Volvo XC60 Rental in Paris, Delivered to You

The Volvo XC60 is the midsize SUV we hand over most often to people who want space and a calm drive without moving up to something van-sized. Book a Volvo XC60 rental in Paris with us and we bring it to wherever you're starting from, whether that's an apartment, a hotel, or one of the airports.

It seats five in real comfort, takes a family's luggage, and comes with the safety equipment Volvo built its name on. This page is here to settle one thing for you: whether the XC60 suits your trip, and which version to take if it does.

What the XC60 does well

It's a comfortable car before it's anything else. The front seats are among the best in the class for a long stint at the wheel, the ride is settled rather than firm, and the cabin stays quiet at motorway speed. That makes it a sensible choice for the trips people actually take out of Paris, whether that's a few days in Normandy, a run down the A6, or a week away with the family and the dog. In the city it copes well enough, though it's happier on an open road than squeezing through the narrowest streets in the Marais.

Safety is the other reason most people choose it. City Safety, the automatic braking that watches for cars, cyclists and pedestrians, comes as standard, along with lane-keeping assistance. None of that is rare any more, but Volvo has done it longer than most, and the XC60 earned a top safety score from Euro NCAP when it was tested.

Petrol or plug-in hybrid

Two powertrains turn up in the current XC60, and the choice is simpler than the badges suggest.

• The B5 is a 2.0-litre petrol with a mild 48-volt hybrid assist. It never needs plugging in, it's the version most renters want, and it's the easy default for a few days around Paris or a drive to the coast.
• The plug-in hybrid, badged T8, adds a much bigger battery and far more power. It only earns its keep if you can charge it overnight. Rent it with nowhere to plug in and you are carrying a heavy battery on petrol for no real gain.

Many XC60s also come with all-wheel drive. For Paris and ordinary French motorways you won't feel the difference, so there's no need to seek it out. It matters if you're driving to the Alps in winter or onto rough tracks, but for ordinary city and motorway use you can leave it off the list.

Room for people and bags

Five adults fit, and the middle rear seat is usable for short trips rather than a token perch thanks to a fairly flat floor. Behind them sits around 480 litres of boot, enough for two large cases and a couple of soft bags with nothing folded.

Drop the 40/20/40 rear seats and you have close to 1,400 litres and a near-flat load floor, which covers a flat-pack run or a couple of bikes with the front wheels off. It's strictly a five-seater, though. If you need a third row for a bigger group, the seven-seat Peugeot 5008 is the better call.

Driving and parking in the city

The thing to sort out before you book is the size. The XC60 is about 4.7 metres long and wide once you count the mirrors, so an older underground car park in central Paris can be tight, and a couple of the smallest ones near the river are best avoided.

If that puts you off, a smaller car from our SUV range is easier to thread and park, though you give up boot space and the long-trip comfort. The payoff with the XC60 is a high seating position and clear visibility, and the sensors and reversing camera handle the close work. On the boulevards and the périphérique it's relaxed and easy to place.

The low-emission zone

This is the part most rental pages skip. Paris runs a low-emission zone, the ZFE, and your Crit'Air sticker decides where you can drive. Both the petrol mild-hybrid and the plug-in XC60 carry a Crit'Air 1 sticker, the cleanest band, so whichever one you collect from us can drive and park inside the zone without a problem. You won't need to check restricted days before a weekday run into the centre.

How we hand it over

Every XC60 in the gorentcar fleet is delivered to your door at a time you choose, so you skip the airport queue and the shuttle bus. Premium SUVs are also where the conditions at a traditional desk get heavier. Pick one up at an airport counter and you can be asked for years of licence history and a large hold on your card before they hand over the keys.

We don't work that way. There's no deposit, we take debit cards as well as credit, and the mileage is unlimited, so a long week of driving changes nothing. If you'd like to compare the XC60 against the rest of the range first, you'll find every model on our Volvo rental Paris page. Tell us where and when, and we'll have an XC60 ready.