Driving Impressions

Bopping along a highway is where the S60's real role in Volvo's pantheon becomes obvious. The Swedes clearly mean for this car to be seen as a sports sedan in the same general class as the BMW 3 Series, which is the hallmark of this segment. Like everyone else who takes a shot at the 3 Series, Volvo falls short. Exactly how short depends greatly on which engine you choose and how hard you like to push your car. If you are one of those folks who likes to talk about driving at 9/10ths or 10/10ths or 11/10ths of your car's limits, then you are probably a man with the usual range of inadequacy issues. You probably also care that it's a front-drive car, since that cuts down on the ability to let the rear end slide out in a hard turn. There is some body lean in hard corners and the suspension is tuned more for a soft ride than for quick transient maneuvers. In that regard, it's no 3 Series. The S60 does a great job of filtering out road vibration, an important feature where potholes and washboard surfaces abound. With its soft suspension, it should be a comfortable car on gravel roads, though we didn't test this. If you drive it sensibly, you will find that the S60 is more competent in all situations than like-sized sedans from American or Japanese car companies. This can be reassuring, even if you don't drive hard. There's no sense that the S60's going to do something stupid if it hits a bump or a patch of ice and head immediately for the ditch. However, an exorbitant application of power can be a little tricky on some surfaces because the front wheels have to look after the propulsion and the steering at the same time. The T5 produces prodigious thrust from its high-pressure turbocharger. Mash the gas and it takes off, with some slight turbo lag. It's fun. One of the great features of Volvo's turbocharged engines is that, if you're driving sensibly, there's little penalty in terms of fuel economy: When equipped with the manual transmission, the T5 gets 28/23 mpg, which is the same as the 2.4T, and just one point down from the highway rating for the 2.4. The shifter is a bit clunky. And the brakes are on the spongy side, making it hard to coordinate heel-and-toe downshifts.

Final Word

Volvo's S60 offers an alternative to BMW's 3 Series. It combines the S80's stylish shape with all those safety features that have made Volvo famous over the years.