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>> Seems like he was crossing over these days and Volvo is no exception. So we're going to take a look at the 2007 XC90 six-cylinder cross over. The XC90 is like a big Volvo wagon. I think Wayne Cunningham described it best, you took a Volvo and you scanned it and said you increase size 50 percent, save, drive. You can see how the entire chassis and running gear give this car more presence, more road clearance, and it's a big vehicle in size, so while it prints "station wagon" on the outside, it feels more cross over SUV once you're in it. So much more volume. Let's talk now about a technology. Now, quite a bit's available on this car, although our test model didn't have a lot of the best choice fits. Navigation system's not here. Now, our car has an upgraded audio system on it, which includes primarily a six-disk, in-dash CD changer. To get to any of the sources you turn the selector knob, which is kind of an unusual motif and it takes you on a merry-go-round of sources. Wherever you stop is what you hear, and, of course, the CD changer is one of those. Now, the unit will play standard CDs, of course, as well as MP3 CD. You also have the option to put Sirius satellite radio in this vehicle. It comes with Sirius satellite prep even with the basic audio system, but you have to option in the full radio equipment, and, of course, activate a subscription. Other sources include the poor man's iPod adapter, which would be the auxiliary input jack. It lives back here where the cup holders are. You've got to lift the lid, lift up this little rubber convenience thing which I guess keeps spilled coffee out of there, that's a good thing, and, of course, insert your cord. Now, when that's in there, you can't close the door, so it's a little bit of an ergonomic mess. Nothing to gripe about too much, but I'm not crazy about it. I wish they would flush out and kind of let you go clean there. Once we had our iPod hooked up and gave it a test, sound quality was good, but in this particular setup of an iPod shuffle to this system, we had a lot of interference, maybe even RF being inducted by the cord or through the player. Didn't have time to really dice that down, but there's definitely a weird kind of buzzing going on when we were in the aux setting. Another unusual aspect of this audio system or the tone controls. The way you can set them up front, front or rear of the car. They're separate so you go got Menu button here and then you go to the Audio Settings, and you enter that. Notice there's this kind of unusual set of control buttons here. No other car maker does them quite like this, so it takes a little getting used to. And then you have equalizer front and equalizer rear, so when you go to the front, you're able to go through and do a very technical setup. It's not just base and treble. They actually break it out by frequency slices. It's kind of a quasi-parametric equalizer, if you're following me on that. It takes a little bit of fussing around to get it. I wouldn't say it was exactly the most intuitive equalizer, but it's nice to have two different curves, so when the kids are in the back and they want to listen to the real bumping bass, they can have it and you want to save your ears up here, you can bring the low frequency down, although, frankly, front and rear seats are so close, I don't quite get the need for two separate EQs. Another feature we like on a car like this, and our vehicle had it, is active front headlights, they're steerable headlights that follow the direction of the car. They're Bisine [phonetic] lamps, but again, they're on a steerable axis, and you got a button right here that will defeat that if you don't want to use that feature; otherwise it's on by default each time you start the car. Now, our six-cylinder XC90 is a 3.2-liter, 235-horsepower that goes out through a six-speed automatic, shiftable automatic and, of course, this car also has electronic controlled all-wheel drive. That was optional. The biggest option is $3,000 for a premium package that brought us, among other things, the leather seats, power passenger seat, a small-ish glass sun roof and most importantly, the upgraded audio system. That and some other options that have to do with ride and interior brought this car from a base of $36,100 to $45,200.
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