Boring and boxy, but safe. That's how most Americans view Volvos. This Swedish carmaker has been churning out thousands of seemingly indestructible sedans and wagons for more than half a century; each one dedicated to preserving the life of occupants seemingly at the expense of attractive lines and passionate performance. The cubist design theme reached its peak in the early 1980s, when the Volvo 740 debuted. All sharp angles from top to bottom, it was easy to imagine that Volvo stylists had little more than a T-square and a level at their disposal while toiling in the design studio.
That squared-off 740 eventually morphed into the S90 Volvo dealers sold in small numbers during the 1998 model year. The muscularly chiseled S80 pictured here replaces that stale car in the Volvo stable for 1999. S80 designers looked to the 120 Series cars of the 1960s when determining the shape of the aluminum hood, while broad-shouldered 140 Series models from the 1970s were the inspiration for the thick character line...actually, character bulge...below the greenhouse. They also borrowed heavily from a 1992 Paris Auto Show concept, the Environmental Concept Car, for the nose, tail and greenhouse. While all-new and unusual to most consumers, the S80 is actually a collection of past Volvo styling details in a modern package.
What Volvo failed to notice, apparently, were the styling details that Honda has already employed on the Civic and the Accord. We parked our tan S80 test car next to a gold 1994 or 1995 Honda Accord EX at a supermarket one day, and returned to the Accord, mistaking the well-kept five-year-old Honda for our $45,000 Volvo. Our staff also noted that the S80's headlamps, which bleed into the hood, are similar in execution to those found on the 1996-1999 Honda Civic.
Despite these minor detail annoyances, we found the S80 to be quite attractive, certainly more so than past Volvos but perhaps not quite as much as other vehicles sold in this price range. The wide shoulders under the glass that stretch from stem to stern give the S80 a strong flavor that you either love or hate. Our T6 test car, equipped with the standard 16-inch wheel-and-tire package, sported nice-looking spoked alloy wheels. The base S80 is a candidate for a visit to tirerack.com, equipped with plain standard and optional alloy wheels that exude less personality than Al Gore.
The rounded sheetmetal covers a structure that is 60-percent stiffer than that of the slightly smaller S70, which shares showroom space with this new Volvo. Engineers used high-strength steel in much of the S80's construction to cut weight while adding rigidity. The result is a car that feels solid yet lithe, providing nimble performance combined with a sublime driving experience. The S80 is a treat to drive, particularly in T6 trim.
With a twin-turbo 2.8-liter inline six pumping 268 horsepower to the front wheels, the T6 accelerates with a rush of power that would spin the tread off the standard Michelin tires all the way through second gear were it not for the S80's all-speed traction control system. (For those who enjoy choking on charred rubber, the traction control system is defeatable. We tried accelerating rapidly with the system shut off, and only succeeded in looking like juvenile delinquents out for a joy ride in Daddy's new car). According to Volvo, the T6 runs from zero to 60 mph in 6.8 seconds, but the car feels much quicker than that. Peak power is made at 5,400 rpm, while 280 foot-pounds of torque are evenly spread over the rev range between 2,000 and 5,000 rpm. While satisfyingly speedy, the S80 is also a handful when the accelerator is mashed to the floor, thanks to prodigious amounts of torque steer that tries to pull the S80 into the curb. Wrestling with the wheel is required when wringing each and every iota of power from the T6. We did not enjoy these matches with the S80, wondering why Volvo hasn't been able to erase torque steer from the S80 the way Audi has with the A4 and A6. We'd like to see an all-wheel-drive version of the T6, which could more effectively harness all those blown ponies.
Good news for those of you who prefer to strength train at the gym rather than in your car: base S80 models come with a tamer 2.9-liter, 201-horsepower engine. Both powerplants require premium fuel, and both are the first transversely mounted inline sixes from any manufacturer. Using continuously variable valve timing (CVVT), each engine combusts fuel more efficiently, but CVVT is put to different uses. The base S80's 2.9-liter six employs CVVT to increase engine torque, allowing it to crank 207 ft-lbs. of twist at 4,300 rpm. On the stronger T6, CVVT is used to lower cold-start emissions.
The only transmission available on the S80 is a four-speed automatic with adaptive shift control, which is a fancy way of describing a computer program designed to read driving styles and shift accordingly for maximum performance. Sport and Economy modes, which can be found in other Volvo products, are not necessary in the S80. The familiar third-gear-start feature does remain, however, to help motorists move smoothly away from slippery spots.
A software-fueled Transmission Control Module (TCM) instructs this sophisticated transmission. Advanced programming in the TCM can do lots of cool stuff. Like signal the engine to cut fuel delivery when a shift occurs, reducing harshness. Like base shift points on accelerator position, vehicle speed, engine speed, road slope and altitude, among other things. Like monitor the rate of change in accelerator position to determine if the driver rapidly accelerates and decelerates, indicating that the driver drives in a sporting fashion.
