Volvo XC90 – 10 years old and STILL winning awards

The Volvo XC90 has been declared the best seven-seater car in the 2024 Auto Trader New Car Awards, a decade after it launched.

It’s 22 years since the first Volvo XC90 arrived, in the process more or less inventing the ‘family SUV’ and leading Jeremy Clarkson – who owned three of them – to declare it was so good it must have been designed by people who understood what families need.

The original XC90 lasted all the way to 2014 – although, under Ford’s ownership, a new XC90 was planned but dropped as it couldn’t be afforded – and was still selling well when it was finally replaced.

The replacement – still the XC90 – arrived in 2014 after Geely had taken ownership of the brand and was the first of a new generation of cars from Volvo pushing it upmarket but maintaining its very Swedish feel.

That meant what has proved to be an almost timeless design, proper Swedish chic minimalist interiors and a range of 2.0-litre engines – diesel, petrol and PHEV – which did the job rather than excite.

But as the XC90 was never meant to be a sporty rival to cars like the Porsche Cayenne it suited the car very well.

Now, as Volvo careers into an EV future, it’s launched the Volvo EX90 which is effectively an EV replacement for the XC90, but such is the love for the XC90 they’ve decided to continue building and selling it for a while yet.

It’s a remarkable feat for a 10-year-old model to still be so relevant, and that remarkable appeal has been confirmed as the XC90 is voted the best seven-seat model on the market in the 2024 Auto Trader New Car Awards.

Auto Trader said of the 2024 Volvo XC90:

The XC90 is a remarkable achievement by Volvo. Almost 10 years from its release, it’s still picking up awards against much newer competition, and it feels as fresh ever. Class tends to age gracefully, right?

Assuming the XC90 stays on sale for the next two years it’ll match the 12-year life of the original. And there aren’t many cars you can say that of.