After watching several years of massive growth in the SUV market, Volvo became worried that it was missing the boat and decided to develop a completely new car in double-quick time. To add to the challenge it had to encompass all things good about Volvo - namely safety, sportiness, comfort and practicality, plus a further helping of safety just to be sure.

The engineers who worked on this car openly admit that it was developed with the US market firmly in mind. They like Volvos, across the pond, and they positively love SUVs - so much so that last year alone 11,000 Americans managed to kill themselves in these things. Mindful of that appalling total, the Swedes decided from the outset to make the XC90 the safest on the market, and to ensure it was especially good in the most common type of SUV accident, the rollover. Hence a roof structure made of a special steel toughened with boron making it five times stronger than normal steel. This is allied to front, side and seat airbags plus air curtains which fire out of the roof during a rollover. In a crash I reckon you'd be very comfy in here.

Both engines are set transversely, a first in this segment of the market, to free up cabin room, and compared with rivals the amount of space inside is amazing. This spaciousness allows the XC90 to carry one of the cleverest seven- seater systems ever developed; two full- size rear seats hide under the shallow boot floor until a quick tug on a single lever brings them gliding into the upright. In a World's Cleverest Seats competition this Volvo would walk it.

It's just a shame that some of that interior brilliance didn't rub off on the driving experience.That transverse engine may mean plenty of cabin real estate but it also steals so much space between the front wheels that there was only enough room to fit the T6 with a gappy four-speed auto 'box, which struggles against the size and weight of this car. The engine constantly kicks down out of fourth to compensate, even on the motorway, to the detriment of fuel consumption, which averaged a sobering 14-15mpg during our test. Couple that with a mean 72-litre tank and the range becomes a pathetic 200 miles. For the record, the diesel manages a rather better 28mpg and 400 miles. Engineers admit the T6 'box is a problem and a six-speeder is under development for launch late next year.

Whilst they're at it I hope they improve the way the car launches off the line because at the moment it's worse than lethargic. We timed the D5 unofficially from 0-50kph (31mph) at 7.5sec, dropping to 5.5sec for the T6. An X5 4.4i takes just 2.6sec. Volvo argues that others are too sharp in their step-off. I'd have to disagree on this one.

Steering is another area where Volvo has struggled recently, with a woolly feel around the straight-ahead. This trend continues into the XC90 although the launch cars were all pre-production examples with American-spec racks. Production cars will reportedly improve matters with more weighting and better feel either side of straight-ahead.

Rather than try to please press-on drivers the XC90 has been designed from the outset to be practical and in this respect it's certainly very clever. It's also good looking, well packaged and with a superb standard spec. The X5 completely stuffs it for driveability but then the BMW is also more expensive and can't offer the Volvo's seven-seat versatility.

Don't be surprised if you see a lot of XC90s about - in the UK alone they've already sold 700 of them before launch and that hasn't happened with a Volvo for a long time. I was disappointed that the XC90 didn't match up to its spec-sheet promise but then in this segment driveability isn't really what sells.