What's the news?
Volvo's V40 Cross Country is finally getting four-wheel drive for the Irish market, but only if you order one with the new Drive-E T5 petrol engine. The lack of four-wheel drive for the more rugged V40 has always been one of its weakest points with rivals such as the Skoda Octavia Scout, Audi Q3 and BMW X1 all offering the option. Now, with the introduction of the T5 engine (itself added to the regular V40 line-up earlier this year) that has been rectified.
"Volvo Cars is continuing to evolve the V40 Cross Country with this powertrain upgrade. The combination of the Drive-E T5 engine with AWD will give adventurous customers the power to explore, and all the control they need to be confident in all road conditions," says Dr Peter Mertens, Senior Vice President Research & Development at Volvo Cars.
The T5 engine is the powerhouse of the current Volvo line-up, offering 245hp and 350Nm of torque. In the Cross Country this unit is paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission and four-wheel drive. For its power output the turbocharged four-cylinder unit is surprisingly green; it emits only 149g/km compared to 170g/km for a comparable X1 or 179g/km for an Audi Q3.
However, neither the xDrive20i xLine BMW nor the TFSI quattro Audi are huge sellers and without a diesel four-wheel drive option the V40 Cross Country is likely to be a bit part player at best.
Anything else?
No word yet on prices though considering the T5 V40 costs €2,000 more than a range topping diesel model we would expect a price of around €45,000. Order books for the car will open in January.