Volvo showed off the impressive off-road capabilities of its four-wheel drive fleet during an event attended by 100 current and prospective owners of the Swedish firm’s vehicles.

Invited guests were able to see the XC90, XC70 and XC60 tackle a variety of challenging obstacles at the Coniston 4x4 Off-road Driving Experience, in the grounds of a picturesque country estate north-west of Skipton.

I rode along in the XC90 with professionally-trained off-road driver James Ardron, general manager of the centre, as he skilfully manoeuvred the robust machine up steep hill climbs, negotiated escalating ridges and burst through water splashes.

Most impressive of all was the XC90’s ‘hill descent control’ function, which made light work of a couple of gravity-defying descents that might have left lesser vehicles in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the hill.

Having previously roadtested one of Volvo’s XC vehicles earlier this year (see T&A from March 10) and found it to be a smooth, nimble and refined everyday vehicle on the normal tarmac, it was fascinating to see just how well it coped in much more hazardous conditions.

Indeed, the vehicle’s fifth generation four-wheel drive system, which sits on the rear axle, really came into its own on the deliberately outrageous surfaces it had to withstand on the off-road course.

The ‘Volvo Driving Experience’ day had been arranged by Clive Brook, who bought the Bradford Volvo dealership in Canal Road in 2007 from the Harratts Group, becoming the first privately-owned Volvo dealership in Yorkshire for more than 20 years. Last year, Mr Brook bought another Harratts site in Leeds Road, Huddersfield - the town where he started his career as an apprentice Volvo technician.

Mr Brook welcomed guests to the Coniston Hotel, before handing over to James Moore, who provided an intriguing presentation with an insight into the latest cutting-edge innovations at Volvo.

Mr Moore, senior product trainer at Volvo Car UK, stressed Volvo’s determination to remain distinct from its rivals.

“We are different - we don’t want to follow the German manufacturers,” he said.

Volvo is going down the path of using four-cylinder engines, which it says provide the required performance while helping to ensure all cars are compliant with Euro 6 emissions standards.

Mr Moore said Volvos were “set up the way they are” because of safety - a field in which it has led the way, with all its cars coming “heavily laden” with safety equipment.

Providing a snippet of information about the current thinking of Volvo’s engineers, he spoke about the current industry move towards all-aluminium body shells.

“We don’t think we are going down the route of full aluminium,” he said, adding that a mix of metals was seen by Volvo as the best answer to the desire for the right balance between crash performance and light weight.

He said the XC90 had no “commonality” with anything else and that would set the precedent for future development of vehicles, which would be pure Volvo.

He said the XC70 was coming to the end of its life and would be replaced by the new V90 Cross Country.

“The new V90 Cross Country is a thing of beauty and very very capable,” he said.

He said images of the V90 Cross Country remained under embargo and added: “You won’t see this until December time this year.”

Looking to the future, Mr Moore spoke of current advances in “car to car communication” - technology that allows cars to interact with each other and allow one to anticipate what another will do next.

He said one situation in which such technology could be useful was that a car would be able to recognise when an emergency vehicle was behind and send a message to vehicles in front, urging them to also pull over.

He said Volvo was also “toying with” what he called “optimal green light speed” technology - something that keeps the vehicle at the perfect speed to mean it hits as many green lights as possible.

The audience, which included Volvo owners from Bradford, Bramhope, Skipton and Keighley, was perhaps most fascinated when Mr Moore gave details of a trial set to take place next year.

The ‘Drive Me’ experiment will see Volvo carry out the world’s first long-term test of autonomous cars after it developed a self-driving car that it claims is “perfectly in tune” with the needs of the driver and other road users.

The trial starts in 2017 when 100 Volvo customers will drive IntelliSafe Autopilot-equipped XC90s on the streets of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Those present were shown a video of a commuter behind the wheel of a Volvo, eating an apple and carrying out other tasks while the car drove itself. A glimpse of the future, perhaps.