Volvo XC60 review (2017 - 2025)
Volvo XC60 cars for sale
4.0
Expert review
Pros
Classy styling inside and out
Strong engine range
Practical enough for family use
Cons
No seven-seat option
Not exciting to drive
Expensive to buy
The CarGurus verdict
The Volvo XC60 is not a perfect SUV. If you’re after a car that’ll put the ‘sport’ into ‘sport utility vehicle’, then to be frank, this isn’t it. You’ll find there are rivals that handle more deftly; and some that boast more flexible interior space, too. But what the XC60 gets wrong pales into complete insignificance in the context of what it gets right. Most of all, that means the lavish interior, which manages to feel luxurious in a particularly Scandinavian way. It's refreshingly different from its rivals.
A range of clever hybrid engines keeps fuel consumption down, meanwhile, and while the standard equipment list isn’t overly generous, neither is it particularly miserly. On a long motorway run the XC60 is sublime, offering a winning blend of comfort and isolation that make the miles slide by with ease, while its easy-going nature soothes away the stress of the urban grind. In short, the XC60 is an upmarket, cosseting and largely family-friendly SUV that hits the spot where it matters most.
What is the Volvo XC60?
In the 2020s, Volvo has well and truly made it into the exclusive-yet-nebulous club of car makers we refer to as “premium”. Yes, Sweden’s most famous manufacturer, once best-known for its endlessly practical but dowdy estate cars, has managed to move itself sufficiently upmarket that it now goes head-to-head with the likes of BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar.
Don’t believe us? Just take a look at the interior of this second-generation XC60, the firm’s big-selling mid-size SUV. It's built from top-quality plastics, swathed in rich, thick leather and topped off with splashes of real metal and - if so you choose - satin-finish wood. The XC60’s a class act from within.
All this means that it goes up against some very desirable machinery such as the Audi Q5, BMW X3, Mercedes GLC and Jaguar F-Pace, along with more left-field rivals such as the Lexus NX, Alfa Romeo Stelvio and Genesis GV70. More mainstream alternatives include the Volkswagen Tiguan, Honda CR-V and Nissan Qashqai.
How practical is it?
There’s no seven-seat version, so the XC60 can't quite match the Land Rover Discovery Sport for practicality. And it’s a shame the rear seats don’t slide or tumble like they do in some cheaper, cleverer rivals.
However, there’s still plenty of room for a family of four to stretch out thanks to generous headroom and legroom, and five can travel at a push thanks to a fairly wide cabin. In-car storage is good too, and the large doors make for easy access.
The 483-litre boot is on the smaller side for the class. And it's ever worse for examples with a plug-in hybrid powertrain, in which case the loadbay drops to 468 litres. This will still be enough for lots of families, but there's no escaping that rivals such as the Audi Q5 offer more room.
What's it like to drive?
You don’t need to have 20/20 vision to spot that the XC60 is no sports car, and that’s how it feels out on the road. The suspension is on the soft side, and the steering is slow and deliberate, rather than fast and responsive.
Having said that, with plenty of grip and good body control, the XC60 always feels safe and composed, and frankly, if you’re buying a big SUV like this, you aren’t going to be at all fussed if it isn’t the last word in sporting acumen.
You’ll care far more about comfort, and here you’ll find the XC60’s strongest suit. It’s one of the smoothest cars in its class, if not the smoothest, and smooches over most bumps and ruts as though they simply aren’t there.
Out on the motorway, the XC60 only gets better, wiping away smaller bumps and glossing over expansion gaps. It’s quiet, too, with engine noise particularly muted in petrol versions, and that makes it a wonderful car in which to take on longer trips.
Happily, there’s always plenty of punch on tap no matter which model you choose, so even the least potent XC60 never feels out of its depth at speed.
Speaking of engines, the XC60 has been offered with lots of different options over its long life. Initially, it was available with a range of 2.0-litre, four-cylinder engines, those being known as D4 and D5 diesels and a T5 petrol. All were paired with four-wheel drive as standard and an eight-speed automatic transmission. A plug-in hybrid soon followed, known as the T8 Twin Engine.
These days, diesel is no more, and every version uses a 2.0-litre petrol that's electrified to some degree. The mild-hybrid B5 petrol is the entry point to the range, producing 247bhp. It was once available with either two- or four-wheel drive, but later only with AWD. Up to 2023, you could also have a 300PS B6 petrol version of the same engine, available exclusively with AWD, or a lower-powered B4 with 194bhp.
Alongside the B5 in the modern-day range sits the T6 and T8 Twin Engine plug-in hybrid models. These have 346bhp and 451bhp. The more potent T8 model deals with 0-62mph in just 4.9 seconds, while the T6 takes 5.7 seconds. We've tried the T8, and although it delivers undeniably rapid acceleration, it doesn't quite feel as rapid as the official figure would suggest.
Technology, equipment & infotainment
The XC60's dashboard is dominated by a vast, portrait-oriented central display that controls most of the car’s functions and infotainment system. It isn’t as intuitive as the best touchscreen systems, but once you get used to finding your way around, it’s pretty easy to operate, and responds smoothly.
