2012 Volvo S60: What's It Like to Live With?
Read the latest updates in our long-term road test of the 2012 Volvo S60 T5 as our editors live with this car for a year.
What do you want to know about?
- Introduction
- Two Recalls, One Week
- You Call That An Air Conditioner?
- A Macro Look at Interior Materials
- Video Walkaround
- Heater Gag
- More Luxury Than Sport
- Audiobooks and Classical Music
- It's All So Clear
- Choose Your Effort
- Getting Reacquainted with the T5
- What's That?
- A Less Common Choice
- Freeway Series
- Oops, Broke It
- Crash Test Dummies Like It
- Is This Really Necessary?
- I Like This Car
- Hooray Options
- Backup Camera
- Floating Pointers
- Dog Food
- What Does This Mean?
- Overkill?
- Why the Sad Face?
- Hide and Seek
- A Frugal Five Cylinder
- Center Stack Is So Very Scandinavian
- Pen Finds A Home
- What's Wrong With This Picture?
- Kudos to Tall Swedes!
- Good Morning, Flat Tire
- Good Afternoon, Flat Tire
- The Button
- Well, It Coulda Been Worse ...
- Back with a New Tire
- Road Trip
- Trifecta Transmission
- Objects in Mirror Are (much) Closer Than They Appear
- The Drive Home
- A Little Room for Improvement
- 2012 Volvo S60 T5 vs. 2010 BMW 328i
- Dividing By Zero
- Personal Car Communicator (i.e. Key Fob)
- You Can't Be Afraid of Color
- Another Nice Wheel
- Lumbar Support
- World Wide Web-Like Display
- Stupendously Awesome Road Trip Ahead
- Road Trip Report
- 5,000-Mile Milestone and Safe + Secure Plan
- The Uncommon Choice
- Extra Safety Features
- Bring Back the Horbury Look
- Different Interior Color
- It Grows On You
- Long Lost Volvo Relative
- Interface Hasn't Grown On Me
- Holy B-Pillar
- A Look at The Trunk
- What's That Button Do?
- I Want to Drive It
- Better MPG in September
- Nice Wheels for a Volvo
- What Would You Pick?
- Seat Heater Season Is Back!
- Form and Function
- Trying to Tell Me Something
- Ouch
- Will That Buff Out?
- Put Away Childish Things
- A Few Steps Behind
- Easy Daylight Saving Adjustment
- Standing Out in VIP
- Manual Mode Not The Best
- Rolling Carrot
- On the Verge of Sporty
- Hey Y'all, Watch This...
- Why Did They Do That?
- You Tell Me
- 7,500-Mile Service
- Road Trip Report Part Two
- Anchor This
- The Naughty Volvo
- Great Expectations
- Art Everywhere You Look
- Liking It More, Not Less
- Swedish Grumpypants
- Loud AC
- Just Get This Engine
- Five vs. Six
- Trunk Hinge Intrusion
- Controls
- Seat Comfort
- Finally, A Safety Rating
- There Is Another
- Crash, Boom, Bang!
- Low Expectations Exceeded. Or Something.
- Hard To Choose Between T5 or T6
- The $40,000 Club
- Rough Night
- How Much for Xenon Headlights?
- Smart Trunk
- Overachieving Washers
- Noisy Air Conditioning
- Spot Pricing
- This is Why I Like Automatics
- Video Review
- High Tech Mirrors
- Another Recall
- There's No Need for All This
- My PrefeRence is R
- Driver Detail
- Maintenance Alert
- You Are...Where?
- 15,000-Mile Milestone
- Nannies
- Talkative
- Takes Its Time
- Reader Mail Responses
- Found in Nature
- 15,000 Mile Maintenance
- There's A Lot Going On Under Here
- Beggar's Canyon
- The Tractor People
- Operation Dog Transport
- Road Trip Fuel Economy
- Adjustable
- Nav Glitch?
- Backseat Action
- How To Save Your Favorite Song
- Will it Have Nine Lives?
- Clean Stack
- Cozy
- Welcome to the Future
- Wrap-Up
Introduction
We're ten minutes into our long-term test of the 2012 Volvo S60 T5 when a fact breaks like a wave over our staff. One by one most of us realize that it's been years since we've driven a Volvo sedan. The last S60 debuted way back in 2000 while the newest S80 arrived way back in 2006. That's probably why we think of wagons and SUVs these days when the name Volvo is mentioned.
This new S60 is more than just a sedan, it's a self-described sport sedan, hence the new "naughty" tag line. The turbocharged S60 is poised to take on the best and brightest in the class with a sport-tuned chassis, wide array of luxury and high-tech features and dramatic Swedish styling.
But in a category dominated by BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Cadillac and Infiniti, is there room for Volvo, too?
What We Got
Our 2012 Volvo S60 T5 came from the factory with a 250-horsepower, 2.5-liter turbocharged I5 and a six-speed automatic transmission with sport mode and adaptive shift. It's a combination that's good for 20 mpg city and 30 mpg highway on the EPA cycle.
Like any respectable European sport sedan, the S60 comes packed with a long list of standard features that include an 8-way power driver sport seat, dual-zone climate control, Bluetooth, push button start, HD radio with USB and aux input and, thankfully, Volvo Sensus infotainment system with 7" high-resolution color LCD monitor.
Volvo Sensus is the replacement for the outdated system Volvo had been using. Sensus allows access to the stability control, city safety, driver alert, collision warning, lane departure, adaptive cruise, central locking, audio and navigation systems all in one place — assuming you've purchased the proper packages. Our Volvo has the packages.
The Multimedia package ($2,700) includes nav, premium sound, rear park assist camera and voice control. We've also got the Technology and Climate packages that offer adaptive cruise with queue assist (we'll figure out what this is during the year), collision warning, pedestrian detection, distance alert, lane departure warning, heated front seats, interior air quality system and all for an easy $2,900.
Next, is the Leather Seating package that adds a power passenger seat and a glass moonroof for $1,900 and the Dynamic package for $900 that adds 18-inch wheels and speed-sensitive steering with driver controls. There's also metallic paint ($550) and a personal car communicator ($550) plus an $875 destination fee.
And then there are the standard safety features — let's not forget that it is a Volvo — dynamic stability and traction control with sport mode, side curtain head protection airbags, side airbags, driver and front passenger dual-stage airbags, whiplash protection system, adaptive steering wheel column, LATCH, safe approach perimeter lighting system, intelligent driver information system, security system and child safety locks.
Out-the-door price for our loaded 2012 Volvo S60 T5 is $41,350. We didn't fork that over, however, as Volvo provided this car to us for a year.
Why We Got It
With the exception of a misguided wheel turn by a sincere idiot, our long-term test of the 2010 Volvo XC60 went off without a hitch. Well, if you exclude the awkward and impossible-to-use navigation system and paranoid safety equipment.
The mid-size SUV impressed us with its handling and ride quality, and generally wowed us with interior features and build quality — except for that NAV. In short, what's often seen as a vehicle for people who are concerned only with safety turned out to be a fairly terrific all-arounder that many of us preferred to its German and Japanese counterparts.
Sedans, however, swim in a deeper pool than luxury crossovers with long-standing frontrunners which have been tuned and tweaked over decades. The S60 T5 has the Infiniti G, Cadillac CTS, Mercedes-Benz C-Class and BMW 3 Series to contend with this time around. Winning over the hearts and minds of entry-level luxury shoppers won't be easy.
