This is not the Volvo your dentist drives.
If you have a soft spot for Volvo’s new S90 saloon but feel it needs a little more bite, good news: The S90 R-Design has joined the Australian lineup, and offers a bit more visual aggression compared to the elegant and understated standard model.
Building on the T6 powertrain, the S90 R-Design packs a turbocharged and supercharged 2.0-litre petrol powerplant, capable of 235kW and 400Nm, putting it right up against performance variants of BMW’s 5-Series, Mercedes-Benz’s E-Class, and Jaguar’s XF. That power is then sent to all four wheels via and eight-speed automatic transmission, making it capable of completing the century sprint in just 5.9-seconds. Despite the power on offer, it claims a fuel consumption figure of just 7.5L/100km.
The S90 R-Design, as the name suggests, tacks on a lot of aesthetic bits to help it differentiate itself from the ret of the range. The car sits on dapper 19-inch alloys, and is also discernible on the outside by the matte-silver wing mirror caps and more aggressive bumper treatments. The cabin sees more revisions though, with thinks like perforated Nappa leather seat trim, a three-spoke steering wheel in the same perforated trim, carbon-fibre trim inlays, and paddle shifters, on top of the four-zone climate control, fully-digital instrument cluster, and electric front seats that the standard S90 T6 comes with.
With the S90 R-Design coming in at $100,900, it’s certainly commanding serious coin. That said, it can be argued that the amount of kit that the svelte Swede offers (with includes semi-autonomous driving capabilities, among others) puts it a head above the rest in the value race, and they might certainly be right.
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