Brilliant economy defies belief
WHEN the Volvo delivery driver dropped the V50 DRIVe off at BCM towers he chuckled as he handed over the keys. “I’ve just done a brim check. The computer said it was doing 64.8mpg on the way down. It was right…”
Volvo seems to have really pulled off a neat fuel-saving trick with the DRIVe range – the models with the dysfunctional capital ‘e’ in their nomenclature. Lowered suspension, aerodynamic tweaks, reduced friction – a tinker here, some CO2 saved there, and so on. But now with added Start-Stop – the auto engine cut-out feature which works when you are stationary – there is more fuel saved and lower emissions. The official figures are 72.4mpg and 104g/km of CO2.
To put that into perspective you would have to drive a MINI Cooper diesel to equal that; and something like a Smart ForTwo Coupe or Toyota iQ to better it – cars which could probably squeeze in the V50’s boot.
Talking of the V50’s boot, there’s a neat little touch. A divider pulls up from the floor with an elastic restraining strap – so you can store your supermarket shopping without the contents scattering all over the boot floor on the way home. Neat.