And it won't be easy winning us over, either. We've got 12 months and 20,000 miles to see if the naughty label fits and if the Volvo S60 T5 belongs in the elite ranks of premium sport sedans, or if this outlier really is a safety car first and a European sedan second.
Current Odometer: 1,220
Best Fuel Economy: 21.9
Worst Fuel Economy: 20.3
Average Fuel Economy (over the life of the vehicle): 21.1
The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.
We actually had our 2012 Volvo S60 T5 for about a week prior to posting the introduction. And it was one busy week in the world of S60 recalls.
The first S60 recall cited an issue with fuel pump software. Volvo recalled 7,558 units because, under certain driving conditions, there may be engine hesitation and possible engine stall, according to NHTSA. This recall applied to our S60, so we promptly took it to Volvo of Santa Monica. It was a quick fix, involving an ECM reflash and took just about an hour.
The second S60 recall involved a potential fuel leak. Volvo recalled 478 units (448 in the U.S.) because of the risk of fire. "The fuel-line quick connector may detach and the engine may stall, increasing the risk of a crash," said NHTSA. "The customer may also notice a fuel smell and leakage. A fuel leak in the presence of an ignition source could result in a fire." This recall included VINs up to ---32474, which preceded our S60, so we were in the clear.
Summer has finally arrived in the South Bay. Normally this time of year, we get beset with June Gloom. It's cloudy and chilly in the morning and sometimes it takes well into the afternoon before it burns off and you see the sun.
Well this weekend was different. I was running errands as early at 9:00 a.m. Saturday morning and it was already sunny and warm. By noon it was downright hot. A beautiful Southern California day.
I had two more stops to make between noon and 1:00 p.m. and was forced to park in the sun at both locations. The Volvo with its lovely black interior gets hot very quickly.
The air conditioner is weak. It only cools the car when you have the fan cranked up to a ridiculously loud level. And it doesn't have enough vents for the driver. There is one left of the gauges which you can direct at your face. But there isn't one on the right. In the middle there is one wide vent that you can't adjust far enough left to cool the driver. I was quite miserable driving around in the sun.
Give me an American car's A/C any day.
I'm not crazy about the metallic orange of our new 2012 Volvo S60 T5's exterior but I love its interior which isn't as living room comfortable as our 2010 Volvo XC60's but still pretty plush. Our S60 T5 is priced at a little over $41K, do you think that's reflected in its interior materials?
Here are some "macro" (photography lingo for "close-up") shots for your perusal.
I was recently driving our Volvo S60 and noticed I was getting a serious case of swass. It wasn't hot out, the sun wasn't shining on me and yes, I had the AC on. For the longest time I couldn't tell if this car had seat heaters until there it was: the very subtle button integrated into the drivers side temp dial.
A seat heater to me is used every so often, not just every minute in the car. The switch and the display that shows it's on are separated by a good enough distance so it's easy to miss that it's on until you get your butt roasted. I guess I'd prefer a switch with a light or some kind of dial to have a tactile affirmation or its function.
I know this is a very minor complaint overall. I'd prefer to have something simple over slick.But this feature does open the doors to playing the ol' seat heater gag on every subsequent driver of the Volvo. I'll have to pay attention to this.
I just got into the S60 after spending time in the frisky little Kia Forte Koup SX. The difference in handling between these two cars (and yes, I know that they'd never be cross-shopped) served to underline that though Volvo likes to market the S60 as a sport sedan, it really is more accurately defined as a luxury model.
And there's no shame in that, for as luxury models go, the S60 is a pretty good one. Though its reflexes aren't as sharp as those of more athletic rivals like the 3 Series, the S60 has a capable engine and well-weighted steering in its corner. I'd place it in Audi A4/Mercedes-Benz C-Class territory, and it holds up pretty well as a solid alternative for shoppers considering these two models.
The S60's iPod integration setup recognizes audiobooks as a separate category and allows you to choose this category from the main menu. Not all iPod integration systems facilitate this; we've had a couple of cars in our fleet with systems that don't.
As you can see, the menu also sorts by composer (for classical music fans). Additionally, it breaks out podcasts as a discrete category.
Audiobooks and classical music. Sounds like the typical Volvo demographic to me.
One thing I can really appreciate about our 2012 Volvo S60 T5 is how clearly labeled everything is, well most things (more on this later), and intuitively laid out it is. None of this RTFM for the basic features like the dimmer or fuel door opener. Even the parking brake in the footwell, which usually is tucked under the steering wheel column in other cars with the same placement, is clearly marked. Love it.
The only thing I'd grab the owner's manual for is the nav and audio. Halp!
Steering effort is one of those subjective aspects of the driving experience that nobody can seem to agree upon. Some like it light, others want an upper body workout.
Imagine my joy when I saw that our new long-term Volvo allows us to choose between low, medium and high effort. Even better, there's a significant difference between low and high. As for steering feel, well, there's not much — at least for my tastes. Still, it's a cool feature and I hope to see it in other cars.
Photo credit: Scott Jacobs
Last time I drove a Volvo S60 was a year ago, when the redesigned sedan first launched. But that was the T6 model, the one with a 300-horsepower, turbocharged inline-6 and the six-speed automatic driving all four wheels through a Haldex all-wheel-drive system. That car felt quick, sharp through corners, almost like a sport sedan.
When I got into our newest long-termer last night, it was immediately apparent this S60 has the same chassis underneath — it has the adroit responses and direct steering that distinguish this generation of the S60 from previous Volvo sedans. But it also has the engine that time forgot — the T5, the company's turbocharged, 2.5-liter inline-5. And this time the automatic is driving only the front wheels.
Twist the key
Insert the key into the slot, press Trident-gum-shaped button, and the engine awakens like a large man roused mid-snore who then proceeds to grumble his way to the bathroom. That really sounds unflattering, but the sounds are familiar and endearing, and so far the torque has been adequate for all the passing and merging I've done.
Moreover, our 2012 Volvo S60 T5 has a 20 mpg city, 30 mpg highway EPA rating, so it will be interesting to see how it does in the mpg race versus our similarly rated Acura TSX wagon and Buick Regal CXL 2.0T.
I have the S60 for the long weekend, and while no road trips are planned, we'll be going to at least two baseball games. Anybody planning a road trip for the 4th? If so, make sure you do a fuel economy run and share the results here. Ha.... actually, if anybody is that motivated, snap a photo of your car and send the relevant year/make/model info, plus your blog handle, odo, trip, gallons to eriches (@) edmunds.com and I will post them on the blog in Tuesday's S60 entry.
Spotted this in our 2012 Volvo S60 T5. Naturally I had to twist it. Guess what it's for.
OK, OK, from its placement you ALL probably guessed correctly that this twisty knob in the driver footwell opens the hood. And this may be a dumb post, but I honestly have never seen a hood opener like that before. Have you? It's just asking to be twisted all the time, whether you need to open the hood or not.
Everything else is so clearly labeled in the S60, can you blame me for being intrigued?
It's no exaggeration to say that the streets of Los Angeles are choked with the S60's rivals. There's a BMW 3 Series everywhere you look, and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class isn't too far behind on the popularity scale.
That's why I find the S60 so refreshing. These Volvos are a much rarer sight on L.A. streets, and I think that makes them feel just a bit more special. That kind of exclusivity can be a sought-after thing in the luxury segment.
How popular is the S60 in your neck of the woods?
