Volvo Has Just Out-Niched The Germans With The Baffling S60 Cross Country

If you look at the gigantic ranges of BMW, Audi, and Mercedes, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the trio have thought of just about every weird and (not always) wonderful niche to fill. However, it turns out they missed one, and it’s just been plugged by Volvo.

Yep, the Swedish company has done the whole ‘Cross Country’ (read: jacked up suspension and tough grey plastic cladding) thing to one of its cars, but unlike other vehicles in this rather specialist genre such as the Seat Leon X-Perience, Audi A4 Allroad and Volvo’s own V60 Cross Country, the subject is a saloon. Specifically, the S60.

This is the first time such treatment has been levelled at a saloon, and with good reason. The whole point of these things is surely to create a do anything, go anywhere car, and having the capacious boot of an estate is rather key when it comes to motoring versatility.

Anyway, if we attempted to work out who and what this car is for, we’d be here all day, so let’s take a look at what this befuddling motor offers. Underneath, you get the same 65mm suspension lift and four-wheel drive system as its V60 sibling, although front-wheel drive will also be available.

The front-driving cars will be powered by a 188bhp D4 2.0-litre four-pot diesel engine, while the four-wheel drive versions get a 2.4-litre five-pot oil burner.

UK sales will kick off in the second quarter of 2015, by which time we’ll most likely still be confused by this oddball creation.