ShareThisIt's the most common traffic accident.
You're driving slowly in traffic, or puttering along in a mixer lane near a freeway. Your attention is distracted for a split second, maybe checking the radio station or glancing over your shoulder. God forbid you should be talking on your cell phone.
Bam! You've rear-ended the idiot in front of you who slammed on his brakes for no good reason.
You've got a lot of company, but no consolation because you have to pay the deductible.
Kim Hazelbaker, senior vice president at the Highway Loss Data Institute in Arlington, Va., says nearly 52 percent of collisions result in $2,500 or less in damages. That's based on information in databases that contain records of 80 percent of the nation's insured vehicles.
Low-speed bumper tests, he said, show that those damage losses happen at five to six miles an hour.
Well, guess what? Volvo's 2010 XC60 crossover utility vehicle has it covered, and not with insurance.
It's called City Safety, and it's the latest in a line of high-tech corrections for driver errors. We already have stability and traction control, antilock brakes, adaptive cruise control, lane-change correction and even warnings to jolt sleepy or otherwise impaired drivers.
Volvo, as almost anyone with more than a passing interest in motor vehicles knows, has a longstanding reputation for safety innovations, dating back to the Swedish vehicle manufacturer's invention of the three-point safety seat belt, which is the most important life-saving automotive device in history.
Unlike some of the other technologies, City Safety not only works, it's cheap, adding only $100 to $150 or so to the price of a vehicle.
It works at speeds of up to about 18 miles an hour. Using an infrared laser sensor mounted near the inside rear-view mirror, it monitors vehicles and other objects directly in the path of the XC60. It likely will become available on other vehicles as well as the technology spreads.
City Safety automatically slams on the brakes if a collision is imminent between two and nine miles an hour, avoiding a collision entirely. If the speed is between nine and 18 miles an hour, it will mitigate the force of the crash, perhaps avoiding injury and lowering damage costs. Reduced insurance premiums also are possible.
It's uncanny. During demonstrations, Volvo set up big plastic balloons and soft padded posts. None got banged unless the vehicle was going too fast. But most testers were too chicken to trust it against a real vehicle.
The XC60 is Volvo's first compact to mid-size crossover utility vehicle and the first in the world to offer City Safety as part of the standard equipment. All-wheel drive, a 281-horsepower turbocharged six-cylinder engine and a six-speed automatic transmission that can be shifted manually are part of the basic package.
As a premium crossover starting at $38,025, the XC60 also comes with leather upholstery, a motorized glass sunroof, 18-inch alloy wheels, Bluetooth capability and HD as well as satellite radio. With options that included a navigation system, adaptive cruise control and a blind-spot warning feature -- unnecessary if you adjust the mirrors correctly -- the tested XC60 had a suggested sticker price of $44,475.
It competes against the Mercedes-Benz GLK, BMW X3, Audi Q5, Lexus RX350, Infiniti EX, Lincoln MKX and even the new Cadillac SRX. These are all five-passenger car-based wagons with an up-high seating position and decent cargo-carrying capability.
The XC60, for example, has 99 cubic feet of passenger space, which is about equivalent to a mid-size sedan. But it also has 34 cubic feet of cargo area behind the second-row seat, which is about three times as much as a typical mid-size sedan. Fold the rear seatbacks and the area expands to 67 cubic feet.
There's also ground clearance of more than nine inches and a towing capability of 3,300 pounds, so the XC60 also can do light-duty hauling and off-road rambling. For the latter, it features hill descent control.
The look is one of luxury. Outside, the XC60 has flowing lines in a tidy package slightly over 15 feet long. Inside, the driver is cosseted in Volvo's traditionally comfortable and supportive seats, leather covered. On the test car, buffed blonde wood accented the interior.
A few downsides included a confusing array of buttons, sun visors that did not slide on their support rods to block sunlight from the side, a mesh shade that only partially blocked bright light through the glass sunroof, and rear seatbacks that did not recline.
But the XC60 is no slouch on performance. Volvo test figures place the zero to 60 mile an hour acceleration time at slightly more than seven seconds, with a top speed of 130 miles an hour. But the performance results in meager fuel economy of 16/22 miles per gallon on the EPA's city/highway cycle.
Handling is stable on curving roads and the XC60 tracks cleanly on straight highways. The ride is comfortable and the cabin quiet, with little intrusion of wind, mechanical or road noise.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service. For more columns, go to scrippsnews.com)
DriveWays with VOLVOXC60-SPECS