I spent most of the holiday weekend driving our long-term 2012 Volvo S60 T5 with four adults (including myself) on-board. We didn't go on any exotic roads, just freeways and surface streets with my boyfriend and his parents, and then on to the actual Freeway Series (game 3 of the Dodgers/Angels series in Anaheim) with a couple of friends.
Legroom was fully adequate with just the family in the S60. The tallest person in the car was just 6 feet, and everyone fit comfortably.
However, it was decidedly squinchier on the ride to Angel Stadium, as one of the friends was 6-feet-4 (plus). He reclined the passenger seat, but still had to sit in an awkward splayed position in order to give his wife (seated behind him) some legroom. Still, he deemed the situation "not bad" and took a turn in the backseat (albeit with the front-passenger seat scooted way up) after the game.
As everyone stood around in the hot sun while I was taking this photo, Friend #2 (as mentioned, Friend #1's wife) observed that the S60 "looks like a combination of a sport sedan and something my grandfather would drive." Heh.
The S60's ride drew mixed reviews during the weekend. In general, this car has a compliant character, and the cabin is well insulated from wind and road noise.
However, the grooved, rutted freeways in LA really aren't anything like the perfectly maintained highways in Sweden, and with its 235/40R18 Continental ContiProContact tires (via the optional Dynamic package), our S60 picks up a lot of those small surface irregularities and transits them to the cabin. The ride usually isn't harsh, but it is busy, and a couple of my passengers commented on that. If I bought an S60, I guess I'd have to stick with the standard-issue 17-inch wheels and tires.
Unrelated to my S60 adventures, one reader responded to my informal holiday weekend mpg challenge. Justin Hebert (xjustinx242) of Newbury, New Hampshire, says he took a drive in his silver 2011 Hyundai Sonata SE 2.4 (pictured right, odo: 33,945 miles) to Fitchburg, Mass.
"The trip was 163 miles and I used 5.1 gallons of gas," Justin writes. This works out to 32.0 mpg, which is a respectable run for a car rated at 22/35. You can see the best/worst/average totals for our long-term 2011 Sonata GLS in the May 2011 fuel economy update.
I use interior grab handles to an excessive degree, because I fear getting my hands dirty when I close a trunklid or liftgate. Over the weekend, when I reached up to close our 2012 Volvo S60 T5's trunk for maybe the dozenth (yep, that's a word and good for a 35-point bonus in W.W.F.) time, I heard a crack.
Then, as I tried to bring the trunk lid down, the once sturdy-feeling plastic grab handle dislodged itself from the felt-lined lid.
I managed to kind of snap it back into place, so it looks fixed. But as soon as you put pressure on it to close the lid, it pops out again.
Which leaves me with the problem of having to touch the trunk lid. Which is why I visited the car wash today.
We'll have this matter addressed at the S60's first regularly scheduled service visit, unless we break out the craft glue first.
The 2011-2012 Volvo S60s have gotten IIHS's 2011 top pick for safety thanks to "good performance in front, side, rollover, and rear tests and standard electronic stability control." The car — IIHS tested a 2012 Volvo S60 T5 4-door 2wd — scored "Good" across the board putting it right up there with 2012 midsize luxury/near luxury cars like the Audi A4, Lincoln MKZ, Mercedes C-Class and VW CC.
Hit the jump to see how the S60 did in a side-impact crash test. Owie!
I'm sure there's probably a good reason why there's a slot for the key just below the ignition button in the S60. If I simply RTFM it's probably in there somewhere, maybe after the section on the usefulness of the keypad on the dashboard.
I've heard some people say the slot is there as a convenient key holder. Possibly true, although I prefer to think of my pocket as a slightly more convenient place. With more seat time I'm sure I'll unlock the mystery. For now, I'll just cringe every time I see it.
I've always had a soft spot for Volvos. The old boxy ones were just so very honest about what they were, which made the turbocharged models from the late 1990s just a fun juxtaposition — "I'm sensible and practical, but I go like stink!" Of my father's many cars over the years, his S70 T5 remains my favorite.
Frankly, I never thought it was a such a bad thing that the S70 "looked like the box the Audi came in" as I remember reading in whatever car magazine was comparing them at the time. Apparently I'm in the minority, because the current version of that car, our long-term Volvo S60 T5, is just about as far away from boxy as you can get. It's sleek and almost sexy. I liked the boxes, but I like this too.
Actually I like this whole car tremendously. The characterful growl of the eager T5 engine, which consistently made me wonder why anyone would ever bother with the T6. The hydraulic (!) power steering that allows you choose between three different settings, then sticks with that setting after you shut off the car (I'm talking to you BMW). The firm, yet well-damped ride. The stylish interior — I'm not sure what the center console trim is supposed to be, but it looks great. The spot-on driving position for tall dudes of Northern European descent. The new infotainment interface, which isn't the greatest thing around, but isn't a total flippin' disaster like the one in the XC60.
Going with the assumption that the next-generation 3 Series will be just as aggravating as the new 5, there's a good chance that my favorite car in this class could soon be the S60. Maybe it's just my soft spot talking, but this car seems like a winner and I look forward to driving it a lot in the next year.
By now you're all familiar with two things about me: 1) I like cars that give me options on default behaviors. 2) That I hate cars with auto locking doors.
I assumed that our 2012 Volvo S60 T5 would have the auto locking doors because, well, Volvo. That and people like to think it's safer. So you can see how pleased I was to find out not only is this feature disableable, but the keyless door locks also have multiple options.
The first option "all doors unlock" means what it says, when you go to ANY door on the car and pull the handle, all doors unlock — perfect, that's the way I want it. There are also some other clever ones here such as doors on same side, both front doors and any door. Any door is particularly interesting as only the door you touch unlocks. Usually this feature is limited to the front doors so if you don't have all doors selected, you're forced to use the front doors and then manually unlock the rears. As if. On the Volvo, all doors have the sensor and can be individually opened. More options = more better.
Also, we should take a second and note how easy to use and in-depth the new Volvo information system is. But we'll surely get into that more later. For now, door locks and a happy me.
Here's what the backup camera view looks like for our 2012 Volvo S60 T5. It's straightforward but almost too simple. I usually appreciate when there's an actual line for how far away I am from the bumper behind me. Like in our Ford Fusion Hybrid; even though it, too, is simple I love the use of red, yellow and green brackets. "I'll park it right up to the top of the red bracket."
Also, what's the point of the graphic of the car on the right taking up screen real estate in the Volvo? So we know where the rear camera is located on the car? Shrugs.
Here are some other backup views from our other long-termers for comparison:
2011 BMW 528i
2011 Ford Mustang GT
2011 Hyundai Equus Signature
Our long-term 2012 Volvo S60 T5 has many interesting features, some of which are neat, and some which are not. We'll save the latter for another day.
One cool detail is that the speedo and tach have floating pointers — they're not pinned to the center of the meter.
Nice, Volvo. Hit the jump for the awesome video.
Driving home in our 2012 Volvo S60 T5, my daughter phoned to tell me we needed dog food. I made a quick detour and picked up a 35 lb bag.
Of course the Volvo's trunk had no trouble swallowing this single item, but along the way it became clear the 2012 edition of the S60 has a pretty decent trunk despite a rather average stated capacity of 12.0 cubic feet.
First and foremost, its genereous trunk opening features a low, broad sill that makes it easy to hoist a clumsy item like this in and out.
