Volvo V40 Cross Country arrives

Volvo has revealed the 2013 V40 Cross Country, a new variant on the new V40, offering a more rugged option for the V40 range.

[nggallery id=1243 template=customlinks]

We thought it was going to be the Volvo XC40 – denoting an SUV come crossover version of the new V40 – but Volvo has decided that their more rugged version of the V40 will take the Cross Country name – first used on the V70 in 1997 – and so we get the new Volvo V40 Cross Country.

Following on from the new V40 R-Design, revealed last week, Volvo now offers a V40 they say is for ‘those who want a sense of adventure in their everyday life‘ – in other words, this is a slightly more rufty-tufty V40.

Thankfully, as the spy photos of what we now know is the V40 Cross Country showed us already, Volvo hasn’t wrecked the very good lines of the new V40 by bolting great lumps of plastic on the V40’s bodywork to make it look butch; it’s a bit more subtle than that.

The ride height increases by 40mm over the regular V40 and Volvo has given the Cross Country a contrasting front bumper with honeycomb mesh grill and upright daytime lights, silver roof rails, sculpted contrast sills, a contrasting back bumper with integrated skid plate and the option of alloys up to 19″.

Every model in the V40 Cross Country range gets stop-start as standard together with Bluetooth, City Safe auto braking, Pedestrian Detection and the very clever pedestrian airbag.

Apart from that, under the skin is pretty much the same as the regular V40, with a range of engines from the 99g/km D2 to the five-cylinder 2.5 litre T5 with 252bhp and 0-60mph of six seconds. And opt for this most powerful V40 Cross Country and you can also opt for Volvo’s four wheel drive.

The new Volvo V40 Cross Country will be at the Paris Motor Show next week, and the order book opens in October with first UK deliveries planned for January 2013. We have no prices yet, but expect the V40 Cross Country to be around £1500 more than the regular V40.

Volvo V40 Cross Country Photos >>