There are those who say that our ever-increasing dependency on mobile phones and apps is bad for us, says Julian Kirk.

The Volvo On Call app saves spending time scraping the windscreen in the freezing cold

P11d (BiK): £57,915 (37%) MPG/CO2: 41.5mpg/178g/km Test MPG: 27.6

I agree to a certain extent – unless it involves using my Volvo On Call app to remotely start the car in the morning and have it defrosted and ready to go without me having to scrape the windscreen in the freezing cold.

This level of convenience is a huge boon for Volvo owners – and one I’ve
been especially glad to have during the recent cold snap. Getting into a warm,
de-iced car and setting off straight away is luxury. Add in the super-fiery heated
seats (standard) and steering wheel (part of the £675 optional Climate package)
and this is a car for all seasons (and especially winter).

On Call is free of charge for the first three years (it’s then £35 a year thereafter)
and does far more than just remotely start your car – it acts as a sort of virtual
fleet assistant, helping you monitor many functions such as locating where the car is, checking the doors are locked, logging mileage and average fuel economy, and alerting the driver to any maintenance issues.

It’s another feature which makes this XC90 such a strong challenger for user-choosers and opt-out drivers – I’m yet to find a single thing to fault with this car.