People who drive Volvos have a certain image - and it isn't that they're all blond, blue-eyed Nordics named Sven and Katterina.
Volvo owners tend to be high achievers - Volvos aren't cheap - but they prefer anonymity to showing off. They are family folk (I have it on good authority that no bachelor has ever bought a Volvo) and when polled on what they look for in a car, safety is the first word out of their mouths.They are nothing if not brand loyal - most of them are now driving their fourth or fifth Volvo - and while they are anything but flamboyant, they don't mind being thought a bit eccentric. Like sports car drivers in the 1950s, Volvo owners sometimes wave discreetly at each other as they pass, but they draw the line at secret handshakes when they gather at charity functions.
As for such affectations as perforated driving gloves or T-shirts and caps bearing the Volvo logo, they would sooner be arrested for DUI.
While they have long since discarded their yellow "Baby on Board" placards, they are not above afixing stickers to their sturdy bumpers - the whales really do need to be saved, after all, and peace is clearly preferable to war.
Well, so much for identifying our target market. Let's get right to this week's ride, the 1998 Volvo V70 XC Cross Country, Sweden's upscale answer to Japan's Subaru Legacy Outback.
Station wagons, once left for dead in the wake of the minivan and sport utility vehicle tsunami, are making a comeback, spurred mostly by the huge popularity of the Outback, a hybrid vehicle in which Subaru took its popular Legacy wagon, raised it up a bit, gave it some macho touches and created what "Crocodile Dundee" told us was "The world's first sports utility wagon."
Now Volvo has gone and done the same with its V70 wagon and created the Cross Country, perhaps the first European sports utility wagon.
It's not hard to see the appeal in these vehicles. If you can have all-wheel-drive, lots of storage capacity, a touch more road clearance and a rough-rider image - what's not to like?
Here's the motorist for whom Volvo says they designed the Cross Country. See if you fit:
"The V70 XC is designed for the outdoor enthusiast whose weekend aspirations might include boating (to tow their boat, of course), mountain biking or skiing. This versatile Cross Country helps traverse many different types of urban and back-country roads.
"Designed for traveling on loose road surfaces, getting to most types of outdoor locations will be easier with the XC. Ground clearance is one inch and ride height two inches higher than the two-wheel V70 variant."
OK, so it's not a Ford Expedition, but wagons have some advantages over serious sport-utes. They handle better and get better gas mileage, their low profile means they don't get knocked around by crosswinds, they win hands down when it comes to entry and egress, and they fit easily into garages and parking spaces.
That applies to station wagons in general but especially to the long, low and ultra-sleek XC.
And the goodness doesn't stop there. The XC's new interior design is very clean, very Scandinavian, with all the bells and whistles you would expect to find in a high-end luxury car.
It's not all show and no go, either. The 2.3 liter, transversely mounted, in-line, five-cylinder engine under the XC's hood boasts dual overhead camshafts, aluminum heads, four valves per cylinder and, best of all, a turbocharger and intercooler. They combine for 236 horsepower and 243 pound feet of torque.
What all that techno-speak means is that when you go to pass that big triple-trailer on the highway, it takes about three seconds, not 13. For a vehicle that seems to have been made with soccer moms in mind, it's pretty fast.
Which brings us to safety. Volvo is famous for it, and the XC carries on that tradition. All 1998 Volvos come with dual front and dual side-impact air bags, three-point safety belts, and the most effective head restraints in the industry (they angle forward so they'll actually restrain your head's whiplash if you get rear-ended.)
Volvos also have a patented energy-absorbing body structure, the "B" pillars (between the front and back seats) have been strengthened for '98 and the interior panels have been given softer padding to better cushion the driver's and passenger's heads in an accident.
The seat tensioners have also been enhanced with a larger pyrotechnic charge (that's what they call it, honest) that reacts more quickly in a crash, cinching down the belts.
All XC's have four-wheel disc brakes, and ABS is standard. Finally, the high-mounted brake light is a light-emitting diode that comes on more quickly than a regular light bulb, giving drivers behind you a second's faster warning that you've applied the brakes.
When it comes to safety, Volvo leaves nothing to chance. Naturally, all the usual luxury aspects are present and accounted for in the XC, including a beefy 100-watt, six-speaker stereo system with in-dash CD player, power everything, remote keyless entry, heated front seats, armrests with cupholders and an automatic climate control system with separate controls for the driver and front-seat passenger.
Then there's a tilt/telescope steering wheel, acres of sumptuous leather, a power sliding/tilting sunroof and eight-way power driver's seat with three memory settings.
The rear cargo area provides a generous 37.8 cubic feet of space with the seat backs up. You can haul a lot of stuff in this car.
Base price of my test car was $37,960. The power sunroof added $1,790 and destination charges were $575, taking the bottom line to $40,325.
Fuel mileage for the XC is 18 mpg city and 25 mpg highway, not bad for a car that comfortably carries five adults and most of their worldly goods at speeds not legal even in Montana. I averaged 19.4 mpg in combined city/highway driving.