The Daily Car

Geneva is a hotspot in the motoring world currently as its motor show is under way. Today we saw news of an Opel Concept car and some 4×4s, but hottest of all was this new Volvo XC70 four wheel drive estate thing.

Recently news rushed ashore of the new Volvo V70 estate, and in time-honoured fashion, there will be a derivative made for rock-climbing, to compete with the likes of Audi’s A6 Allroad Quattro. The XC70 stars the new Volvo 4×4 styling cues previewed in the XC60 concept car early this year in Detroit.

Niche cars like this are hard for me to classify and this is no exception. It’s taking a more upmarket approach, like Volvo’s parent company - Ford - is.

Where once there were tacky dustbin materials there now can be found some posh painted stuff and there is also some leather. Golly.

But the car is still as rough ‘n’ ready as a lifestyle backpack. Volvo bigwig Stefan Jansson even went as far as comparing the new bumper-mounted air intakes to boxing gloves.