayhem – maybe he should be unleashed as a Volvo test driver?
So far, so safe. Stepping past Volvo’s death fixation, what about the living? Inside you’ll find a ménage of stitched leather, tactile rubber and polished chrome, all topped off with a panoramic roof and seven modes of ambient “theatrical” lighting. The new Sensus Connected Touch programme turns the 7in display screen into an onboard computer – you can stream Spotify and access it with a voice-controlled function: simply say the name of a song, and within seconds it’s playing. Then there’s the engine: the V40 is blessed with the powerfully efficient new D4. Fast and responsive, it offers 187bhp on tap, a 0-62mph time of 7.7 seconds and just 104g/km CO2. Round bends, the car feels balanced and agile. On straights, it feels eager and poised. In all, it’s everything you’d expect. And it looks great in marmalade orange.
Ice driving with Bentley
Bentley’s flagship and highly exclusive ice-driving experience, Power on Ice, will have two extra participants in 2015, after Bentley donated two spaces as prizes for the very first time to a new international charity, Care2Save. All proceeds from a public competition will provide funds to improve excellence in hospice and palliative care around the world. The competition will run from 1 December 2014 to 8 January 2015, with entries costing just £1. There is no limit to the number of entries possible and they can be made through the website www.care2save.co.uk/bentley/. Bentley is also donating exclusive gifts for those who buy a number of entries in the charity draw, including a tour of Bentley’s factory in Crewe.
Set in the icy north of Finland, Power on Ice elevates the concept of ice driving to the extreme, with the most powerful Bentley line-up yet. Throughout the four-day adventure, the winners will push a range of Bentley cars beyond the limitations of every-day driving, starting with the first ever chance to drive the Continental GT3-R on ice. With expert in-car tuition from Bentley’s ice-driving team and four-time World Rally Champion, Juha Kankkunen, piloting the cars on his personally designed tracks, it is just one part of this amazing event. Hosted at the boutique hotel of Chalet Ruka Peak there are also snowmobile rides, ice-karting and night-time Huskey-sled safari adventures to reindeer farms. Each place normally costs €11,340. Spend a pound or two, raise money for a good cause and maybe end up having the ice-driving experience of a lifetime – sounds like a win win situation...
Email Martin at martin.love@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @MartinLove166