The inside is nicely finished and 4 sturdy metal tie down hooks jut through the lining from the structure below. There's a lamp in there, too.
And there's this...
Dual seatback release handles disengage the rear 60/40 seatbacks so they can be flopped forward. There's no spring action that pushes the cushions forward - you either have to reach in and push or use the long item you're trying to load to nudge them over.
So far that's not too unusual, but the Volvo S60 uses a flush design that prevents luggage from snagging the release handles. More exposed designs can potentially hook on a backpack strap or perhaps even break off from a direct encounter with an inflexible suitcase. The downside here is it takes a bit of learning to find the right spot and pull back on the small recessed levers that trigger the release.
The Volvo S60 doesn't have a particularly big trunk, but it is fairly functional nonetheless.
When I switched into the Volvo the other night, this symbol appeared on the dash. It didn't look like a maintenance light to me so I figured it must be a feature. Lane departure warning perhaps? So, I consulted the manual.
While our Volvo S60 does come with lane departure warning, this image is for the Distance Alert feature. It is part of the Adaptive Cruise Control system and corresponds to this button above the shifter:
(The button to the left is for lane departure).
It allows you to set a time interval to the car ahead of you. One bar is approximately one second. All five bars is about 2.5 seconds. You can also set a speed. If you set both speed and distance and a car in front of you slows suddenly, the system may modulate the brakes for you. If you only set distance, not speed, it will warn you but not affect the speed of your vehicle. And it only works when you are travelling at a speed in excess of 18 mph. Any slower than that and you should be able to handle your own car.
The system works best on straight, level roads. While I was driving, it fired off warning lights and bells when I was going over some bumpy asphalt and sometimes on steep inclines. So, it's not perfect. But it is helpful.
What do you think, are these features life savers or do they make drivers lazier?
Not only does the squirter clean the window, it goes after the headlights in two different directions. It ends up soaking the side windows and even reaches the rear window. I'll think positively and consider this a feature.
To me, our long-term 2012 Volvo S60 T5 has a droopy, sad face.
I prefer something more aggressive, or at least more happy.
On the other hand, we had this. Too aggressive? Without the teeth, definitely too happy.
When they're not in use, cupholders can be kinda ugly to look at.
Fortunately, the S60 has an elegant solution.
Now you see 'em, now you don't.
I was a little surprised to learn that the 2.5-liter, in-line five-cylinder in our Volvo S60 is rated at 30 mpg on the highway. It certainly doesn't feel like such a frugal car from behind the wheel.
Yeah, it's a little wheezy sounding like most five-cylinders, but between the turbocharger and the six-speed transmission, the S60 moves out quite nicely. And as unappealing as this engine sounds, it seems like a perfect trade off between power and efficiency, especially when you consider the $6K jump to the larger 3.0-liter six.
Volvo loves to flaunt its Scandinavian heritage by gussying up its cars with center stacks that reflect very Scandinavian-looking design themes. Thankfully, the S60 gets the same treatment — the center stack is one of my favorite things about the car's cabin.
And it's not just attractive, it's also pretty intuitive. Those buttons may be on the small side, but they're easily legible and easy to use. Love the materials quality on this part of the cabin as well.
Yes, the S60 could just leave your pen to roam the glove box wild and free like some kind of vagrant, but that wouldn't be very classy, now would it?
Instead you get the very useful apparatus shown in the photo above, which subdues the pen in a vice-like grip that squashes any and all wayward thoughts.
It was nice to be able to open the glove box and know exactly where to find that frisky ballpoint. No need to grope about in shadowy places.
Look closely at this picture of our Volvo S60's dash. What's wrong with it?
Got it? Good. Jump.
The quick answer here is that, well, nothing is actually wrong, per se, but there's an anomaly here: I'm not wearing a seatbelt, the car is in D and there's not a single warning light or chime.
Now, I'll preface this by saying that I am an instinctive, habitual seatbelt user. Swapping parking spots in the garage? Seatbelt. Moving a car at the track? Seatbelt. Re-adjusting my parking space for a perfect parallel to the curb? You know there's a seatbelt involved. I don't understand the "I'm just going down the street!" crowd. Accidents don't have a safety radius.
But back to the point.
I set my backpack in the passenger seat of the Volvo and, upon entering drive, I was met with a really annoying chime and flashing red seatbelt warning. Just as I was about to shove the whole thing on the floor, the light went out and the noise stopped. Hooray! So when I got to my destination, an empty garage, I tried it with the driver seat. Same thing. Brief noise followed by nothing.
It really is an odd thing in a car that panics when the car in front of you is slowing down for a turn (they haven't figured out how to calculate for a turn yet, the computers just see the speed differential and freak out) or if you're driving behind a person close enough to not give up your spot in traffic to a municipal dumptruck. I'd have assumed that seatbelts would be MANDATORY in this car as they are in a number of other vehicles where the noise and flashing lights don't stop at all — EVER — unless the buckle is buckled.
After yesterday's tale of the Fiat 500 and its headroom-robbing sunroof comes a car perfectly suited for tall folks like me. The Volvo S60 ticks all the boxes for me. Tons of seat bottom tilt for added thigh support and extra room? Check. Huge amount of wheel telescoping allowing for comfortable arm bend? Check. Can I still reach the center stack controls? Check. Sunroof chewing into headroom? Nope.
Frankly, it shouldn't be surprising that the S60 and Volvos in general are ideal for tall people when they hail from a country filled with lanky dudes like this. Sure, everyone's not exactly an Alexander Skarsgård, but the average Swedish male is still a half inch shy of 6 feet tall. For comparison, both the United States and Italy are 5 foot 9 1/2; Germany is 5 foot 10; South Korea is 5 foot 8 1/2; Japan is 5 foot 7 1/2.
I don't think it's surprising, then, that I don't comfortably fit in the Nissan Leaf and other cars designed and sold in Japan (American models like the Accord and Altima are different). I'd say average heighted people are lucky, but then I can reach that can from the top shelf.
(crummy iPod picture)
I pulled into the parking garage this morning and found our 2012 Volvo S60 sporting this flat tire. It wasn't even 6 am yet. This is going to be a great day. The first thing I did was air it up to take the pressure off that poor sidewall. Now I'm off to the tire shop.
I already told you how my day with our 2012 Volvo S60 began. Here is a little back story. After spying the flat I walked up to my desk to find this Post-It note. These yellow marvels of infinite adhesion are popular around here - - especially when you screw up.
Yes, James, that curb you hit "might have had something to do with it." And it might also get expensive...
The curb left a hearty gash in the sidewall. It was a surprise that the tire held air long enough to drive it to the shop this morning. A little salt in the wound? Our S60 doesn't have a spare tire, just a can-o-fix-a-flat goo. No reason to waste the goo on a 2-mile drive back to the office. So now our Volvo is stranded at the tire shop until a $208 replacement arrives tomorrow afternoon.
Total Cost: None (yet)
Days out of Service: 1 (so far)
So I think this button is a really good idea, and I wish more cars had one.
As you've probably surmised, pressing it takes the S60's rear head restraints from this...
...to this.
Rear head restraints are an important safety feature for those traveling in back, but if you're a driver with empty rear seats, they can hamper outward visibility.
Of course, in many cases you can manually remove the restraints and stow them, but this automated solution is a lot more convenient.
