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driving down your neighborhood street, and all of a sudden the car just
ahead of you brakes hard because a dog ran onto the street.
You are of course fiddling with your garage door opener so before you
can even react your car puts on the brakes and stops you just in time
to avoid the collision.
Does this sound like a safety feature you would want on your next car?
Volvo is hoping so, and that's why the manufacturer was in town
recently unveiling the new XC60 which comes standard with what Volvo is
calling the "City Safety" feature.
Potential buyers had the
chance to try out the feature by driving the car into a barrier, or at
least trying to drive the car into a barrier.
The new City Safety on the XC60 puts on the brakes automatically below 19 mph when it senses an obstacle in the road.
"I call it the wow factor," said Alfred Holzapfel, Volvo's regional market manager, when describing the new XC60.
The new car also comes with an optional funky two-tone interior, a turbocharged T6 which produces 285 horsepower, and a host of other safety features.
Volvo
is hoping to sell 10,000 of the new crossovers in the United States
this year. The company thinks the new and smaller XC60 will appeal to a
younger buyer who still values the traditional quality and safety
associated with the brand.
The potential customers who test drove the Volvo new City Safety feature certainly seemed to be impressed.
Holzapfel added that five customers placed early orders for the car.
Volvo Dealers will have the XC60 in their showroom within the next few months, with the base car starting at just over $37,000.
