Safety Comes First with the Volvo XC90

Sport utility vehicles are known to be a tough breed of cars for they are designed to be tough. They have been created to be such not only as a protection against natural wear and tear but also because they are intended not only for the paved city streets and highways but also for off-road conditions. They have to take what kin dof punishment off-road driving may pose while still maintaining their high power output and performance.

Toughness is not the only essential aspect of an SUV though since these cars are sometimes tasked to handle almost extreme terrains. Safety of the car’s occupants should also be a primary concern in the production of such vehicles. After all, accidents do not happen only on the untamed off-road environment so, SUVs and any car for that matter, should be produced with safety in mind.

When you are talking about cars and safety, the first thing that comes to mind, of course, is Volvo. The Sweden-based car manufacturer is the world’s leader in production of safe cars. Their priority to take care of safety issues first has been the company’s strongest selling point in their 80 years of existence in the automobile market. Their list of safety features is outstanding and all of their cars in production have rated highly on safety tests. As a matter of fact, their sport utility vehicle, the Volvo XC90, is one of the just 13 vehicles to be rated “Top Safety Pick” by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). To be given such a rating, the Volvo XC90 has been subjected to a battery of tests.

Three tests are conducted by the institute to measure the safety of the vehicle. One of these is the front crash test at 40 miles per hour to which the Volvo XC90 scored the institute’s highest rating of “Good”. Side crashes at 31 miles per hour is another test conducted by the institute and, once again, the Volvo XC90 got “Good” ratings as well. The third test is designed to assess the car’s protection of its third row seat occupants. Rear crash tests at 20 miles per hour are used to determine the cars’ defense against rear collisions and for this, the Volvo XC90 showed that it can adequately protect its occupants thus resulting to another “Good” rating.

The high ratings that the Volvo XC90 got comes as no surprise as its creator and manufacturer is known to produce cars that are not only of high caliber when it comes to performance but are also loaded with safety features developed by dedicated research facilities. Aside from a complete line up of airbags that covers every part of the car where it will be needed in case of crashes, the Volvo XC90 also has three-point pre-tensioning seat belts on all seats which is Volvo’s standard safety feature. Safety features includes Volvo’s BLIS, or Blindspot Information System, which uses digital cameras to monitor the blind spot of the car. Such a system warns the driver if any vehicle has entered his car’s blindspot.

With a very credible safety credential, the SUV is making a strong case in its challenge for the top spot in its class. Of course, the performance of the vehicle is also given much though as its safety. The Volvo XC90′s top trim package which is the Sport version is equipped with a 4.4-liter V8 engine which can give out 311 units of horsepower. Its transmission is precision engineered to facilitate a smooth transmission of power to all the wheels via the drivetrain composed of tough and reliable components like the Volvo axle. The all-wheel drive configuration gives the Volvo XC90 great stability and off-road driving capabilities that makes the sport utility vehicle a serious contender for the top spot in its class.