It's probably safer as well, since if you remove restraints manually, there's always the chance that you could forget to replace them the next time you have a back-seat passenger. No danger of that happening with this setup, since the intrusive position of the folded restraints demands that they be properly raised for a rear passenger to sit comfortably.
So the area I take most of my pictures for this blog is a former train yard that's been turned into an arts colony or something. As such, it looks like a parking lot, but there are lots of weird elevation changes and as I discovered yesterday, oddly placed curbs. As I pulled into a shady spot to take this picture at a slow parking lot speed, I hear the dreaded thwump of a wheel and tire running over something it shouldn't have.
"Oh fudge," I don't say and get out of the car to see what the hell I just ran over. It's a 3/4 sized curb that rises at the end of another set of parking spots. Maybe I would've seen it with cars parked there, but I didn't, and as Mike reported yesterday, the tire paid the price. We should hopefully be picking up the S60 when the replacement rubber comes in later today.
So my bad, but hey, it could have been worse. I could have done that ^^^^ to a Volvo. Of course, the culprit of that calamity is now the deputy editor of Car & Driver, so perhaps crashing Volvos is a prelude to career advancement? No, probably not, but at least I'll keep telling myself that.
Our Volvo S60 T5 returned from Stokes Tires Pros on Friday with a new Continental Conti Pro Contact (235/40 R18). How much does one of those cost with installation and tax? Well, that would be $231.
Ouch, I'm sincerely very sorry. Commence holier than thou commenting.
I programmed the S60's next destination and settled into a day of mindless driving; lots of driving. Click through to see what sort of things I saw along the way and how accurate the onboard fuel economy calculator is. Also, there's a sneak peak at what awaited me 405 miles to the North.
As I approached our parking garage's wooden arm, the S60 nailed the brakes and threw up an array of flashing red lights on the windshield. Yes, thank you City Safety, but I wasn't even even close.
After getting out of town, I really settled into what amounted to most of my day: about 300 miles looks the same as this snap shot of mind-numbing arrow-straight Interstate 5. I found Sirius radio has a "Book" channel, but I didn't like the book. Back to News.
Luckily, there's an oasis about half way, The Harris Ranch restaurant — pricy, but better than fast food and cleaner too.
After lunch, a quick check on my progress... Yup, almost exactly half way.
and who else likes to stop at Harris Ranch? Time to hit the road!
Here are some more snap shots from along the way... cows, windmills, a road sign, and finally, my freeway exit:
Almost exactly 7 hours later, I found Kelly's Fuel in Yountville, CA and recorded the fill-up: 404.1 miles and 15.77 gallons of (premium) fuel calculates to 25.6 miles per gallon — not quite the 28.7 the car reported.
So what did I learn? The S60 T5 is a fine road trip companion. The seat is plenty comfy for at least 3-4 hours, the tank will take you at least twice that far (even if your bladder won't), and I really appreciated the adaptive cruise control when the left-lane dawdlers didn't move to the right when I came up behind them. It's nice to leave the cruise control on, follow at what Volvo has programmed as a safe distance, then resume the set "target" speed once the car (finally) moves aside. There's no need to hit "resume." I also noticed that even if somebody dove in front of the S60 (so long as that car was accelerating), the S60 didn't dynamite the brakes to open up the safe-distance following.
Okay, so here's your hint for the reason I would drive our long-term S60 T5 404 miles up I-5...
Our Volvo S60 T5 has what I call a "Tri-mode" transmission. This means that in addition to the more common "just pop it in 'D'" automatic and "shift for yourself" manual modes, it has a "Sport" automatic mode. The latter (engaged by sliding the lever over to the manual gate but not moving it thereafter) holds lower gears longer and downshifts more quickly, keeping the car up on its toes and ready to quickly accelerate without hesitation. This is great for quickly dispatching lane-weaving laggards on the freeway or when sprinting off corner exits while enjoying a familiar curvy road. When in Sport mode, the difference in the car's throttle response (and I'm also talking normal, not spirited driving here) is like night and day.
If I owned the S60 T5, I'd probably use the more fuel-efficient (and acceptable but less fun) "D" mode sometimes to ease my fuel usage conscious. But given that I only had the car for the weekend and well, the world's supposed to end next year anyway, I figured what the heck and enjoyed it. For the record I averaged 18.3 mpg against our long-term average of 19.2.
Eight-hundred sixty-two and seven-tenths miles later, I arrived home in our long-term 2012 Volvo S60 T5. At least one of you noticed the string of 2012 Volvo S60 R-Design cars on the track in my last post. That was the reason I drove our long-termer S60 T5 up to Napa and later Thunderhill Raceway Park. Click through to see more photos and pricing of the forthcoming S60 R-Design...
First, for the artsy crowd...
and for the less artsy... The 2012 Volvo S60 R-Design has revised front/rear bodywork, R-Design-specific interior, reprogrammed ECU giving orders to the 3.0L turbo-six (320hp and 354 lb-ft) that drives all four wheels, monotube dampers, and so on. Look for a First Drive coming soon.
Base price of for the 2012 S60 R-Design will be $43,375 (including D&D and 5-years/50,000-miles free scheduled maintenance and parts — like brake pads, etc.). The first batches are being shipped to dealers at this very moment and the S60 R-Design will be available in red, black, silver, or white.
I'll share some notes and snap shots of the drive home shortly.
I drove our long-term 2012 Volvo S60 T5 to Yountville and back (some 862 miles) for a First Drive of the forthcoming 2012 Volvo S60 R-Design I showed you here. For a few more snap-shots (that are meant to be saturated and artsy, thank you) plus the final fuel tally, click past the jump.
I left Yountville with a full tank of premium,
and the navigation system predicted a 7-hour 7-minute drive over 436 miles.
Things were going smoothly, beautifully, in fact
The navigation system is linked to traffic and asked me if I'd like to re-route, adding 1.2 miles to my route. It found a route through Pinole that paralleled I-80 and I avoided a whole slew of traffic. Nice!
I finally made my way over to 580 and later I-5 for the inevitably tedious slog that remained.
At around this time, I hooked up my iPhone4 and played around with both Bluetooth versus cord audio quality, and in this case, the cord offers far, far, better fidelity plus full on-screen control in the center console.
Then I landed in (pre) rush-hour traffic in Los Angeles. There went my 7-hour estimated drive-time. In the end, however, it only added 45 minutes.
I also managed to get the fuel light to go and in doing so, became the fuel-log entry with both the furthest distance and largest fill since we borrowed the car in late June. The reported average fuel economy, was again optimistic at 28.2 mpg, however, I actually earned 26.4 mpg. From start to finish, I covered 862.7 miles (with A/C on auto set to 70-72 degrees and with the cruise control set to between 72-78 mph). Fuel economy for the round trip came out to 26.0 mpg.
I will reiterate that the seats in the 2012 Volvo S60 T5 are superb for road trips, the adaptive (radar-based) cruise control is an absolute stress-reducer, and I'd recommend this car to anybody who is considering either a BMW 3 Series or a Mercedes-Benz C-Class because it A) rides much more smoothly than the BMW and B) offers altitude-resistant power from its turbocharged engine that the C-Class does not.
If it sounds like I'm nitpicking, well, I am. That's because I think our Volvo S60 is really quite good overall. There aren't any glaring faults, like a long throttle tip-in, or substandard interior materials, or difficult controls. Nope, everything pretty much suits me just fine...except...
