Volvo V90 (2016 – 2023) Review

With a practical boot, a beautifully finished cabin, generous standard equipment, and some of the best safety equipment of any car on sale, the Volvo V90 is a very impressive car. It’s family-friendly, easy to drive and extremely comfortable, making it a great alternative to the usual Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW executive estates. Read on for our full review of the Volvo V90.

The V90 is a clever piece of automotive design; you can tell it’s a Volvo estate car without having to think about it, but it doesn’t look overly boxy or anything other than modern and stylish. That same design theme also runs into the cabin too, which is discreetly stylish. Perhaps more importantly, there is plenty of space inside too.

Load volume with the rear seats in place is 560 litres, which is plenty for large suitcases or trips to a garden centre – but the cheaper Skoda Superb has more boot capacity for less money. That said, the V90 is still easily big enough for most families, especially in the back row where leg and headroom is enough for adults to sit in comfort.

The cabin is wonderfully finished, with leather upholstery as standard and a variety of upmarket finish options including metal or open grain wood inlays. Quality is seriously impressive – the V90 feels beautifully built, with a real sense of luxury, plus it’s packed with the latest technology, most of which is controlled from a large touchscreen.

The iPad style interface is intuitive, operating climate, in-car settings, connectivity and audio, with support for apps like Spotify. Navigation is standard and includes European maps and traffic updates, or iPhone owners can use their own navigation via Apple CarPlay, although tAndroid Auto is not included.

There is a huge range of safety tech fitted to all V90 variants, including a semi-autonomous driving system that assists with steering and speed on motorways. Autonomous emergency braking is standard too – and it can detect pedestrians, cyclists and large animals like deer as well as other vehicles.

The engine line up in the V90 is quite unlike its key rivals, mainly because Volvo is continuing to push forward with its switch to electric vehicles and a phasing-out of pure combustion engined models. What that means for buyers is that the petrols and hybrids use the same 2.0-litre turbocharged engine, just with a different power output depending on how much you spend or with the addition of hybrid technology to alter the power output. There are no longer any diesel engine options.

On the road the V90 feels quite big, which isn’t great on narrow country roads or in car parks, but elsewhere the car is extremely easy to drive and very comfortable, riding well over lumps and bumps. It isn’t quite as enjoyable through corners as the BMW 5 Series, but there are no complaints on a long motorway journey.

The Mercedes-Benz E-Class Estate is bigger, but it’s also more expensive, while the BMW 5 Series Touring and Audi A6 Avant aren’t quite as luxurious or well-equipped, making the V90 an extremely tempting choice, and a family car that is especially easy to recommend to safety-conscious buyers.

We've lived with a Volvo V90 Ultimate T6 plug-in hybrid for six months - find out how we got on with it in our Volvo V90 long-term test.

The V90 handles well and there’s never a sense it can’t cope with tight bends or direction changes, it just tackles them with less precision and verve than its rivals from Audi and BMW.

Besides, any deficit on a B-road is made up for on motorways and dual-carriageways, where the standard semi-autonomous cruise control is a real help. It matches the speed of the car ahead, stays in its lane and will even slow to a complete stop before accelerating back up to the selected speed, all without the driver’s help.

The driver does need to have their hands on the wheel at all times and it does trip up when lane markings are worn away, but for the most part it works well, taking the pain out of rush hour on the motorway. It’s one of several standard safety technologies that sets the V90 apart from its rivals.

At the top of the range is the powerful T8 plug-in hybrid. This develops 455PS and has a 25 mile electric-only range. It's quick with a 0-62mph time of just 4.8 seconds and yet thanks to the fact it's a plug-in can quote official figures of 313.4mpg and 20g/km CO2. It’s expensive, though, so will have limited appeal and its economy figures aren't realistic in real world driving.

A better bet is the less powerful T6 Recharge plug-in hybrid, which has 350PS and deals with 0-62mph in a still brisk 5.5 seconds. It makes a lot of sense for company drivers, especially now that Volvo has stopped making the V90 with a diesel engine option.

The petrol-only line-up of the V90 is taken care of by the B4 and B5 models, which come with 197- and 250PS, respectively. They are no slouches, with the B4 seeing off 0-62mph in 7.9 seconds, and the B5 taking 6.9 seconds for the same sprint.

Euro NCAP tested the V90 in 2017 and awarded it the full five star rating. It achieved a very high score of 95 per cent for adult protection, with 80 per cent awarded for child protection. Pedestrian mitigation (latterly called vulnerable road users) was also highly-rated with a score of 76 per cent, and the rating of 93 per cent for safety assist was also well above average.

With such a high rating for safety assist it is no surprise that the V90 is fitted with a comprehensive range of driver assistance systems as standard.

This includes common features such as ESC, but also automatic emergency braking including city, interurban, pedestrian and cyclist detection, as well as speed assistance and lane assist. An optional Intellisafe Surround safety pack adds a blind spot information system, cross traffic alert and rear collision warning with mitigation, and is a worthwhile option.

