Complaints: None at this writing. This is one of the best wagons available in a market that has few wagons.

Ride, acceleration and handling: Excellent in all three categories for Point A-to-Point B drivers, people who want pleasurable motoring rather than racetrack fantasies.

Head-turning quotient: Luxurious without being over the top, and sexy without being trashy.

Body style/layout: The XC70 is a luxury, front-engine, mid-size, all-wheel-drive station wagon with four side doors and a rear liftgate.

Engine/transmission: The wagon comes with a standard 3.2-liter, 24-valve, in-line six-cylinder engine that develops 235 horsepower at 6,200 rpm and 236 foot-pounds of torque at 3,200 rpm. The engine is mated to a six-speed transmission that can be operated automatically or manually.

Capacities: There is seating for five. Luggage capacity is 33 cubic feet with the rear seats up and 71 cubic feet with the rear seats folded. The fuel tank holds 18.5 gallons of required premium unleaded gasoline. That’s “required” as in “premium only.” If you want to use a lower grade of gasoline, you are hereby advised to buy something else.

Mileage: Not impressive. We averaged 14 mpg in congested urban driving in the District of Columbia and its Northern Virginia suburbs. We averaged 23 mpg in Virginia highway driving.

Safety: Standard equipment includes electronic stability and traction control, rigid body construction, side and head air bags and four-wheel antilock brakes. Adjustable rear child-safety seats are optional. We advise you to buy them if you are transporting small children.

Price: The base price on the 2008 Volvo XC70 wagon is $36,775. Dealer’s invoice price on that model is $34,604. Price as tested is $41,710, including $4,190 in options and a $745 destination charge. Dealer’s price as tested is $38,951. Prices are sourced from Volvo Cars and edmunds.com

Shares of companies that make Heavy trucks rose Wednesday, pulled up by a strong overall market, along with new data showing an increase in truck orders.

According to data from ACT Research LLC, orders of Class 5 through heavy-duty Class 8 trucks rose 12 percent over November 2006 levels.

The November increase came after a 9 percent jump in October, which was preceded by a drop in the three previous months, according to the data included in an analyst note from Wachovia’s Andrew Casey.

Casey said the sustained strength in orders showed that truck market weakness may have bottomed, which is a relative positive for the companies in the sector, he said.

Also on Wednesday, Paccar Inc. announced a special dividend of $1 per share and a regular dividend of 18 cents per share.

The company said it would increase production at its DAF Trucks subsidiary by 5 percent in the first quarter in light of the strong Western and Central European truck market.

Here how Heavy truck stocks finished Wednesday:

Paccar rose $3.94, or 7.8 percent, to close at $54.55.

Cummins Inc. gained $4.52, or 3.9 percent, to finish at $122.

Eaton Corp. added $2.48, or 2.8 percent, to end at $91.74.

Navistar International Corp. rose $2.20, or 4.4 percent, to close at $52.20.

World number two truck maker Volvo has given notice of redundancy to 650 employees at its plant in Dublin, Virginia, a spokesman for the firm said on Monday. Volvo spokesman Marten Wikforss said the staff affected had been informed of the measure last month and would be leaving the firm at the end of January next year.

Sweden’s Volvo was hit by production problems at its U.S. truck operations earlier this year as it began manufacturing a new line of heavy-duty trucks and had had to bring in extra staff to deal with the problems.

“We were forced to take in more people to handle the hump and now we have rationalised and put things in order,” he said.

Up to 650 people working for Volvo Trucks North America will be cut next month at its Dublin plant in southwest Virginia.

The layoffs are the second round since November 2006, when about one-third of plant’s 3,170 work force was let go. Many of those workers were rehired, and the plant now has 970 workers, Volvo spokesman Jim McNamara said in an e-mail Friday to The Associated Press.

The 2008 layoffs, which will occur at the end of January, are permanent, he said.

McNamara said the new job cuts reflect “current market demand.”

The 1.6 million-square-foot (0.15 million sq. meter) New River Plant is the largest Volvo truck manufacturing center in the world. It manufactures 148 vehicles daily.

Workers were informed of the layoffs on Nov. 20.

The truck industry’s most demanding test – the 1,000 Point Test – is carried out every year by the European motoring trade press with the aim of comparing the market’s range of long-haul trucks with each other. The test lasts four days and covers everything from fuel consumption and engine performance to safety and in-cab comfort. The results of the 2007 test have just been released and

“We are proud of course.” says Claes Nilsson, President Europe Division of Volvo Trucks, adding, “The fact that we won for the second consecutive year shows that the Volvo FH is perhaps the market’s best long-haul truck.”

