XC – What’s In a Name?

In 1997, we launched our V70 XC Cross Country, basically a wagon with attitude – between Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne. I had a chance to meet with Peter Horbury our chief of design in those days, at this year’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit. With XC60 about to launch, I wanted to pick Peter’s brain about where XC came from. It’s interesting that the idea of a wagon being bolder would end up creating a whole new product range.  Ok, we have to give credit where it’s due: AMC Eagle Wagon (around 1981) was probably first with all-wheel drive. Think about it, the industry had sedans, wagons, sport utility vehicles, mini-vans and sports cars; XC was going to help create a whole new, as yet unnamed category of products – Crossover.

We started in 1992 with an 855 wagon that in 1997 became a V70 wagon.  We changed vehicle designations from numbers only to letters and numbers: 8 (series) 5 (cylinder) 5 (door) to V for Versatility – clever Swedes. Around ’95 an idea was penned to take our up coming V70 AWD (All-Wheel-Drive) and create something different. Sure V70s were nice looking, sedate wagons, but what about our American Manifest Destiny to explore, to our scratch our traveling itch, to take a left turn onto an inviting dirt road and look for that off grid home site?  Well that’s about where Peter started. Ever wonder why others haven’t tried to take a wagon and do something XC to it?  Think about all the wagons out there would any in ’97 have any creditability in doing this kind of project? Volvo wagons just seem to be made for XC’ing.

In the ’70s, Volvo Trucks built a Swedish Army transport to replace their Laplander. The C303 series would somehow be named ‘CrossCountry’.  This was one rugged beast. I remember around 1969, a mineral prospector who owned a Laplander and would drive it down to Baja Mexico in winter, come back in summer and we would rebuild it before he went down again. Sand was its nemeses, but it never broke. The top and sides would come off, so you’d end up with a big flat chassis pickup truck: Very Versatile.

Our first CrossCountry

Our first XC was a V70 wagon variant, hence the name: V70 XC. ‘Stroke of genius by someone, I can not remember who, when he coined Cross Country for XC,” states Peter. “Cross Country, it’s about traveling, not just to the store, but long distance, a ‘bring it on’ traveling.”  Peter saw room in our product range to create something different, to create a new wagon without breaking the bank.

“Our 855 and V70 had a rear tailgate glass that was visually too high/tall. By adding a 3″ wide ‘Cross Country’ decal below the glass, it made the glass look smaller,” according to Peter.  “The rear cargo area windows have an inner trim piece, kind of like a side ways ‘L.’ On V70 it laid on the bottom edge, while on XC it was from the upper edge. Again, it created, again creating an illusion of something taller than standard vehicle. Our ground clearance was limited because of bumper height requirements, so we needed to visually suggest a greater ground clearance. Even though we added about 50 mm, we wanted it to appear taller than was legal.”  For XC front bumper he created ‘lift’ by expanding the bumper cover up towards the grill, to create an illusion of mass without changing bumper heights.”

The interior was difficult to change and keep costs down. We introduced a very light colored real Swedish Birch veneer. The idea was to use Scandinavian light colored wood for trim – wonder why?  Sweden is really dark during winter. Light colored wood is like a promise that the sun will return. T, hey like to brighten up their homes with light furniture. But most people didn’t like our light V70 XC wood. It ended up being a very short production run. Interesting to note that today, light woods are showing up more in cars, guess we were just ahead of our buyers. We also added a grab handle on the center console – kind of a ‘hold on Anne, we’re going over the hill’ bar.

Cross Country came to mean XC so few years back we just changed that vehicle range to XC. Today XC stands for our Crossover XC70 and SUV offerings. Our XC60 came from the idea of wagon versatility with an SUV stance. Some buyers want a higher seating position that we can not get out of XC70, but can with XC60 in a smaller package than XC90.  Smaller for easier parking and just all around use, the XC60 is an alternative body and drive line system that extends travel possibilities to our buyers.

A friend just sent this over. Thought this would be fun to share with you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYlSTvAW1Po

Safe traveling.

Tags: Crossover SUV, Volvo, Volvo Cross Country, Volvo V70, Volvo XC60, Volvo XC70