That gap under the lip of the hood shown above. It shouldn't bother me, but it does. I'm seeing too much of the substructure for my tastes. I think it could have been covered up with some black plastic, or maybe the black paint on the windshield surround could have been carried an inch or so higher to obscure this view.
Then there are the digital readouts in the gauges.
The coarse resolution reminds me of an 8-bit video game from the 1980s. Given how tack-sharp the nav screen is, I think this could be an area for Volvo to look into.
That's it. Nothing too serious, and that's a good thing.
The 2012 Volvo S60 is supposed to be the Scandinavian answer to the generic German sport sedan. It's got the looks, for sure, but does it have the sauce?
Powered by a 2.5-liter I5, the S60 makes a solid 250 horsepower at 5,500 rpm. That would be 20 more than the last BMW 328i we tested (a 2010 MY) — the car it's most desperately chasing. Unfortunately, it's also got some 200 pounds on the Bimmer and is saddled with an automatic transmission instead of the BMW's slick six-speed manual.
So as soon as we track tested our new Volvo, we had to see how the numbers stacked up against the base BMW. Follow the jump for the full specs of each to see if, on the track, our Volvo S60 T5 is a true competitor in the sport-sedan market.
2012 Volvo S60 T5 BMW 328i Sedan
0-30 (sec): 2.7 2.3
0-45 (sec): 4.7 4.2
0-60 (sec): 7.2 6.4
0-60 with 1-ft Rollout (sec): 6.9 6.0
0-75 (sec): 10.5 9.5
1/4-mile (sec @ mph): 15.3 @ 92.5 14.7 @ 94.8
30-0 (ft): 32 30
60-0 (ft): 128 126
Skid pad lateral accel (g): 0.85 0.84
Slalom 63.6 65.0
Vehicle: 2012 Volvo S60 T5
Odometer: 1,540
Date: 6-28-2011
Driver: Chris Walton
Base Price: $31,150
Price as tested: $41,350
Specifications:
Drive Type: Front-wheel drive
Transmission Type: Six-speed automatic
Engine Type: Longitudinal, turbocharged inline-5
Redline (rpm): 6,600
Horsepower (hp @ rpm): 250 @ 5,500
Torque (lb-ft @ rpm): 266 @ 1,800-4,800
Brake Type (front): 11.8-inch vented discs with single-piston sliding calipers
Brake Type (rear): 11.9-inch discs with single-piston sliding calipers
Suspension Type (front): MacPherson strut, coil springs, hydraulic shock absorbers, stabilizer bar
Suspension Type (rear): Independent, multilink, coil spring, hydraulic shock absorber, stabilizer bar
Tire Size (front): 235/40R18 (95V)
Tire Size (rear): 235/40R18 (95V)
Tire Brand: Continental
Tire Model: ContiProContact
Tire Type: All-season
As tested Curb Weight (lb): 3,584
Test Results:
Acceleration
0-30 (sec): 2.7 (3.0 w/TC on)
0-45 (sec): 4.7 (5.0 w/TC on)
0-60 (sec): 7.2 (7.5 w/TC on)
0-60 with 1-ft Rollout (sec): 6.9 (7.1 w/TC on)
0-75 (sec): 10.5 (10.8 w/TC on)
1/4-Mile (sec @ mph): 15.3 @ 92.5 (15.5 @ 92.1)
Braking:
30-0 (ft): 32
60-0 (ft): 128
Handling
Slalom (mph): 63.6 — ESC Dynamic ( 62.5 w/TC on)
Skid Pad Lateral acceleration (g): 0.85 — Dymanic ( 0.78 w/TC on )
Db @ Idle: 44.1
Db @ Full Throttle: 72.3
Db @ 70 mph Cruise: 64.5
Acceleration: No matter whether Trac is on or off, because wheelspin is oddly elusive, There was a slight advantage to pedal overlap, but it won't allow it for more than a fraction of a second. Zero torque steer, smooth, droning acceleration with somewhat lazy upshifts — even in Sport. Also, does auto upshift in Manual gate and does not rev-match manual downshifts.
Braking: Pretty dramatic dive, but no rear-end wander. Quick-cycling ABS provides shudder-free and quiet stops. Minimal fade after first (best) stop. Medium-firm pedal from first to fourth stop.
Handling:
Skid pad: With ESC in Sport, it remains on but with a threshold that won't intrude on the skid pad — hence steady, easily managed understeer at a fairly high limit. With ESC on, it drops the throttle well below the limit of the tires' grip. Steering weight is adjustable. I used medium and thought it was the most friction-free, somewhat informative setting.
Slalom: First impression = wahoo, lots of body roll! Once I realized this I found it frustrating to want to lift for rotation, only to be checked with ESC — even in Sport (dynamic) mode. Either way, smoothness is key.
Vehicle: 2010 BMW 328i
Odometer: 996
Date: 5/25/2010
Driver: Chris Walton
Price: $35,575
Specifications:
Drive Type: Rear-wheel drive
Transmission Type: Six-speed manual
Engine Type: Inline-6
Displacement (cc/cu-in): 2,996/183
Redline (rpm): 7,000
Horsepower (hp @ rpm): 230 @ 6,500
Torque (lb-ft @ rpm): 200 @ 2,750
Brake Type (front): Ventilated disc
Brake Type (rear): Ventilated disc
Steering System: Speed-proportional power steering
Suspension Type (front): MacPherson strut
Suspension Type (rear): Multilink
Tire Size (front): 225/45R17
Tire Size (rear): 225/45R17
Tire Brand: Continental
Tire Model: ContiProContact SSR RSC
Tire Type: All-season
Wheel Size: 17-by-7 inches front and rear
Wheel Material (front/rear): Alloy
As Tested Curb Weight (lb): 3,314
Test Results:
0 - 30 (sec): 2.3
0 - 45 (sec): 4.2
0 - 60 (sec): 6.4
0 - 75 (sec): 9.5
1/4 Mile (sec @ mph): 14.7 @ 94.8
0 - 60 with 1-ft Rollout (sec): 6.0
30 - 0 (ft): 30
60 - 0 (ft): 126
Braking Rating: Average
Slalom (mph): 65.0
Skid Pad Lateral Acceleration (g): 0.84
Handling Rating: Good
Db @ Idle: 43.8
Db @ Full Throttle: 70.2
Db @ 70 mph Cruise: 64.5
Acceleration Comments: About a half second was gained with a wheel-spinning launch. The shifter is happy to be slammed and there is some sort of spark/retard or electronic shift smoothing that utterly eliminates shift shock at redline (or even below). Seems to make most of its power up high in the rev range.
Braking Comments: Consistently average distances with virtually zero fade or loss of pedal feel. Very little dive under hard braking.
Handling Comments: Slalom: With ESP off, this is a perfect teaching instrument for rear-wheel-drive dynamics — every driver input has an immediate, predictable and appropriate outcome. Not the fastest sedan ever through the cones, but one of the best in terms of feel and setup. Skid pad: Moderate understeer and good response to the throttle means the steering wheel doesn't move one bit all the way around the circle. While the ultimate figure is not world-class, everything about the way the steering felt during the test was exceptional.
There used to be a time when it was not uncommon to see a two Volvo house. Dad had the gold 960 and Mom drove around in the faded blue 240 wagon. Nowadays, the Dad has ditched the 960 for an A6, the Mom rocks a RAV4 and the blue wagon was driven into the ground by their college-aged son.