The 1,000 Point Test is arranged every year by German truck magazine ‘Lastauto Omnibus’ together with commercial vehicle journalists from other European countries. The vehicles participating in the test are similarly specified, driven over the same test route with all measurements and comparisons meticulously supervised.

The current Volvo FH model has been sold in Europe since 2005. The winning vehicle was equipped with I-Shift, Volvo’s celebrated automated gear changing system, and a 400hp 13-litre engine that already meets the Euro 5 exhaust requirements that do not come into force until 2009.

YOUR mental image of a Volvo driver probably involves hats on parcel shelves, bowling club whites and retirement home car parks.

Then there’s pulling out of junctions without looking, hogging fast lanes and taking corners slower than a fully loaded supermarket trolley. But you’re locked onto the old image of a bloody Volvo driver. The Swedes have another idea.
The next time you see a Volvo advert on TV it will be full of athletic twenty-somethings coming home from an invigorating day’s adventuring in the alps. They will be packed five up in a wagon but smiling comfortably because there’s plenty of room for them and their gear.

The background tune will have hooked you by now, despite its irritating nursery rhyme refrain. On the slow ride down the mountain coy glances start to be exchanged between the men and women. Mmmm … this sexy car-load look like they’re heading for a steamy menage a cinque in an apres-adventure hot tub.

These are the sort of people Volvo calls “modern lifers” and we’ve been sentenced to them. They’re a group of friends rather than Nan and Pop Volvo, or mum, dad and the kids. They’re strong, confident doers who are tolerant and social. They’re also impossibly healthy, good looking and smug. They’re the new breed of bloody Volvo drivers and I hate them already.

Marketing manager Matt Braid explained the global repositioning: “The traditional family structure - as we all know - is changing day by day,” he said this week. “We thought targeting modern families could potentially be limiting our segment. So we’ve revised our target group to ‘modern lifers’, which focuses on a consumer’s attitude to life rather than a particular life stage they’ve gone through.”

Volvo’s third generation XC70, the archetypal big Swedish wagon, kicks off the new campaign. It was launched this week in the Kevin Rudd heartland of Queensland and just like our new PM, Volvo is ready to ride the environmental wave.

“We think there’s a distinct movement from the 1980s and early 90s ‘me, me, me’ - excess for its own sake and luxury - to the power of ‘we’, as far as peace, the environment, and caring for the earth,” added Braid. “We see that becoming more prevalent among our target group.” The tagline for the campaign is “Life is better lived together”.

I ended up a little unsure about exactly how this bigger version of a Volvo staple is greener and more gregarious. Even Volvo describes the new XC70 as more macho than before, with an aggressive face, jutting angular surfaces and blingy bits of chrome. A projecting front skid plate, picked out in silver, supposedly makes the car safer for pedestrians when you run into them, although it looks as though it would cut them off at the shins.

Despite these tweaks, the XC70 is still obviously a Volvo wagon with a square profile, plastic cladding at skirt level and high-rise tail-lights which could guide incoming aircraft.

A radical theory of modern living arrangements hasn’t stopped Volvo making it friendly to the trad family, with thoughtful touches like built-in child seat boosters and a practical load area. There are additional high-tech features, too, like a collision warning system and hill descent control for slowly picking your way down an offroad gradient when there’s a full load of broad-minded young hikers aboard.

For the first time, Volvo offers the XC70 with diesel - 2.4-litre five-cylinder - and a six-cylinder petrol in the shape of the 3.2-litre unit which debuted recently in the S80 luxury sedan.

Volvo Australia managing director Alan Desselss said the XC70 was heartland territory for the brand where it could shine without being overshadowed by the Germans. They, of course, are all about “me”.

Volvo Australia sales have bounced back over the past few years and are up 25 per cent on 2006, year-to-date. The XC70 will contribute around 900 sales to a full-year total exceeding 5000 in 2008. “The XC70 will be the growth we’re looking for in 2008,” Desselss said.

The star of the range will be a single low-slung V70 model stripped of its offroad airs and aimed at performance buyers. Powered by a 210kW twin-turbo 3.0-litre six-cylinder driving all four wheels, it arrives early next year priced around $70,000.

