Volvo Sees S60 Cross Country As Limited Edition In U.S., Main Seller In Other Markets

Volvo sees a very niche market for the S60 Cross Country and its SUV-like looks in the U.S., but thinks it could find fans where the roads are bad.

In an interview with Car and Driver, the Volvo -60 Series Brand Manager Joe Haslem said the S60 Cross Country may be marketed in the U.S. as a small run of 500 cars, all with the same specification and in just a couple of colors.

For the most hardcore Subaru fans, that strategy may sound familiar. That company performed a similar strategy in making the Legacy SUS, itself a raised and cladded Legacy sedan, by making a small run of cars and selling them only in states such as Massachusetts and Maine to test the market response. It prompted Subaru to market the car in the rest of the U.S. in 1999.

I’ve already come out defending the existence of the S60 Cross Country because I know it would find buyers in states in the Northeast, Northwest and maybe some other places in the U.S. where, if the roads aren’t covered in snow they’re covered in potholes.

And it’s actually in places with notoriously poor roads where Haslem thinks the S60 Cross Country could actually supplant the standard S60.

See, the S60 Cross Country may not be such a silly idea after all.