At least here in LA, the site of two new Volvos in one garage is unbelievably rare. I'm surprised I didn't rip open the space-time continuum and kill us all when I parked them side by side.
I meant to post this last week when I had the Volvo S60 T5, but it got away from me. Warren's post on the Fiat 500's key fob reminded me. Okay, so I understand lock, unlock, approach lights, trunk release, and panic, but what's "i" about? I R'd TFM, and learned a few things this fob does that I haven't seen others do.
If you want a curiously British-accented explanation, you may follow this link and click on the Personal Car Communicator Instructional video. For those of you who don't care for flash video, here's a page out of the Volvo's manual.
In a nutshell, pressing the "i" will let you know if the car is locked, unlocked, or if the alarm has sounded, and if it was within the last 5 minutes.There, I feel better now.
Buying a car isn't like buying a new dress shirt or a snazzy pair of socks, the color you pick (or settle for at a reduced cost because it's on the lot and you're anxious to buy) is something you have to live with for years. YEARS. You have to do it right.
Which is why I'm so happy with the Vibrant Copper Metallic paint on our Volvo S60. Life's too short for boring colors, especially if the car you're thinking about is available in any shade of orange. (The only real reason to not buy your car in orange is that something cooler is available, Like Green with Envy.) Colored cars (we're not counting silver, white or black as colors today. Nor is that mostly silver blueish color) stad out and say something about the driver.
Though there is one thing you have to remember about color apart from the potentially reduced resale: Strangers will think you're approachable and want to talk....
It happened all the time in our Viper. Stop to park and someone would inevitably come try to chat about this or that. It never happened in a non-orange Viper I spent a good deal of time with. Not once. Maybe people don't see cars when they're white or silver or some other appliance-grade hue people buy to "hide dirt," or maybe they see color and think something to the tune of, "Hey, that guy's got an orange car! My cat's orange! He'll want to talk."
At least, this is what I assume the thought process was for the woman I (figuratively) ran into just the other day.
Here's how it went: I'm going to a shoe store in one of LA's many, many strip malls when I'm forced to park a few doors away from my destination in front of a health food store. Even for a health food store, this place is off. They've got free samples of fruit spreads and jams, strange gels and creams lining the walkway in front of the store. I try to avoid it because the guy who works there always looks so excited as I'm approaching, and then so disappointed as I walk past without any plant-based liquid sweetener. (Not that I'm against stevia, it's better than the chemical alternatives, but that doesn't mean I want a dropper-full squirted in my mouth as I pass by like some sort of diabetic bird.)
So I park the Volvo and notice that there are no tables outside. No lotions to share or preservative-free food ripening in the sunlight. And then, as soon as I think I'm in the clear, BAM! The lady from the store — one I've never seen before — is outside and at my passenger door.
(The following is as close to verbatim as I can recall. This entire exhange took somewhere between 15 and 30 seconds.)
"WHAT IS THIS COLOR?"
"Orange? Metallic Orange?"
"Omigod. I need this. What kind of car is this?"
"It's a Volvo."
"And they come in orange?"
"I have to assume so, yes."
"And you didn't do this yourself?"
"Nope. Right off the boat this way."
"What boat? So I can buy this color car?"
"Yes. You ca..."
"Your plate matches the car!"
"Ok."
"It matches. They're both orange. I love this. Is it for sale?"
"The plate?
"Does it come with the car?"
"I don't think this car's for sale. Also, the plate is from New Jersey."
At this point her sugar syrup must've worn off because she was no longer dancing around the car, admiring the orange paint from every angle.
"New Jersey? Could I register my car there to get the plates?"
At this point I tell her that it's probably a good idea, but she should call the DMV first to clarify. (I figure the DMV deserves that for everything they've put me through in life.) She thanks me, tries to sell me something that woud "help someone like you" and then retreats to the door of her shop without turning away from the car.
When I came back she smiled, waved and yelled that she really liked the color.
Somehow, I just don't see this happening with a black Volvo.
I recently got all misty eyed over the wheel in our Mustang GT. It's nothing out of the ordinary, it's just plain good. I feel the same way about the wheel in the S60. Nothing too fancy, just a solid size and not too many buttons. Also note the contours in the wheel for your hands, another nice touch. Makes this feel a little bit more like a real sport sedan.
The S60's seats are among the most comfortable I've experienced, perfectly supportive even over longer stretches of travel.
As shown above, many of the seat controls are power-adjustable, located on the base of the seat by the door. Not so with the lumbar support, though...
...as shown below, you adjust that manually via a knob.
The lumbar support is pretty vigorous, which I like. My one gripe is with the placement of the knob — it's so close to the center arm rest that using it can be a bit of a squeeze.
Our long-term 2012 Volvo S60 T5 has a nice satellite radio display. It's similar to what you get when you surf the web on your computer. The graphics are super crisp, like a SVGA computer display. And the look of each screen and the transitions between screens resemble what you might find if you run a Flash web page. (Someone explain this to iPhone/iPad users.)
I can't think of any cars in our fleet that have a comparable web-like experience. The new XF and XJ Jaguars do have terrific web-like displays. Sadly, we don't have these vehicles in our fleet (are you reading this Jaguar Cars USA?)
I think young people would find this display very appealing. And the not so young too.
Hit the jump for the sensational demo vid.
Today I'll be embarking with my family (wife, 4-year-old girl and 4-month-old boy) on a road trip to visit my wife's parents for the holiday weekend. No doubt it'll be as stupendously awesome of an experience as a Jacquot/Monticello LF-A road trip followed by a three-day cruise to the Bahamas with a boat full of intoxicated college co-eds.
Actually, I'm curious to see how the Volvo does in terms of long-distance comfort and holding all of our stuff. And if there are specific attributes about it you'd like to know more about during the trip (like how well it attracts intoxicated college co-eds, for instance), mention it here and I'll pay more attention.
Last week I wrote how I'd be using our Volvo S60 for a family road trip over the holiday weekend. Volvo + family + road trip; it's a combination that can result in nothing other than awesome...right?
At first, my wife was excited about the S60. I think she had envisioned tweed jackets, an old boxy 850 wagon with New Hampshire plates and maybe even two golden retrievers jumping in and out of the back. But that was before I had packed the S60 to the brim, and there was still gear left over that we couldn't bring. In fact, the combination of a smallish entry-luxury sedan and our growing family (4-year-old daughter, 4-month-old son and all of the crap you need to bring along for a 4-month-old) was not a particularly good one.
(Contents: large suitcase, small suitcase, kid suitcase, tote bag and play pen (Pack N Play). I stuffed soft things in after the photo.)
Of course, we made it work. But we did move the front passenger seat up in order to make room for the rear-facing child safety seat, and that meant my wife wasn't particularly comfortable for the drive. This made her irritable, as did the S60's lack of telescoping sun visors. For the latter, I made a temporary fix by finding a rubber band, having her loop it around the visor, and giving her some sheets of paper to make a temporary extension. Classy.
The road-trip experience was certainly better for me. I do like the S60's front seats and found the driver seat comfortable for the five-hour drive each way. It's firm but supportive, though I will note that drivers with wide butts might not like it as much as the seat cushion bolsters are pronounced.
Commenter stoppre75 had asked about how the steering wheel felt. It has a nice shape to it, but over time I found it to be not all that comfortable. From a cross-section standpoint, it's more oval than circular, and there's a ridge on the facing side that I found distractingly pressed into my palms over time. It reminded me of the wheel in our departed Chevrolet Camaro in this regard, though not nearly as bad.
