Volvo isn’t all about passenger cars. For more than a decade now, it has also sold visions of a wide, brown land beyond the city fringes.

It started with ruggedised city cars, badged Cross Country, and has developed into a separate range of jacked-up SUVs known as the XC.

But now the Cross Country badge is back, pinned to a glamourous-looking version of the V40 hatchback that has recently taken the mantle as Volvo’s most safety-conscious car yet as the Swede cautiously steps towards its 2020 target of building an uncrashable car.

It looks the part, with contrasting bash plates, dual exhaust and contrasting blacked-out elements adorning its bodywork, but something suggests this is little more than a mere acknowledgement that buyers like the rugged looks, but don’t want the substance to back them up.



Does it sour the Volvo V40 Cross Country experience?

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