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.
Read MoreI estimate I made the two-hour drive from our home to State College, Pennsylvania, about 10 dozen times over the past 16 years, either to visit our son while he was there attending Penn State University there or to go to a Penn State football game. (Often, the two went hand-in-hand.) Yesterday marked the first time I would do it in the XC90.
Read MoreAt 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.)
Read More
The XC90’s odometer clicked past 1,000 miles last week, an apt time for our first status report.
Read More
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?
Read MoreOur 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.
Read More
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.
What could be easier than running your car through an automatic car wash? Pull up to the entrance, pay your money, put your car in neutral, and let the machines do the rest. No fuss, no muss, right?
Read MoreAfter nearly two months to the day of waiting—and about 10 days ahead of original schedule—my new 2019 XC90 T6 Inscription was ready for pickup at my local dealer.
Upon arrival, I signed a few pieces of paper, after which my salesman, Bob, spent an hour going over the vehicle’s electronics, safety features and infotainment system. Even at that, I had to cut him about an hour short due to other commitments I had that afternoon. We agreed that I’d come back in a few weeks once to figure out anything that was still eluding me.
Read More