This car makes SUVs look really dumb, and I would own one in a heartbeat
January 14, 2026 by Jamie Edkins
Car changing is a big deal
News editor Jamie Edkins spent his Christmas break wafting around in the Volvo V90, and he’s convinced that you cannot get a better family car than this. Shame you can’t buy one anymore.
I’ve always been an advocate for the estate car as the ultimate family car. SUVs might be more in fashion, but I reckon a good old-fashioned wagon can offer similar style with much better practicality than any jacked-up equivalent.
Spending my Christmas break driving the Volvo V90 has only solidified this for me. I covered over 1,000 miles in two weeks in this Swedish estate car, travelling from Hampshire to Cornwall, ferrying the family around to various holiday parties, and then back home again in the new year.
Getting behind the wheel for the first time, I was impressed by just how lovely the interior is. The light leather and large windows make the V90 feel light and airy, and the wood trim looks great as well. Material quality is also superb.
Sure, SUVs can also have really posh interiors, but it was nice to be sat nice and low for a change. You feel cocooned in the V90, like you’re in a cozy log cabin, rather than being perched high up.
Despite the lower seating position, visibility is excellent thanks to the large glass area. You get a great view forwards over the bonnet, making it really easy to place through tight spaces, and there are no massive blind spots over your shoulder.
On the move, the Volvo is fantastically comfortable. It glides over bumps, and it’s whisper quiet on the motorway. It may not be as fun through the corners as a BMW 5 Series, but it always feels planted and secure. Every passenger I took in this car complimented its comfort.
Speaking of carrying passengers, there’s loads of space in the rear. A few months ago, I spent a week with the Audi Q8, a huge SUV. That car felt much bigger to drive, but when I tried to get three people in the back I was shocked to see them fighting for space in my rear-view mirror.
There were no such issues in the Volvo. With two people there is acres of space, as well as heated outer seats, and carrying three is much easier than it was in the massive Q8. The only hindrance is the big hump in the floor which the middle passenger has to straddle.
On paper, the V90’s boot is much smaller than other estate cars. At 488 litres, it’s 72 litres down on the BMW 5 Series Touring and a whopping 202 litres smaller than the Skoda Superb. This is mostly thanks to the lack of underfloor storage – there’s a lot of hybrid bits under there. Despite this, it was still hugely practical.
When we needed additional seating for the Christmas table, the V90 swallowed up three solid garden chairs without issue. It also fit our Border Terrier Boo’s crate with loads of room to spare. Interestingly though, I had to remove the parcel shelf. The crate fits in the back of my parent’s Skoda Octavia vRS Estate underneath the load over.
Once again, this is down to the electrical gubbins raising the boot floor. It’s not as practical as other estate cars of this size, but I would never fit this much stuff in the Q8 with such ease.
I covered a grand total of 1,033 miles in the V90 before handing the keys back, and in that time it averaged 36mpg. That doesn’t sound great, but I was running it in the least efficient way possible. It’s a 2.0-litre petrol plug-in hybrid with a whopping 455hp, but I had nowhere to plug it in during my time with it. So for a powerful petrol car of this size to return 36mpg while carrying an empty hybrid battery is pretty good going in my books.
It’s not all gushing praise though, because there were a couple of annoyances. The first is the rather dated touchscreen, which is quite small and used to control everything. It’s a bit fiddly to use on the move, and a couple of times the display froze. The climate functions would still operate, but the screen wouldn’t change. A classic “turn it off and on again” solved this.
The other thing is the emergency manoeuvre braking, which is meant to brake for you if you’re about to back into something. It’s overly sensitive, going off if you get within half a foot of an obstacle, and when having to back through tight gateways in rural Cornwall serves only to make me and my family jump out of our skins when the brakes slam on.
As of last year, the Volvo V90 has gone out of production worldwide with no signs of a replacement, and this makes me sad. It was a truly wonderful Christmas companion, and in my mind proves that you just can’t beat a big estate car for family duties. I would happily own one instead of an SUV.
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