Volvo S60 T6

Apr 25, 2011 by Justin McCall    2 Comments    Posted under: Reviews

Introduction

Volvo’s, for some reason, have always had terrible resale values and unfortunately will always have this problem for the foreseeable future.  It appears to be a problem that South African’s have with Swedish cars.  Take the SAAB for example.  Also a fantastic car, with great features and high levels of safety, yet you won’t ever get your money back on them.

This is a really sad scenario as the Volvo is undoubtedly a fantastic car. Many may agree that Volvo’s are somewhat boring, but in this case, the new S60 is a big departure from the Volvo styling garage.

Engine & Transmission

The Volvo S60 T6 featuring All Wheel Drive is no slouch.  The twin-scroll turbo charged 3 litre inline 6 cylinder powerplant delivers a meaty 224kW and 440nM to all four wheels.  Acceleration is smooth but after the Turbo lag disappears, you may want to ensure that you are fully aware of what’s in front of you as you may find yourself meeting up with it fairly quickly.  The lag is terrible unfortunately and really let’s the car down.

It is mated to the 6-speed Geartronic automatic box, which I found to be quite a treat.  Gear changes were a little jerky, but overall were acceptably quick.  Gear paddles on the steering when would have been a better option though.  Driving around in automatic mode is comfortable and reasonably smooth, but flicking the stick over into Sport mode, the car comes alive and if you aren’t careful could catch you unaware.  I find that the throttle needs to be feathered when accelerating in lower gears.  The excess power seems to want to come out all at once and launch the car like a rocket.  The actual throttle is also very sensitive and bumps (we have excessively bad roads in Parkhurst) would force my foot down a little and give it unnecessary throttle.

Interior

The interior is true Volvo comfort boasting full leather interior and a soft-touch dashboard.  The bucket seats support the driver and passengers very well and are fully adjustable.  The dashboard is relatively simple, and very easy to operate.  All the buttons are where you would expect them to be.

The petrol cap release button is located to the right of the steering wheel, but the petrol attendant found it rather bemusing that he had to point out the button location to be after I was searching all over for it.  I thought it was in a good place, but just not where I assumed it to be.

The instrument display is great and easy to read with the 5” multimedia colour display giving you access to radio, media and vehicle settings.  After playing a bit of Trevor Noah’s Daywalker DVD, I felt the display could have been a little more crisp, but that would be the hunger for the perfect high definition multimedia experience in me coming out.

Interior passenger space and bootspace are more than adequate with the boot offering 380litres of storage capacity.

Exterior

Mainly due to it’s new Chinese owners, the styling is far off from the standard Volvo bore.  Unfortunately, the downfall to this far-out kind of styling is that will become outdated fairly soon and wont age well.  But hey, it looks great for now and I would be more than happy owning this car.  The test car was shod in 18” rims which are a little harder on the road thanks to the low profile, but overall are quite good with very low road noise, if any at all.

Safety

As with all Volvo’s, safety options are abounding in this model.  Standard across the S60 range are…

• ABS
• DSTC (Dynamic Stability & Traction Control) with Electronic Brake Assistance
• WHIPS (Whiplash Protection System)

Extra’s that were fitted to the test car…

• Park Distance Control
• BLIS (Blind Sport Information System)
• PCC (Personal Car Communicator, Volvo’s keyless entry option)
• Water Repellent side windows.

Other options include the pedestrian detection system, which does exactly that.  At lower speeds it detects pedestrians in front of the car and attempts to slow the car down enough to limit injuries.  This system only works 100% at lower speeds according to independent testing, but at least it’s doing less damage.  Not sure how that helps the pedestrian however, they’ll just be less hurt I suppose.

And then there is the obvious plethora of airbags adorning every nook and cranny that Volvo could find.

Comfort, Handling & Performance

Overall this is a really comfortable car with solid suspension enabling the car to hug corners and keep you on the road safely.  I wouldn’t call it exciting, after all, this is a Volvo, commonly driven by Soccer Moms, but it will have you feeling reasonably safe that the high power this car produces wont get you into too much trouble at high speed.

A claimed 0-100km/h in 6.1s is closer to the 7s mark in reality taking the altitude here in Gauteng and the turbo lag into account.  Top speed is governed to 250km/h.  It get’s there pretty quickly.

Fuel consumption heads up to around the 14 litres/100km mark around town, but on the open road, cruising at the speed limit, cruise-control engaged, you will get just under 10 litres/100km which is not too bad at all.

Price

The S60 T6 AWD Geartronic comes in a R469,000 and R489,000 in you include the R-Design package.

It’s difficult to say where in the market this car fits as it’s quite oddly priced.  The closest rival I can find in this segment would be the Audi A6 range which is considerably more expensive.  The Audi A6 3.0T base model costs R620,000 while the BMW 535i will empty your bank account of R659,000.  Considering that I think the S60 is playing this segment, it’s almost R200,000 cheaper.

Overall

Would I buy the Volvo? Yes. Would I have fun driving the Volvo? Yes.  Would I feel comfortable and safe? Of course.  Would I get my money back when I sell it? Unfortunately not.

The Volvo S60 is a great all round package, packed with massive safety features and loads of gizmos, but the reality is that the user car market don’t see this as a great used car and you wont get much back for it.  Really disappointing for an excellent, well-rounded vehicle.

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