Buyers of late-model Volvo cars and SUVs have two fundamental decisions to make. First, do they want the base T5 engine configuration or the more powerful T6? Either is fine; it depends on how much off-the-line and passing acceleration is important to you. Second, do they want the base Momentum trim level or the more luxurious Inscription trim?

So my local Volvo dealer this year started participating in the Volvo valet service. If you're not familiar with it, let me explain and tell you that it is wonderful.

After nearly 10 years of ownership, we know what it’s cost to maintain Patti’s 2008 S80 each year—and can compare that with what we spent to maintain our GMC Yukon XL Denali. The difference wasn’t as great as I thought it might be.

When I spoke to the owner of my local Volvo dealership at the Pennsylvania Auto Show early this year, I was intrigued to learn that Volvo Cars had an XC100 in the works. I imagined it might be an even bigger version of the XC90. But apparently I was mistaken.

The XC90 isn’t getting much road time lately. Like the rest of the world, my wife and I are sheltering at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, hoping to do our part to slow the spread of the virus and also keep ourselves safe.

After 15 months with the 2019 XC90, there are just a few little things I’d change.

Over the past few years, I’ve embraced the idea of keeping all-weather floor mats in our vehicles year-round. We live in Pennsylvania, where winter snow and slush are commonplace. Or at least they were before the planet started heating up.

MotorTrend editors have named the Volvo XC90 one of the 15 most important cars of the past 10 years.

The XC90’s odometer rolled over the 10,000-mile mark just under a year since I took delivery of it from our local Volvo dealer. Let’s look at how it’s performed relative to my expectations.

I tend to think of myself, for better or worse, as the kind of guy who reads owner’s manuals. But I don’t always do it, and last week it left me looking a little foolish.

For a century, railroads were a critical cog in the US passenger transportation system. Today they still play a big role in moving freight, but passenger service is significant only in a few big metropolitan areas. Fortunately, there are still about 200 heritage railroads in operation, many offering short haul rides that are perfect for railroad buffs looking for a mystery dinner ride, say, or just wanting to share their love of railroads with their kids or grandkids.

From North Carolina to Maine and New Jersey to Illinois, we all love our E-ZPass transponders. They allow us to zip through turnpike tolls without stopping, or at least without having to dig out our wallets. In Pennsylvania, E-ZPass users also enjoy discounted tolls.

Heading into a two-week trip to Europe and the Baltics, I was looking forward to many of the same things other tourists get excited about. But I also had a less common item on my list. I was eager to observe Volvos in their native element. Particularly Sweden.

I’m still not sure I did the right thing. Choosing the XC90? Oh, no. That was the right thing. I’m talking about rotating tires.

Getting stuck on the road with a car that won’t run is never fun. Neither is trying to find someone to tow your vehicle to the shop. But Volvo’s trying to make it a little less painful.

What happens when you take an engine from a big SUV and drop it into a sleek sedan weighing nearly 500 pounds less?

Full confession: I’m just nerdy enough that I’ve been reading Consumer Reports since high school, when my dad subscribed to the magazine. I subscribe to the online edition now, and still turn to it before making most major purchases. But I can’t agree fully endorse its review of the current-generation Volvo XC90, especially now that I’ve been driving my 2019 model for more than five months.

The first year of owning a new car, SUV or truck is the honeymoon phase. You are still getting to know the vehicle now, and can still be surprised by it from time to time.

The first all-electric Volvo XC40 will apparently debut this year. Automotive News reported yesterday—and we don’t think this was an April Fool’s Day joke—that Volvo will introduce the electric version of the XC40 before the end of this year.

At some point in my formative years, I learned that white cars are the easiest to keep looking clean.

Not actually clean, of course. White doesn’t repel dirt any better than black, red, blue or silver. I mean looking clean, as in not showing dirt as much as those other colors.

Interstate highways tend to be the quickest way from Point A to Point B. They’re also deadly dull. So, when we took the XC90 for a weekend jaunt to Atlantic City recently, I was happy to follow a back-road route mapped out by Waze. (Nice to have that on Apple Carplay now.)

Volvo has one of the freshest and most attractive lineups of cars and SUVs on the market, but continuous improvement is the name of the game in the auto industry. Volvo has just announced new features and design elements for the 2020 XC90. Here are details, and other news from Gothenburg.

So, yes, a concession. Of all the new technologies I gained access to when I upgraded from my 2003 GMC to the 2019 XC90, a tire pressure monitoring system wasn’t the one that most excited me. Glad to have it, sure. But it’s hardly as sexy as, say, Apple CarPlay or Pilot Assist.

The XC90’s odometer clicked past 1,000 miles last week, an apt time for our first status report.

It almost felt like the parking gods were gunning for me.

Walking toward the XC90 in the back corner of Garage 1 at Dulles International, I saw it from at least 50 yards away: a chrome-plated metal baggage cart, rolled up hard against my SUV’s passenger side rear bumper. My pulse quickened. With less than 1,000 miles on the odometer, had my new ride suffered its first ding?

Our first road trip in the new XC90 wasn’t one I was expecting to make. Four days before Christmas, I received a phone call from my sister telling me Mom had fallen and broken her right ankle in two places. As a result, she would not be joining the family on Christmas day at my sister’s house, as she customarily does along with my stepfather, but rather would be recovering from surgery in a hospital two hours away.

You know how annoying the driver is who approaches you with his high beams shining in your eyes?

The other evening, I was that guy.