Take a roundabout visit to Spain
The Volvo S90 commanded the Spanish countryside as easily as city streets.
By John Gilbert
ESTEPONA, Spain
Volvo took a roundabout route to developing its impressive new S90 sedan — first building the XC90 SUV, then making the S90 virtually a sedan-size derivative — and the introduction test drive of the carliterally took us on a roundabout route.
The area we visited, along the Spanish Riviera between Malaga and the resort city of Estepona, would seem to indicate that Spain might lead the world in “roundabouts,” those intersection replacements that turn important roadway interchanges into forced-slowdown circles with various inlets and outlets. In congestion, of course, entering a rotary can be dicey and exiting can be more like an escape.
In southern Spain, it seemed as though nearly every exit from a freeway sent you into a roundabout, which in turn distributed traffic in any and all directions. We weren’t aware of all that when we first arrived in Malaga, then rode a coach bus to our luxurious Kempinski Hotel Bahia in Estepona.
High-tech nav system and connectivity found a worthy challenge in Spain’s roundabouts.
Our wave of auto journalists gathered to leave our for dinner at El Pescadoran, where we learned another Spanish tradition. You sit family style, and waiters bring out large platters or bowls of delectable food. Unwilling to leave any, we ate virtually every morsel, then the waiters took the platters away and replaced them with more platters of different delectable items.
The lengthy menu we had seen, briefly, was impressive, but the reason nobody asked us for our selections was they intended to bring us ALL of the selections. Next morning, we had some discussions, and then we were off on Leg 1 of our 4-Leg test drive. Three of the legs would be in S90 sedans, and the fourth in the V90, a slick and sleek station wagon that seems much longer than the sedan, but actually is 3 inches shorter.
Luxurious Kempinski Hotel Bahia in Estepona, Spain, cried out for a longer vacation.
My driving partner was Parks McCant, a tall fellow I’d met at the Malaga, Spain, airport, as we joined forces hoping to form a posse that might locate a person wielding a Volvo sign to direct us to a bus that might convey us to our hotel. We struck a quick and easy relationship, and, because he’s 6-foot-6, I knew he would provide real-world evidence of adequate head and legroom in our test cars.
I got behind the wheel first, and after agreeing on the luxurious comfort enveloping us, and the impressive ergonomics of the controls and other features, we were off.
Our start was so intriguing we decided to repeat it three or four times — involuntarily, of course. Instead of the usual direction book, Volvo installed all the turns for the route into the navigation system, which is a great idea. A pleasant, soothing female voice suggested when to get into the right lane, prepare to turn, and then turn.
Stunning beauty of the Mediterranean met the Kempinski grounds.
We only went a mile or so and were instructed to exit. At the top of the exit ramp we found our first roundabout. The Nav Lady told us to take the third exit from the roundabout, which we did. We should have taken the second, but we didn’t know that, so we trusted the instructions.
The highly efficient Nav Lady, with proper Scandinavian courtesy, didn’t tell us we had fouled up, but merely directed us back on course. So we thought we were merrily on our way, following a sequence of directions to cross a bridge to another roundabout, followed by directions to another roundabout, then a third roundabout. That got us back near our starting position, and because it was all pretty unfamiliar, we sailed off again. We followed the same instructions the second time, and it wasn’t until partway through the third lap around the same sequence of roundabouts that we realized we were repeating our mistake.
Somehow, the wrong instruction trapped in a sequel-with-roundabouts of the Bill Murray movie “Groundhog Day,” where the star is destined to repeat everything, day after day, trapped in some cosmic vortex.
Wagon version of the S90 could be alternative to SUV craze.
The upside is that I learned quickly how best to take those roundabouts. You enter, look for a yield sign, and if you see one, pause to let blending traffic go by. If you don’t see one, assume the other guys have the yield, and barge directly into the rotary to take your rightful spot.
The only times the dozens of roundabouts bogged down were when some cautious, or logical, driver hesitated without the yield, plugging up the right-of-way lane and signaling the other traffic to zoom in out of turn.
Amazingly, there was a second similar mistake on our navigation’s directions, meaning we spent another half-hour wild-goose-chasing on weird tangents from another rotary on our way to lunch. That one was in a small town, and I trusted my innate sense of direction to bail us out and we zipped around the block and onto our proper course. A third occasion came when we were advised to take the second exit off a roundabout and I did that, only to find that we had sped into the parking lot of a business, because the second “exit” was actually a driveway, and didn’t count.
Those were only minor interruptions in what otherwise was some enjoyable cruising through the rural hillsides, where new housing developments seemed to be reaching into some centuries-old areas. Naturally, we favored the older areas, knowing some buildings might have dated back a couple of centuries. Or more. Even though the correct exit differed from our Nav-Lady’s polite suggestion a few times, our “Scandinavian Sanctuary” brought us to the proper lunch site, and then back home, with some great roadways and a lot of laughs behind us.
Malaga features the Alcazaba de Malaga, dating to the 11th century.
The S90 displayed great reserves of power, and with its interior comfort and the car’s structural silence of a bank vault, our biggest debate was whether it was a luxury car with sporty overtones, or a sporty sedan with luxury features.
We had a fine courtyard dinner afterward at the Kempinski Hotel, slept well, then arose to an endless breakfast buffet and checkout time, followed by the opportunity to do some more test-drivin. We drove the V90 wagon for a while, then it was time to board a large bus for the ride to Malaga, where we got the chance to play tourist.
Backside of the Alcazaba fortress features a coliseum-like arena.
A guided tour of an ancient castle-like fortress, the Alcazaba de Malaga, built for 11th century Moslem rulers of the coastal city, with a view of the harbor to the Mediterranean, and its own Romanesque coliseum out back, was memorable. A stroll to the hometown museum of Pablo Picasso’s private work was fascinating, and left us only a short stroll to the Vincci Pasada Hotel.
That evening, we had another group-stroll to another outdoor restaurant with exceptional food served family style. A pleasant evening of casual conversation was the perfect climax to a memorable trip to drive a car that appears destined to make major inroads, so to speak, on the German, Japanese and American luxury car-makers, and buyers.
I’ll always remember the Volvo S90 as the most comfortably accommodating large sedan to drive around a dayful of roundabouts, or to a vacation trip to Malaga and the Spanish Riviera.
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About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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