Audi takes Volvo very seriously, as seriously as it does BMW and Mercedes this despite Audi thumping Volvo in the annual sales charts. Why is that? There are many layers to this question and the V60 is one the answers. You may well know the V60 is Volvo’s S60 based estate and its wrapped up in a swish looking exterior design.
The interior is equally as swanky for its elegant simplicity and in SE Lux spec its every bit a premium luxury rival to the Audi A4. But Audi has the badge and the VW empire bankrolling it. Volvo have safety and predictability however both do exactly the same thing by aiming for the same type of buyer, but why should you buy one over the other?
The V60 doesn’t have the biggest load capacity for its class, 557-litres with the seats up, but style is never out of fashion and so its very easy to forgive V60 for its rakish rear design because style really has not been sacrificed for the sake of appeasing the focus groups. Yes its got the seats fold flat/boot space enlarges thing, plenty of passenger room and storage besides. It still ticks all the boxes for being a practical family car.
SE Lux trim cost £32k and is near to the top end of Volvo V60 ownership aspirations, its seriously well kitted inside with proper soft-to -the-touch leather, a digital display dash, plenty of driver aids from Adaptive Cruise Control, Parking senors, Lane Detection, indeed Volvo make sure their press vehicles are always kitted out to the max.
If you’re interested there are five main trim levels with around 26 different model variants. Engines range from the 2.0-litre diesel which is available in three power variants (120, 150, 190bhp) and a 1.6-litre, 4-cylinder turbo petrol unit which comes with 152bhp.
Prices start from £23k for the entry level Business Editon models and range up to £50k for the top of the range Plug-in Hybrid model.
Our press car came fitted with a 2.0-litre, 4-cylinder turbo-diesel powerplant its strong and frugal, the 150bhp and 320Nm statistics back that up. It will even average 54mpg on a combined run thanks to the 6-speed auto gear gearbox and on a full tank it can go almost 700 miles. The engine is a bit noisy at idle though, as if by magic, the diesel clatter disappears when cruising at motorway speeds.
And those journeys won’t be short on comfort wind and tyre noise is well suppressed, the ride is supple and calming, the V60 soaks up the bumps with ease. The handling has been sacrificed a little, there is a bit of roll in the corners but not so much as to dissuade you otherwise.
At this point motoring journalists will say if you go for a lower spec model you save money and get the same amount of kit. I don’t know why they continue to use this line of argument when it is known buyers like to spec the hell out of their new cars.
My advice is don’t listen to motoring journalists. One day they will be telling you how to save money on a new car then the next they will be saying a £200k Bentley is the best car in the world. I am digressing lets get back to the V60.
What I can say is this the Volvo V60 I think is best had in R Design spec, that means your’e not saving much money but you do get a little more ‘kick-ass-ability’.
That’s right the conclusion of this test has just been dumbed down with the use of American colloquialism. The reason why you should get a Volvo V60 is the reason why you should never get an Audi or BMW rival and you know what I mean by that.