Unlike Jaguar and Land Rover, Ford’s Swedish brand is not for sale and CEO Alan Mulally recently granted it increased autonomy. He must be a “we” sorta guy.

Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has announced a tentative traffic plan to operate Volvo bus service from eight points in the city to the international airport at Devanahalli and invited suggestions from the public about the plan.

The corporation will begin services with 40 specially designed Volvo buses from Electronic City, J.P. Nagar VI Phase, Mysore Road Terminal (Bapujinagar), Whitefield, Jeevan Bima Nagar, Koramangala, HAL Airport and Peenya II Stage, according to an official release.

BMTC has urged the government to provide a dedicated bus corridor along the proposed expressway as well as on National Highway 7 between Hebbal and the airport. The proposed service, BMTC said, would offer fast, safe, comfortable and unhindered travel between the airport and the city. Frequency of services would be decided after getting details about the arrival and departure of flights from Bangalore International Airport Ltd., and the fares too would be decided thereupon.

The corporation will provide a nearest common pick-up point wherever a cluster of star hotels exist. It is also in the process of developing major traffic hubs and check-in facilities at Shanthinagar and Hebbal in consultation with BIAL.

Proposed routes

Seven buses will be deployed from Electronic City to the airport, with stops at Bommanahalli, Silk Board, Agara, Marathalli, K.R. Puram railway station, Hebbal and Yelahanka, covering a distance of 65 km with a frequency of 55 minutes.

From J.P. Nagar VI Phase, five buses at a frequency of 55 minutes, covering a distance of 47 km, will be operated with stops at Jayanagar IV Block, Lalbagh, corporation, Cauvery Bhavan, Vidhana Soudha, High Grounds, Guttahalli, Mekhri Circle, Hebbal and Yelahanka to the airport.

Five buses will be operated from Mysore Road Terminal with stops at Vijayanagar, Rajajinagar I Block, Yeshwanthpur bus station, Malleswaram bus station, Sadashivanagar Circle, Hebbal and Yelahanka to the airport at a frequency of 55 minutes covering 49.5 km.

From Whitefield, BMTC will deploy five buses at a frequency of 55 minutes to cover 50 km to airport, with stops at ITPL, Mahadevapura, K.R. Puram railway station, B. Channasandra, Kalyanagar, Hebbal and Yelahanka.

The shortest distance to be covered is from Jeevan Bima Nagar (44 km), with stops at Indiranagar, Ulsoor, M.G. Road, Balekundri Circle, J.C. Nagar, Mekhri Circle, Hebbal and Yelahanka with five buses at a frequency of 55 minutes.

Five buses will ply from Koramangala, covering a distance of 48 km with a frequency of 55 minutes, to airport with stops at Dairy Circle, Shanthinagar bus station, Richmond Circle, J.C. Nagar, R.T. Nagar, CBI office, Hebbal and Yelahanka.

From Peenya II Stage, three buses will be operated, at a frequency of 70 minutes covering a distance of 44.2 km, to airport with stops at Jalahalli Cross, Goraguntepalya, Alisda, Air Force Cross, BEL Circle, Hebbal and Yelahanka.

Five buses will be deployed from HAL Airport to the new airport at a frequency of 55 minutes, covering 46 km with stops at HAL, Suranjan Das Road, Old Madras Road, MEG Centre, Coles Park, St. John’s Road, J.C. Nagar, Mekhri Circle, Hebbal and Yelahanka.

More good news on connectivity to the new airport. The Bangalore Metropolitan Road Transport Corporation (BMTC) has announced details on the Volvo services to the much-awaited Bangalore International Airport at Devanahalli.

As many as 40 Volvo buses, known as Vajras, will ply on eight different routes that will connect the airport directly from the time it is going to be inaugurated on March 30, 2008.

Vajras that have proved to be safe, fast and comfortable will ensure unhindered travel between the city and BIAL, vouches BMTC. The corporation has also mooted to the state government to provide a dedicated bus corridor along the proposed expressway and on the NH - 7, between Hebbal and BIAL.

From the moment of the inauguration, 40 brand new buses will provide services from Indiranagar, White Field, Koramangala, J P Nagar, Jayanagar, Malleswaram, Sadashivnagar, Electronic city, M G Road and Peenya 2nd stage. All buses will stop at Hebbal which is the last station, and from there BMTC will ply special services to the airport. Fares for the same have however not been decided upon.