It is. Yet despite its heft the “Mjölnir” motif in the headlights is an ill-fitting metaphor. Thor’s hammer was allegedly so heavy it could only be wielded by Thor himself but the Volvo XC90 is actually very easy to drive. The punchy powertrain makes for effortless overtaking, and throttle response is smoothed out by the different aspiration methods. The eight-speed transmission is as smooth as any I’ve experienced – this is a true luxury car with the relaxed driving quality to match that tag.

The steering is appreciably direct but is light enough for even the most pampered of drivers to handle. The ride quality is flawless. The cabin floats over the various imperfections in the road serenely without ever feeling vague.

As we’ve mentioned many times before Volvo’s seats are brilliant and will comfortably support you for hours. They seem to actively relax you as you drive, it’s uncanny.

A large greenhouse makes for great visibility and the commanding driving position hides the size of the car in even the tightest of parking garages. The “one-touch” rear headrest collapsing system is a nice touch when you’ve unloaded all the passengers and want more rearward visibility.

Now, some people will poo-poo using a car with this sort of beastly size and Herculean ground clearance for the morning school run with one kid, but while dropping my daughter off at school I had a moment of extreme gratitude for the Volvo’s robust suspension and ground clearance.  See, to get into the carpark we need to go through a boom gate. There is only one. And on this morning the boom gate was stuck down. A huge queue had formed behind the gate and everyone was standing around generally looking frustrated and grumpy. Not me. Because nothing bad has ever happened to me before when I went off the beaten path in a Volvo crossover… I drove up to the lowest of the kerbs, got out to make sure I had enough clearance, then drove up and over, across the muddy, grassy hill and plodded down the other kerb and out the driveway, leaving my fellow child-dropping friends in my wake. I think that makes me an urban off-road warrior – only instead of bouncing about in my seat I was calm and unruffled.

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