Volvo's new DRIVe models - impressive or not? Not.

Volvo has just presented no less than 7 new cars with the DRIVe sticker on the back. The DRIVEe models are basically optimized for low fuel consumption, for instance using start/stop technology, and Volvo promises that both the V70 and S80 will use under 5 l/100 km (ECE, mixed). Here are the numbers for all seven cars:

Volvo C30, 3.9 l/100km, 104g CO2/km
Volvo S40, 4.0 l/100km, 107g, CO2/km
Volvo V50, 4.0 l/100km, 107g, CO2/km
Volvo V70, 4.9 l/100km, 129g, CO2/km
Volvo S80, 4.9 l/100km, 129g CO2/km
Volvo XC60, 6.0 l/100km, 159g CO2/km
Volvo XC70, 6.0 l/100km, 159g CO2/km

The smaller cars, C30, S40 and V50, are powered by a 1,6 liter diesel engine. The larger ones, V70, S80, XC60 and XC70, are powered by a 2,4 liter diesel engine.

This looks decent enough, although the V70 and S80 are really no better than a regular BMW 520d. And what's the deal with front-wheel drive versions of the XC60 and XC70? The XC stands for Cross Country, damnit! And I'd like to know what's so cross country about a front-wheel drive car. Plus, they the fuel economy isn't really that much better than its' FOUR-wheel drive competitors.

The C30 is about the same size as a standard Mini Cooper D, and has the same fuel consumption. Yaaawn.

The only thing that actually manages to impress me a bit are the S40 and V50. Tiny as they may be, they're still a family sedan and a family saloon, and although the engine is probably hazardously boring, the fuel consumption figures are pretty nice.

Photo: lander2006

Road toll operator harasses swedes

The norwegian road toll operator Fjellinjen AS runs several road toll booths in Norway, most of them fully automated (meaning they take a picture of every car, and save this together with information about the car owner, creating quite a nice lite archive that has even been used by the police in tracking criminals, and by nosy spouses who want to see who has been in the car together with their husband at a given time - an ever expanding orwellian nightmare, basically).

Lately even more of Fjellinjen's toll booths have been automated, causing an interesting issue. Since this poor excuse of a company insists on spending money tracking down foreign cars and sending invoices of 15 NOK out of the country (where postage alone exceeds the amount on the invoice), there's the obvious, and probably well known, risk of mixing up licence plates from different coutries. Polish licence plates, for instance, are practically identical to the norwegian ones. And lithuanian licence plates are identical to the swedish ones.

Because of this, Fjellinjen has been harassing swedish motorists, demanding payment for cars that have never even been to Norway. Now, instead of dealing with this problem in a proper way, by simply not pursuing ridiculously small claims abroad, Fjellinjen continues to send out their "spam mail" (invoices) throughout Europe, and insists that all motorists who feel wrongfully debited should try to contact them to sort it out. They will do nothing to solve this mess themselves.

Personally, I don't understand why the swedish authorities allow Fjellinjen direct and automated access to information about car owners, facilitating this ridiculous spam operation from a company that time and again has proven to be all but serious? Block this access immediately, and problem solved.

Saab 9-3X - there's the BioPower!

I have to say this caught me by surprise, but apparently the two engines available in the coming Saab 9-3X will be the 2,0T 210 hp with and without BioPower! This means that Saab will finally give the car buyers the option to buy a 4 wheel drive Saab that runs on E85. Great news, and definitly a car I'll be looking into when it hits the streets.

I just hope they've managed to make it a bit less thirsty than the current 9-3 2,0T...

Foto: Auto Motor & Sport

Saab 9-3X - where's the BioPower?

Norwegian car magazine bilnorge.no has an article on the coming Saab 9-3X and 9-5. Personally, I think the 9-3X looks really neat, but then I'm also a fan of the regular 9-3.

This particular car is fitted with the familiar 2.0T 210 hp engine, and of course the XWD-system from Haldex that we already know from the 9-3 XWD models. There is talk about diesel engines as well, like the 1,9TTiD 180 hp.

Strangely enough, though, no talk about BioPower! The 2.0T enigine is already built for E85, so there's not a whole lot that needs to be done in order to give the customers a 9-3X BioPower. Where is it, Saab, where??

Photo: Carparazzi/Bilnorge.no