Volvos are some of my favorite European sedans, with their obvious strength being exceptional safety engineering, but increasingly being just as focused on style and performance as their often glitzier imaged competitors. Case in point is the S60, which is Volvo's mid-range sedan.
I got a chance to drive a new S60 2.4T last week when I took my 2-year old S40 in for it's annual maintenance. 24 hours behind the wheel of a new S60 might still not have justified paying dealer prices for maintenance service, but it definitely helps take away some of the sting. The S60 is definitely a nice ride -- just plain nice.
The car I was given was equipped pretty much the way I would actually want it if I were buying it for myself. It wasn't the entry level model with its basic 168hp 2.4 powerplant -- it was a mid-range S60 2.4T, with the turbocharged 5-cylinder powerplant. The car also had the "premium" package, which Volvo might as well make standard, since I don't believe I've ever actually ridden in an S60 that did not have the leather interior, moon roof, power seat controls and other perks that the "premium" package brings to the table. A base S60 2.4T with the premium package is pretty much everything that 99.9% of the car driving public would really want. Performance hounds can always go for the R package and take that big 300 hp engine, but personally, the 2.4T is the S60 that I drove, and that I like.
From the driver's seat, it's a comfy car that handles well, and from the driveway, it's a good-looking car that I think carries an image of conservative good taste. Let's take it for a spin...
Interior Comfort...
I like the excellent usability of the dashboard controls. Nothing makes me go bonkers faster than a car with badly designed controls, and this is one car that generally does things right. The only point of goofiness in my opinion, is the ventilation controls with the picture of the reclining human. I could never quite fall in love with that little paradigm, and it didn't seem either more intuitive nor easier to use than my simple knob-controlled system in the S40. In fact, I think it kind of looks gimmicky in the same way as those stupid boomboxes with all the blinking lights.
The controls all felt tight.
Sitting in the back seat is actually a fairly pleasant experience -- providing the folks up front have the courtesy to push forward a bit. That shouldn't be a problem since even at the halfway back position, I felt like I had significantly more legroom in the drivers seat of the S60 than I've had in some small cars with the seat all the way back (that was certainly the case driving a fun, but very cramped Toyota MR2).
Back seat passengers do get a bit of pampering with their own vent controls, well-placed arm rests and head rests, and a generally comfortable yet firm seat.
Power and Performance...
I thought the acceleration, braking, and cornering control on this car were all excellent.
The car had more than ample power to handle any interstate on-ramp that I could find, and the turbocharged 5-cylinder was plenty peppy to get me off from red lights ahead of the pack. This car was plenty well powered for typical city and highway driving.
Performance hounds can always go for the R package and take that big 300+ hp engine, but personally, the 240 some horses that a base 2.4T puts out is already more than adequate to power this vehicle over any road you'll ever find in America. Here in Houston, the police are not amused by motorists who drive 140 miles per hour or who accelerate to 60 mph in 5 seconds. The R posts numbers like that, the 2.4T doesn't. I don't know about your home town, maybe you do have a need for the S60R -- but not me -- and the extra eight grand + that I save will buy me quite a bit of beer.
In my opinion, Volvo's bread and butter customer base -- which is basically your well-educated, professional, suburban mom and dad with 2.2 children -- will never even need the power of a 2.4T, much less the rocket-powered R. The S 60 R is, to me, as practical as a Lamborghini (but admittedly, less likely to help you pick up bikini models).
Braking was firm and precise with quick response. I could pretty much stop on a dime. This is great if you see a sign advertising cheap beer and you need to turn around quick, before they sell out.
Handling was good, though the car doesn't feel nearly as nimble as my S40. I suppose that's to be expected since the S60 is a larger, heavier vehicle. Still, the car felt far more precise and controlled on the corners than other similar size sedans (like the Toyota Camry or the Ford Taurus) that I've driven recently. I've heard that the R package is even tighter, but this car is definitely a good performer for anyone who spends more time on America's highways and byways than they do on the racetracks. My preference is really for tighter turning radiuses than what the S60 can do, but then, nimbler performance is one reason I usually prefer a smaller sedan than the S60.
A Sense of Style...
New Volvos are sleek. They're stylish. Yet they're never pretentious. They don't have doodads devoid of practical value. Seems kind of strange to say "styling" and "Volvo" in the same sentence, but Volvos today are actually very attractive vehicles.
Size-wise, the Volvo S60 car is a good-sized 4-door sedan -- about the same basic footprint as a Toyota Camry or a Nissan Maxima. (But the Volvo will look better in your driveway.)
Practical Matters...
The S60 is a very practical car with plenty of features and space for anything a typical family can throw at it. I found that I could easily fit 14 cases of beer in the trunk, and still have room to toss in some chips and dip (man cannot live on beer alone, you know). If you need more practical value than that, you'll probably want to look at full-sized pickups.
You can also pull down one side of the 60-40 split back seat to reach into the trunk as you're driving. Of course I would never consider asking my passenger to reach back and get me a cool brewski out of one of those 14 cases, because such a thing would be illegal and wrong.
Naturally, the car is equipped with such niceties as little lights on the rearview mirror so that you can see what your mirror looks like even at night, and individually controlled lights in the rear seat that could have been used to help find out how to open the seat back if anyone had actually wanted to reach for a cool beer.
Plus there were plenty of cup holders in both the front seat and rear seat, which I would never dream of testing out with one of the conveniently cool brewskis that my passenger wouldn't have pulled out of my trunk in these politically correct times. If you did have a beer, you would almost certainly use the cup holders in the console, with their handy "hide me quick!" cover that could be slid down. Only an idiot would put a beer in the cup holder that's inconsiderately mounted on top of the dashboard -- not only could the cops see it, but the sun would beat down on it on a warm day, and who really wants to drink warm beer? Nasty, Dude!
The car was equipped with spacious seat pockets for storing napkins that could have been used if anybody spilled one of those beers that they didn't reach into the trunk for.
If, by some chance, the passenger had reached back and gotten a bottle instead of a can, there was a very spacious glove box that could have been used to hold several bottle openers (or the car's user manual -- your choice).
Window and door lock controls are intuitive and easy to use, and I like the one-push control to put the window down. Unless you are driving through a "dry" county, I do not recommend using the windows to dispose of empty beer bottles or cans -- not that you have any, of course. But if you did, zipppp, one push and the window is ready!
Overall Impression...
I'm impressed. This is an extremely quiet, comfortable car that's got plenty of performance where I need it and that carries with it Volvo's long-time reputation for safety engineering (visit a Volvo dealer and I can guarantee that the salesman starts his spiel touting all of the myriad safety features built into this, and every other, Volvo). Although the car is a little bigger than the models I tend to favor, I'm impressed enough with the solid ride and nimble handling that I will seriously consider the S60 as a replacement for the S40 next time I'm in the market for a new car. Give the S60 a test drive -- I think you'll be as impressed as I am.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 30000
Condition: New Model Year: 2004 Model and Options: 2.4T
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