The V90 is a car that is likely to be popular with people who need to tow, and the good news is almost every model is very capable in this respect.

All versions including the hybrid can tow 750kg unbraked. With a braked trailer, the hybrid can pull up to 2100kg, while the petrol B4 and B5 models can lug up to 2000kg.

A retractable tow bar is a £1250 option for the V90 range.

Volvo has long been known for its estate cars, so it’s a little disappointing that the V90 doesn’t provide as much load space as the Mercedes-Benz E-Class Estate (670 litres) or the cheaper Skoda Superb Estate (660 litres). Nonetheless, 560 litres of capacity from the flat load deck to the load cover is plenty for suitcases or shopping sprees.

Folding the rear seats is easy and liberates a maximum of 1526 litres to the roof, which is plenty for flat packs and trips to the garden centre. The load deck itself is nice and low, convenient for getting dogs in and out, plus the tailgate is power-operated as standard, so while it isn’t the biggest boot it’s still perfectly practical.

There are no real complaints elsewhere in the cabin. The rear row of seats provides enough leg and headroom for adults to sit in comfort, while the front seats are among the most comfortable available in any car.

Quality is excellent, with impressive materials including leather upholstery as standard. Little details like Swedish flags subtly stitched to the sides of the seats make the V90 feel genuinely special, and are a modest nod to the car’s country of origin.

Various different optional finishes and inlay materials including open grain wood and brushed metal are available and they really lift the cabin, making it feel light and welcoming.

A slick, intuitive and large touchscreen system controls most functions including ventilation, navigation, audio and phone connectivity and is fitted as standard.

All versions of the V90 come with a high-specification infotainment system, with a 9-inch portrait touchscreen and a 12.3-inch digital instrument display. All models come with sat nav as standard, and also DAB, live traffic information, Bluetooth, voice activation and a built-in data SIM card with a year’s free subscription.

The audio system comes with 10 speakers and a 220W output, but this can be upgraded to a Harmon Kardon system with 13 speakers, a subwoofer and 600W, or a Bowers & Wilkins system with 18 speakers and 1,400W of power. It’s also worth noting that you need one of these upgrades to get Android Auto.

The cheapest brand new Volvo V90 costs a shade more than £50,000 at the time of writing, so you’ll pay £50,315 for the B4 petrol model in Plus trim. The more powerful B5 version adds £3000 to that tally, while the T6 Recharge plug-in hybrid version is an even more substantial £62,280.

Step up to the Ultimate trim and, out of the normal petrol engines, only the B5 is on offer from £59,715. For the plug-in hybrid version, this is the more potent T8 model and it costs from a considerable £70,780.

There’s potentially better news if you’re looking at a used examples, as the V90 has been on sale for a few years so there is a good supply of second-hand examples.

It’s also still on sale as a new car, so if you’re prepared to shop around you can potentially pick up pre-reg discounts too. A trawl through the classifieds bought up lots of delivery mileage models at good prices.

As for older examples, the cheapest cars are now already down to less than £20,000.

Let’s start with the headline act in the Volvo V90 range when it comes to fuel efficiency – the T6 Recharge plug-in hybrid model. It offers a claimed combined average of up to 352.6mpg, though this is dependent on you keeping the battery topped up with charge to get the best from the car.

The T8 Recharge plug-in hybrid claims 313.4mpg, but is subject to the same caveat about battery charging and how the car is used.

Of the two petrol-only options, the B4 offers a combined total of 40.3mpg under WLTP testing, while the B5 comes up with 39.7mpg.

Neither of the petrols can get close to the emissions of the hybrids. The B4 emits 161g/km and the B5 produces 162g/km. On the other hand, the T6 gets down to 18g/km and the T8 is not far behind on 20g/km. That means only a £10 first-year road tax payment for either Recharge model, while the petrols will fork out £645.

Another consequence of these emissions numbers is the Recharge models attract only 8% Benefit in Kind tax for company users, while the petrol-only versions sit much higher at 37%.

Insurance for the V90 is comparable to its chief rivals, and Volvo scored 14^th out of 29 in the 2022 HonestJohn satisfaction index.

If you study the full spec sheet of the Volvo V90 and its standard equipment, you’re going to need a cup of tea to settle in for a long browse. The marginally shorter version is all models come with an automatic gearbox, alloy wheels, cruise control, keyless entry and ignition, automatic wipers and lights, roof rails, and rear parking camera.

That’s not all, as you also get leather upholstery, a 12.3-inch digital dash, 9.0-inch infotainment touchscreen, heated front seats, powered tailgate, and masses of safety tech.

To this lot, the Plus trim builds with adaptive cruise control, rear sunblinds, ambient cabin lighting, 360-degree parking view, four-zone climate control, and a Harmon Kardon stereo with 13 speakers.

Tick the box for the Ultimate trim and you enjoy a Bowers & Wilkins stereo with 18 speakers, rear privacy glass, and electrically adjusted front seats with position memory. A head-up display helps the driver from being distracted, while the Active Four-C chassis offers air suspension and various driving modes.