Models built after autumn 2021 get a much-improved operating system developed by Google, which is significantly slicker than the older Sensus system. Having to take your eyes off the road to adjust the climate control, however, never gets any less distracting. You can’t feel your way around as you can with physical buttons.
During a 2025 facelift, the 9.0-inch central touchscreen was replaced by a new 11.2-inch item. It has a crisper, more pixel-rich display and new software, but it truth, it's not a great deal easier to use overall. The new software was also applied to 2021-onwards XC60s via an over-the-air update.
In terms of trim levels, the XC60 has been offered with loads of them over the years once you factor in trim structure changes, special editions and the like: we counted 19 separate versions at our last tot-up. None of them are poorly equipped, so just judge any car you find on the used car market on its own merits, and decide for yourself whether it has enough luxury gear for you. Currently, the available trim levels are Core, Plus, Plus Pro and Ultra. Again, none of these version scrimp on kit, so just choose according to your budget.
Volvo XC60 running costs
If fuel economy is your primary concern for your used XC60, and you don’t have somewhere to plug in one of the PHEV models, then choose the D4 FWD version, which is the most economical of all. You can reckon on seeing mpg figures of about 40-45 in real-world driving, on average.
The PHEV versions post much higher official fuel economy figures, but these are to be taken with a colossal pinch of salt as in the real world, fuel consumption varies wildly depending on the state of the battery’s charge, not to mention the type of driving you’re doing. The all electric range and official combined fuel consumption figures have changed a bit over time due to updates, too. Early PHEVs would do around 30 miles in EV mode, but a bigger battery was introduced in 2021 that upped that range to around 50 miles. In terms of fuel economy, the T6 posts a figure of around 314mpg, while the T8 posts around 283mpg, but as we've discussed, that's borderline fantasy territory. For best effect, do as much of your driving as you can on electric power, because as soon as the petrol engine kicks in, your car will become very thirsty indeed.
If considering a more affordable version, you can expect to see somewhere in the region of 35mpg on average from the now-defunct B5 FWD, while choosing the AWD version (or the also-now-defunct B6) will drop that down by a few miles per gallon.
Servicing costs should be roughly on a par with those of an Audi Q5, and less than a BMW X3 or Mercedes GLC. As with all of those other manufacturers, Volvo can also offer you a service plan, which spreads the cost of your car’s servicing over the course of the year, resulting in reasonably affordable monthly payments.
Volvo XC60 reliability
Volvo’s warranty is the least impressive of any of the premium car makers. The XC60 is warranted for three years or 60,000 miles, whichever comes up first, whereas other premium manufacturers tend to warrant their cars for the same time period, but with no mileage cap. Lexus, meanwhile, leads the class in this regard by offering cover that could last up to ten years or 100,000 miles, provided you get your car serviced at a main dealer according to schedule.
This version of the XC60 came second out of 15 large SUVs included in the 2024 What Car? Reliability Survey, with a fantastic score of 96.5%. Even more impressive was the fact it finished above all but one (the Mercedes GLC) of its premium rivals. However, those scores relate only to the petrol and plug-in hybrid models, as the diesel was ranked separately and finished ninth out of 15 large SUVs.
- Of course, Volvo is synonymous with safety, and the XC60 upholds the brand's stunning reputation in this area. It would frankly be a waste of everyone's time - yours and ours - to list out all the myriad safety features that come as standard with the XC60, but suffice it to say that the car has the full five-star rating from Euro NCAP, just like every Volvo model tested since 2001.
- Volvo has a tendency to make small incremental model-year changes to its cars as time goes along, without bothering to wait for facelifts in which to bundle up all these changes (although several facelifts have also occurred, confusingly, the most recent in 2025). With that in mind, when buying a used XC60, we'd advise buying the youngest example you can afford, rather than placing too much attention on mileage.
- We said earlier on that the XC60's infotainment system isn't always the easiest to use, which we stand by. Everything is relative, however, Compared to the firm's latest infotainment efforts such as those in the EX30 and EX90 EVs, which are unbelievably convoluted and tricky to navigate, the XC60's system is an absolute doddle.
- If you want the XC60 that's most economical to buy and run: Choose an early diesel version from the used car market. Depreciation will have done its job in bringing down the purchase price of your car, and you can look forward to excellent MPG, especially if you're a long distance user.
- If you use your car for mainly short runs: In this instance, a diesel-powered XC60 could develop expensive problems with its diesel particulate filter (DPF), because regular high-speed runs are needed to avoid this. If you can afford to, go for one of the PHEV versions, or if not, a petrol will do.
- If you're a company car driver: one of the PHEV versions will save you a very good slice in company car tax. If used in the right way, you also stand to save big on fuel costs, with the T6 especially.
- If you want the sportiest version: Browse the used car market for a now-defunct Polestar Engineered version, which comes with the most powerful version of the PHEV powertrain and a variety of performance upgrades. Frankly, though, we can't really see why you'd bother, as the XC60 isn't a sporty car, and is at its best when specced in a form that embraces that fact.
