2006 VOLVO
XC90
 By  Mitch McCullough
$35,640 to
$49,405

Luhrs 41

 By John Clemans
from
$630,000

Safety and convenience in a luxurious SUV. The Volvo XC90 offers classic Volvo attributes in a midsize SUV. It's strong on safety, comfortable, and practical. Its roomy interior seats seven, and there's more cargo space here than in other vehicles in its class. The cabin is luxurious, with nice firm seats and most of the bells and whistles most of us want. People who opt for a BMW X5 over one of these read magazines that use stopwatches and accelerometers for yardsticks. The XC90 handles well on streets and highways, but it also offers a comfortable ride. All-wheel drive with Volvo's new Instant Traction system makes the XC90 an excellent choice for nasty weather. Buyers choose between a 4.4-liter V8 and a 2.5-liter turbocharged five-cylinder engine. Each gets better gas mileage than most comparable seven-passenger SUVs. 

Volvo's reputation for safety is not just marketing talk. Volvo puts an incredible amount of time, money and effort into research and engineering designed to protect driver and passengers. We've seen XC90s hurled across parking lots by giant mechanical hands, followed by handfuls of engineers taking detailed measurements and notes. Volvo engineers are known to rush out to accident scenes immediately after they occur to assess the damage to their vehicles. In base trim, the XC90 is competitively priced, but Volvos tend to cost more than they might due to the safety engineering that goes into them

Safety features that come on all XC90 models include anti-lock brakes with electronic brake-force distribution and Brake Assist, and traction control. A gyroscopic sensor can detect an impending rollover and correct the imbalance by applying just the right amount of braking force to specific, individual wheels. Structural safety features include a roof structure built of high-strength steel and a low front cross member designed to inflict less damage to occupants of compact vehicles ....More>>>>

Luhrs combines comfort and hard-core fishing features in the seaworthy, new 41 Open.

On the day I was to test the Luhrs 41 Open, the Bluewater Invitational Tournament based out of Camachee Cove Marina in St. Augustine, Fla., where the 41 was berthed, was cancelled because of 12-foot seas. By the time I arrived at Camachee Cove, however, the wind didn't seem all that threatening, Still, David Taylor and Bruce Auclair, Luhrs' sales director and test captain, weren't keen on attempting an offshore run. The 41 Open was their new baby. Wouldn't I be happy remaining in protected waters?

I once returned from the Abacos in very rough seas in a Luhrs 34, and I was impressed by how nimbly the boat traversed the steep moguls of the Gulf Stream. I saw no reason this larger Luhrs couldn't handle the rough stuff. This is a boat for big-game hunting. Rather than extrapolate its bluewater performance from crossing wakes in the ICW, I wanted to test it in the real-world conditions waiting just beyond the whitecapped St. Augustine Inlet. So, after retracting the electrically controlled lower windshields and closing the twin hatches in the hardtop and a couple of side curtains, out we went.

The inlet itself, deeply corrugated from the jetties to the sea buoy by a swift, outgoing tide, proved to be the most formidable stretch of water we encountered. But four- to six-foot seas prevailed…and so did the 41, heading into them comfortably at 1600 rpm (almost 20 mph).

Luhrs has established a reputation for delivering a lot of boat for the money, which is no easy feat in the big-game tournament leagues. Most famous for its express, or "Open" series of sportfishing boats, Luhrs also offers five classic-profile convertibles. The 41 made its debut almost two years ago in a convertible configuration. Now, as an express, it's the flagship of the builder's Open series ..More>>>