Developed with General Motors (Uh, don't they own Saab, Volvo's arch-rival?), the transmission comes with Geartronic manual control on the T6. Geartronic works like other automanual systems, but most closely operates like BMW's Steptronic transmission. The manual gate is on the left side of the selector pattern, which is more convenient for the driver. Tap up to upshift; tap down to downshift. Geartronic will not shift for you if you forget it's engaged, bumping into the rev limiter to remind you it's time to choose the next gear. If you come to a stop, however, the transmission will downshift into first gear to save you embarrassment in the stoplight drag races.
Try Geartronic for a passing maneuver in the T6. Drop to third gear at about 65 mph, and punch the drive-by-wire accelerator. Before you can recover from the nearly instantaneous thrust that has pushed you deep into the super-soft leather driver's seat, you'll be approaching triple-digit speeds. The S80 T6 has serious midrange punch. But before the police arrive to put a damper on the fun, you'll need to haul yourself down to a more realistic velocity. This is where the S80's four-wheel disc four-channel antilock brakes come in handy. Equipped with electronic brake distribution (EBD), the S80's braking system keeps the unloaded rear wheels spinning at or near the same rate as the overtaxed fronts when slowing down or stopping. EBD ensures maximum braking ability under all conditions, and based on our travels in the S80 T6, we are happy to report that this Volvo has excellent braking capability.
It also handles well, for a large front-driver. A MacPherson strut suspension handles duty up front, while a fully independent multi-link setup keeps the rear planted. Front and rear anti-roll bars help the S80 maintain a flat attitude in corners. We drove our test vehicle mostly on snowy Michigan roadways, and did not get an opportunity to try the S80 on twisting tarmac, but melted on- and off-ramps sure were a hoot. The ride was also quite nice, smoothing out ravaged Interstate chop without cutting the lines of communication to the driver. Of course, Volvo's wonderful speed-sensitive steering went a long way toward keeping us in touch with frost heaves and potholes. Designed to provide light effort at low speeds for parking, and heavier effort at freeway speeds, the system worked flawlessly and transparently. Our only gripe stemmed from a quick U-turn, where we were able to beat the power assist as we approached steering lock. We've experienced this problem in every Volvo we've driven recently, so we're certain that this issue is not isolated to our particular test vehicle.
Surprisingly, our staff had several other complaints about this clean-sheet design from Volvo, most of which centered on the interior. Volvo press material boasts about the "intuitively simple icons" gracing the myriad controls and switches inside the Volvo, but we cretins at Edmund's still had difficulty sorting things out without the assistance of the owner's manual. Other ergonomic glitches cited by our staff included a cruise activation button located too close to the horn pad. Imagine this: Our intrepid editor is flying along a Michigan interstate, when his Valentine One alerts him to a state patrolman blasting traffic with instant-on radar. Immediately, our guy reaches to disengage the cruise (so that he doesn't have to slam on the brakes and cause a traffic pile-up) and instead blasts the horn. Doh! That's the way to slip past the police unnoticed.
We also found the seatback release system hard to operate, taking several minutes of pulling, pushing and tugging before finding success. Other gripes included cruise-control switchgear that was not illuminated at night, cupholders that weren't optimally sized and required too much effort to close, a lack of handy exposed storage for CD jewel cases and the like, and the absence of proper door panel handle grips for passengers.
We're not done whining yet. The wiper system did not keep the right half of the windshield clean, smearing it with road salt on a regular basis. Wet-arm wipers would probably do the trick here. The automatic climate controls behaved schizophrenically, blasting ice-cold air when we wanted heat. With the engine temperature gauge showing that the motor was warm, we twisted both the driver and passenger temperature knobs to 80 degrees, punched the control panel's ultra-cool human pictogram in the gut to indicate we wanted airflow from the dash and floor vents, and hit "auto." What happened? The air conditioning kicked on and cold air came from the vents. We were already blowing vapor rings with our breath, thanks to sub-zero exterior temperatures, so what did the system misinterpret? Fiddling around with the controls, much like Homer Simpson might fiddle with the NASA shuttle launch panel, usually got us heat after a bit of effort. But don't ask us to repeat the sequence of button pushing that resulted in a warm cabin.
Finally, and this one really surprised our staff, we weren't entirely satisfied with the seats in the S80. Normally, a Volvo seat is so comfortable, so utterly perfect, that you want to rip the thing out of the car, attach casters and roll it around with you to your office, your kid's soccer match and your weekend poker game. But in the S80, something is different, and the seats are merely great. A single control handles both the tilt and height functions for the bottom cushion, which made finding the optimal seating position impossible for at least one staffer. We're certain that individual controls for cushion tilt and height would solve this problem. But then we'd want to rip the seat out of the car, and Volvo likely wouldn't take kindly to that sort of...ummm...renovation to their press vehicles and dealer demos.
Now that the kvetching is out of our system, we can continue with our praise for the S80. We defy anyone to identify a finer factory audio system than the one in our S80 T6 test vehicle. The optional nine-speaker system boasted a 4x50 watt amplifier with Dolby Pro Logic Surround Sound. Nothing could distort the quality of sound in this car, not even Smashing Pumpkins at dangerous decibel levels. If the Cadillac Seville's Bose 4.0 sound system is astounding, then this Volvo setup is incredible. You won't believe how good it is.
