Volvo is planning a slight increase in 2011 car sales in the US, particularly off the back of the updated Volvo S60 sedan. Doug Speck from Volvo says that S60 sales could have a huge increase from about 2,000 units last year up to 15 or 20,000 in the US this year.

The S60 sedan will be backed up by strong sales in the short term for the XC60 as well, but over the mid-term Volvo is planning that the bigger XC90 will have to shoulder some of the targeted sales volume. The plan is to bring a refreshed, all-new XC90 to the market to make a trio of mass selling models, with the addition of some niche products as well.

Speck is to become the senior vice president for marketing, sales and customer service at Volvo headquarters next month when he moves from his current role of CEO Volvo Cars North America. He speaks mostly of the American market but it’s hard to know whether the new XC90 will be available in Europe as well, designed with European tastes in mind.

Continue reading: New Volvo XC90 for US

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Drive magazine has taken a look at some of the best vehicles for the snow, but which have enough city and off-road features to keep people happy, and looking good in both urban and and off-road settings.

Some of the usual “lifestyle” vehicles and faux off-road models such as the Audi Q5, Renault Koleos, Land Rover Freelander or Volvo XC60 may suit for snow and ice driving condictions. Audi and Volvo often come across with some of the best AWD options, having sedans, hatchbacks, wagons and offroads throughout the range which can give you all the four wheel effect you want.

But which are the cars that really stand out? There are a few surprises in the list, which includes: the Mazda3 (for its stability control), the Nissan Dualis, Volkswagen Tiguan and the Subaru Liberty/Outback. In fact, given Subaru has all wheel drive across its range, any old one will do. The Audi A6 allroad wagon gets itself on the list, as does the Volvo XC60 and the Lexus RX350.

For full details, see Drive.com.au.

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If the rumours that had Volvo distancing itself from Ford Motor Co. in summer were true, the blue oval would have made it in time to grab hold of the latest budding technology of the Göteborg company: the City Safety introduced on the new XC60 at Geneva.

The new gadget, management’s focus during the presentation, prevents crashes at low speed between the equipped vehicle and another moving in the same direction. The preventive action on the brakes engages on the basis of information from a front radar and an acoustic signal averts the driver. It’s an old emphasis on Volvo’s safety tradition.

Gerry Keaney, company vicepresident and director of sales and marketing, reportedly revealed to Automative News that City Safety will not only be adopted on the entire range, but will also be considered for some model Fords. Keaney underlined that a different choice would have been surprising: “Usually the latest finds in technology have their debut on premium cars and are then deployed on large-volume cars after a certain period. It would be strange if City Safety were never assembled on a Ford”.

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The pictures of the new Volvo XC60 are officialy out. The new mid-sized SUV from the Swedish Brand will be shown to the public on March 4th in Geneva.

At first the XC60 will be available with three different engines: the T6 with a turbocharged inline-6 gasoline engine that produces 285 hp and two variants of the D5 turbodiesel (with respectively 185 and 163 ps). All models will have four-wheel drive, but during 2009 a FWD version with a Euro5 version of the D5 engine will be available.

Continue reading: Geneva 2008: Volvo XC60

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Our dutch friends over at Autoblog.nl have discovered these first official images of the Volvo XC60, out a couple of days before the embargo date (20 febbraio).

The Volvo XC60 is the new mid-sized SUV from the swedish brand, from which much is expected in terms of sales. At the moment there are no technical details available and nothing is known about when sales will start.

Via | Autoblog.nl

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