Why was it not a V90 and XC90 as another model?

[delorean]

I had a close look at the differences between a V70 and an XC70. As an owner of a 2001 XC70, I recently drove behind a XC90 and noticed that this vehicle is just a SUV but I could never understand why it just adopted the XC ranking. Maybe any SUV automatically is built into this category but if we had a luxury,standard version of the XC90 would we not just call it a V90 instead? Besides, the XC70 earned its status with the Cross Country logo on the back of the car, unlike the XC90 which never had it on the back hatch door. What's with that? I figured that Volvo decided to implement the XC styling into the "V90" without any other model available.
Can anybody share their opinion on this?

[thebracko]

The "XC" has more to do with ride height than stickers I think. [thumbup]

[Big]

...I recently drove behind a XC90 and noticed that this vehicle is just a SUV but I could never understand why it just adopted the XC ranking. Maybe any SUV automatically is built into this category but if we had a luxury, standard version of the XC90 would we not just call it a V90 instead? Besides, the XC70 earned its status with the Cross Country logo on the back of the car, unlike the XC90 which never had it on the back hatch door. What's with that?
I'm not clear on what you are asking. The XC90 seems a logical extension of the XC line to me. Indeed, we owned the first-generation V70XC before skipping over the XC70 and upgrading to the XC90 for its greater load capacity and off-pavement ability. It's a car-based SUV for sure but shares many qualities with the smaller XC70.

Note that neither the current XC70 nor XC90 say "Cross Country" across the back. Both have Volvo and their respective XC badges. As for the V90, that designation was already taken in 1997-98 as the successor to the 960 wagon.