How Volvo's XC40 SUV shows China's Geely brand has hit its stride

The luxury SUV segment is getting crowded.

That’s because consumers, seemingly overnight, have turned against sedans. What this means is that well-established brands, such as BMW and Mercedes, are somewhat saddled with legacy four-doors whose sales are sliding. Meanwhile, brands that are reinventing themselves have a runway to crank out crossover and surf the trend.

Volvo is one of those reinventing brands. The Swedish nameplate is now owned by China’s Geely and over the past few years has been rolling out revamped SUVs. The XC90 was Business Insider’s 2015 Car of the Year, while the XC60 was a finalist in 2017.

Now we have the XC40, Volvo’s compact offering. You could maintain that this is the most important new crossover of them all, because this is where customers will now start with the brand.

For what it’s worth, the start isn’t what it used to be. Decades ago, you bought one of Volvo’s blocky sedans or wagons because they were renowned for safety, looked good dirty, lasted forever, and were anything but German. Luxury was not part of the calculation.

But it is now. And so is performance, as Volvo seeks to match up with BMW, Audi, and Mercedes. I was lucky enough to try out a performance-oriented XC40 T5 R-Design, with all-wheel-drive, tipping the cost scales at US$45,835, after the addition of numerous options.

Here’s what I thought.

The Volvo XC40 that we sampled for a week was a top-level T5 all-wheel-drive crossover, with the “R-Design” treatment. This is the Volvo that zigs! Ours had a “Bursting Blue Metallic” paint job.

We’ve also sampled the XC90 and the XC60. The XC40 is the smallest of the trio, but I like its sleek-yet-still-boxy Volvo looks more than the XC60s.