Volvo S60 (2010) review
by David Finlay (9 August 2010)
There are, as you know, several long-standing clichés - some good, some bad - relating to Volvo, and three of them were inescapably apparent at the UK media launch of the new S60.
The first has not really been relevant for a number of years, and I wouldn't bring it up now except for the fact that Volvo won't shut up about it. The charge, m'Lud, is that Volvo still builds brutally foursquare models which might whimsically be described as "tanks", though in fact nobody with half a brain could possibly believe this. After all, even the purposeful V70 and XC70 are fluffy, soft-focus things in comparison with what the company was producing in, say, the 1980s.
Volvo, however, seems to think there is still a problem, and is trying to solve it in a high-pitched and none too effective manner. "We don't build tanks!" it says. "Tanks are exactly the kind of thing we don't do any more. They are a thing of the past."
On the S60 launch, the company even emphasised the point still further by bringing along - did you see this coming? - several models from the 1980s and earlier, which were indeed outstandingly tank-like. "See? See? Look at these. Tanks, every one of them. We don't build them any more."
Well, the S60 is rather elegant, and doesn't look at all like a tank. Which I wouldn't have bothered mentioning if Volvo hadn't made such a big deal of it.
The second cliché is that Volvos are not sporty to drive, and here the company has made another blooper, but this time using the opposite method. Since the new S60 was first announced, Volvo has been shouting that this was to be its most sporty car ever. At the press conference there was even a Graph Of Sportiness, with several Volvos placed at different points on a diagonal line, the S60 being right at the top.
I had to be restrained from drawing a picture of a 1976 Ford Fiesta slightly further up the line, for the S60 is not remotely sporty. Not even a little bit. We are told that, although the initial development work was done in Sweden, fine-tuning took place in Warwickshire and Wiltshire (the implication being that the car is particularly suited to UK roads), and that former British Touring Car Champion and current Volvo dealer John Cleland was involved in the process.
Once again, if it hadn't been for this insistence on sportiness I would simply report that the S60 is somewhat below average in terms of driving dynamics, and leave it at that. Instead, I have to say that it handles rather lumpenly, and its ride quality needs to be revised sharpish, since it is thrown into confusion even by a smallish bump taken at moderate speed.
To be fair, I should also report that it behaved well enough over one of the UK's most forbidding pieces of public road, between Cockbridge and Tomintoul in Aberdeenshire, but most of its obvious rivals would have behaved better. Not for the first time, I'm left wondering if Volvo's engineers - splendidly talented though they seem to be in most other respects - really know what the word "sporty" means. To say the least, their definition can't possibly be the same as mine.
I can speak here only of the diesel-fuelled models in the S60 range, since nothing else has so far been made available to the UK press. There are two five-cylinder turbo diesel engines, one called D3 (two litres, 161bhp), the other D5 (2.4 litres, 202bhp), and the D3 is definitely the one to go for, largely because the chassis doesn't do much of a job of coping with the D5's extra 41bhp.
The other available engine is the T6 petrol, which produces 300bhp and is available only with four-wheel drive and Geartronic automatic transmission. Much more expensive than the diesels (prices start at £35,695), it may also be much better, but I don't know. If it is, perhaps Volvo might consider finding a way to pass its qualities further down the range.
The remaining cliché to deal with - and it's one any manufacturer would be proud of - is the one about safety. Like all Volvos, the S60 is festooned with safety equipment, most notably the Pedestrian Protection system which warns you that someone is standing on the road ahead and, if you don't react, knocks a maximum of 22mph (depending on road conditions) off the speed of the vehicle.
If you happen to be doing less than 22mph at the time, the car stops, and the pedestrian's shins remain unmodified. The way the S60 brings itself to a sharp halt is extremely impressive, not to say disconcerting, and it is probably the S60's best feature.
Interior room is another good one. Plenty of space up front, of course, but a lot in the rear too. Not only could I fit in there easily (which, as a six foot three person, is rare in my experience) but I was also reasonably comfortable even when a colleague tackled many miles of Aberdeenshire roads with no shortage of gusto. He's a good driver, mind, but it also helped that the ride quality in the back isn't nearly as bad as it is up front.
We've dealt with the T6 prices already. The diesels cost between £23,295 and £31,000 depending on whether they are in ES, SE or SE Lux specification (there's also a Premium Pack if you want to make your SE or SE Lux even more sumptuous).
If you want to spend less, wait until next year, when Volvo will introduce a 1.6-litre diesel DRIVe model. It will be bog slow, but preliminary figures of 65.7mpg and 115g/km are deeply impressive for a car of this size.
Add new comment