We particularly enjoyed the stark, purposeful feel of the interior, with supple super-soft dark gray leather nicely accented with dark burled walnut trim. The interior exuded high-quality workmanship, thanks to rich-looking materials, flawless build quality and a seamless passenger airbag cover. For those prone to aimlessness or uneducated in the art of cartography, an optional navigation system can be installed for $2,495. At that price, we'll stick with Rand McNally and a compass, which served us just fine as we crisscrossed 750 miles of southern Michigan byways. With 14.2 cubic feet of trunk space, shaped usefully like a rectangle with a flat load floor and minimal liftover, our S80 tester schlepped Christmas gifts and travel gear for a family of three from Detroit to Kalamazoo and other parts of the Great Lake State with minimal effort. Fold the rear seats, and you've got over six feet of flat cargo floor at your disposal.
During our time with the car, we traveled many wet wintertime highways, which coated the front of the S80 with a thick slime of salt. Our test car was equipped with Volvo's cold-weather package, which includes headlight wipers and heated seats. When the driver uses washer fluid to clean the windshield, washer jets mounted near the headlights squirt the brine from the headlight lenses while small wipers clear them. Those clear lens free-form headlamps illuminated the night expertly, as we have come to expect from Volvo, thanks in part to the optional washer/wiper system. Though the climate controls caused consternation, we truly enjoyed the seat heaters, which offered two settings and never became uncomfortably hot.
At this point, we've ascertained that the Volvo S80, in T6 trim, looks good and is a pleasure to drive in many respects. But what about safety considerations, which are a strong selling point for the brand regardless of styling changes or infusions of heart-stopping acceleration? Volvo has the S80 covered in this regard, with a roster of protective engineering that no manufacturer can match.
Of course, you've got dual front airbags, which include two-stage deployment depending on the severity of the collision. Antilock brakes (ABS) with EBD are standard. All five S80 occupants get head restraints, and those in the rear must be deployed for optimal comfort. Why is that? They fold forward when not in use, rather than flopping back into the rear parcel shelf. That way, when someone gets into the rear seat, they must deploy the head restraint to sit comfortably. Front seatbelts are automatically height-adjustable, and all five three-point seatbelts feature pyrotechnic pretensioners and load limiters. Seating front and rear protects passengers with anti-submarining guards.
That's all standard-issue for a Volvo. In addition, the S80 benefits from the latest safety technology from this leader in the field. SIPS, WHIPS, IC, STC and DSTC are available to protect S80 occupants in the event of almost any crash. SIPS, which stands for Side Impact Protection System, includes a strengthened body structure on each side of the car and side-impact airbags for front seat passengers. WHIPS is an acronym for Whiplash Protection System. In a low-speed rear collision, WHIPS allows the front-seat backrest to move backwards, supporting the head and torso while absorbing crash energy. Then, the backrest tips backward to prevent body rebound, which causes whiplash. The IC is an Inflatable Curtain, stowed in the headliner and running from the A-pillar to the C-pillar. In a side impact, it inflates in 25-thousandths of a second, covering the side windows and protecting occupants' heads front and rear.
Standard on every S80 is Stability and Traction Control, or STC. An all-speed traction system, STC applies ABS to whatever wheel has lost purchase, allowing it to regain traction. At higher speeds, the system limits fuel supply, and thus torque, to the drive wheels in an effort to reduce wheelspin. DSTC, otherwise known as Dynamic Stability and Traction Control, is available as an option starting early in calendar year 1999. It includes software that helps correct skids based on measurements of wheel rotation and steering input. When the car deviates from normal behavior, DSTC applies ABS to bring the car back under control.
As if all this wasn't enough, Volvo has also loaded the S80 with other goodies like safety lighting that keeps the car well illuminated at night as you approach or leave the vehicle, optional laminated safety glass that is difficult to break, and an optional child booster seat. The power windows feature a pinch guard to protect fingers, B-pillar air vents not only keep rear passengers comfortable but also help defog the rear windows for better visibility, and child-safety rear door locks keep kiddies safe. Other design attributes, like a fuel tank located forward of the rear axle and ventilated front disc brakes with sliding calipers to keep brake fluid cool, are items that will go unnoticed by most consumers, but not Volvo's safety-conscious engineers.
Volvo is in the midst of radical change. Striving to shed the marque's stodgy image, new Volvos like the C70 coupe and S80 sedan exhibit design flair and fun-to-drive characteristics. By blending performance and safety, the company is reaching a wider customer base with more appealing product. Volvo is reengineering corporate platforms while continuing its commitment to industry-leading safety systems. Rumors persist that either Ford or Fiat will purchase Volvo in the near future. Times of change and turmoil are never easy, and the challenges Volvo currently faces are reflected in the imperfect S80. Nonetheless, this is a fine product that deserves the attention of any luxury-car buyer looking for unmatched safety and security, entertaining performance and strong character.