In terms of the highway mechanical experience, the S60 fared well. I like the turbocharged five-cylinder; it's got nice midrange power and sounds kind of cool in that odd, sort of grumbly five-cylinder sort of way. Refined? No. But I like it anyway and wouldn't have a problem picking it instead of the S60 T6. (My total combined fuel economy average after 600 miles of driving was 28 mpg.) As for ride quality, the S60 was comfortable, though it seemed to me that sharp impacts were more pronounced in the cabin than they would be in some other competitive sedans.
Overall, I enjoyed driving the S60. But it was pretty obvious that sedans like this might not work too well for family road trips. I've done it before when we just had one child, and that's been fine. (I made the same trip in our Camaro one time, in fact.) But two small children makes it much trickier. A Volvo XC60 would have been a more proper choice, and my wife would have been a lot happier, too. Or we could have just left the kids at home and driven the long-term Porsche 911. Now that would be the stupendously awesome road trip.
We've cleared 5,000 miles so far in the S60. So far, everything's been fine with no issues other than the flat tire. Our first scheduled service is set for 7,500 miles.
As part of Volvo's "Safe + Secure" plan, our 2012 S60 is covered with five years of free factory scheduled maintenance and five years of free wear-and-tear replacements. Although, having read the fine print, I realized the scheduled maintenance is only for the first six appointments only (up to 45,000 miles) and wear-and-tear is pretty much just brakes and wiper blades. Even so, the S60 should have a pretty inexpensive stay with us.
I like driving our Volvo S60. I like the interior design, the supportive seats and the power from turbocharged inline-5. Plus, it's not a 3 Series/A4/C-Class/IS which, in Southern California at least, is a nice bonus. It seems like even Starbucks baristas drive BMWs these days. Cars off the beaten path deserve a little extra love as long as they're competitive.
I was driving around yesterday and even had a friend of mine wave to me as he was driving the other way. I guess I was pretty easy to spot seeing as how a pumpkin orange 2012 Volvo S60 with Jersey plates is a rare bird out here.
On the family road trip I did last week, I ended up driving back to my house pretty late at night for the return leg. It had already been a long day, and, yeah, I was tired. My family was asleep in the car. So it was up to me to ensure a safe return. I had an energy drink with me if I needed it but I also figured there wouldn't be any harm in clicking on the S60's extra safety features: lane departure, collision warning/braking and a drowsiness monitor.
Lane departure has a dedicated button on the dash, but the others have to be activated through the car's on-screen menu structure. Of the three, lane departure was the only one to activate on my drive — one time I changed lanes without using the turn indicator and it didn't like that, and one time I drifted a bit too much in the lane, and I got a warning. Of course, had the collision warning or drowsiness monitor actually gone off, I would have probably been in worse shape.
Actually, I was half-expecting them to fire off. In prior experience, these systems can get more annoying than helpful as they freak out at the first sign of trouble and start beeping and flashing lights. But the S60 just drove normally. The collision warning system is configurable and can be set to Long, Normal and Short distance. I had it set to Normal. Lane Departure can also be adjusted for sensitivity.
Being configurable is key, I think, to making these systems more usable, as is the option to turn them off if you don't want them. All things considered, I was happy to have them along for the drive.
Every time I see the Volvo S60, I see a missed opportunity.
Surely former Volvo design director Steve Mattin meant well as the S60 was developed under his leadership, and I’m sure that he brought to bear all the great things he learned at Mercedes-Benz over the course of the 17 years he spent there as a designer.
But when I see the S60 nicely integrated into a single, smooth shape that is searching for a new styling vocabulary, it makes me think of yet another homogenized German sedan.
Far better to have continued with Peter Horbury’s classic shoulder line, first developed so long ago for the 1992 Volvo EEC safety car. Every time I see this device on the Volvo XC60, I’m reminded that it’s utterly unique and completely modern. It's very faint on the S60, clearly about to fade into invisibility in the near future
Probably there’s no reason for me to worry about the future of Volvo’s sedan styling, since Peter Horbury returned to Volvo in 2009, although it was too late to affect the look of the S60.
Meanwhile Steve Mattin just became design director at Avtovaz Lada. That’s in Russia, you know.
I keep going back to what legendary Volvo design Jan Wilsgaard once said about the popularity of the old square-rigged Volvo 240 sedan: "It might be due to the fact that the car is a little square and sluggish, just like the Swedes themselves."
The Volvo S60 doesn't need to look like just another German sedan.
I'm pretty sure I would like it if our Volvo S60 had been ordered with a different interior color than the standard black leather it came with. As it is, it's a little boring looking. Granted, maybe a color interior such as this would seem gaudy after a while. But I never tired of the two-tone interior that was in our departed XC60. I thought it brought about some added Swedish flair to the cabin. As for the S60, the screen-shot interior is the optional Beechwood/Off-Black. It's part of the Premium package. Our car already has that package, so it wouldn't have cost any more to get.
The more time I spend with the S60, the more I like it. Here's why...
First of all, I like the car's sheet metal — I think it's probably the best-looking pick in the segment. Assertive yet totally elegant.
I also like the car's cabin. Great materials quality and wonderful angular lines all throughout, as seen above, on the door.
And that center stack is just plain cool. So stylish — nothing like it in anything else in this segment.
The car's a pleasure to drive, as well, with all the smoothness, confidence and refinement you'd expect from a superior luxury car.
The A4 has long been my first choice in this segment I think the S60 might be looking at a promotion.
The picture pretty much says it all, but some details follow after the jump.
This was a random encounter. I had pulled into the parking lot for a local farmers' market and spotted the P1800. It seemed only natural to park next to it.
After getting my selected local produce and walking back to the S60, I noticed a couple guys talking next to the P1800. It turned out one of them was the owner. He had seen the S60 and was waiting for the owner (me) to show up.
We chatted a bit about his car. The details are a little fuzzy, but I believe he said his car was a 1971 P1800E. The paint isn't an original color and was part of a 1990s-era restoration. Other mods included the bigger wheels and tires and upgraded horsepower.
He said he had actually owned the car for just a few days. He bought it for $6,500. Apparently, that's pretty cheap as original-condition P1800s go for a lot more. The car will actually be a surprise gift for his sister who lives in Boulder, Colorado. I guess he's into old Volvos (he owns others, but I can't remember what he said he had) and she always wanted one. So if you live in Boulder, keep an eye out for this formerly Californian P1800E.
I asked him what he thought of our S60. He said it looked nice, though it was obvious that he wasn't all that up-to-date with (or all that interested in) Volvo's newest cars.
I mostly agree with Warren's post yesterday on how the S60 can grow on you the more you drive it. However, its electronic interface is actually the opposite — the more I use it the more I get annoyed by it. It used to be that iDrive, COMAND and MMI were maligned for their clunky designs, but all have gotten much better in the past couple years. At this point it's the S60's interface that's a step behind.
In general, it's just harder to get what you want in the S60. Either because of deep menu structures or the lack of true joystick capability (or both), I've found myself spending more time fiddling around trying to find or get what I want in terms of audio, navigation and car setup. There are also some specific things that just bug me, including a slow-acting iPod interface and a lack of radio preset functionality from the steering wheel controls (they only tune stations, and I can't seem to get that to change).
I'm not saying the S60's interface is terrible, because it's not. And compared to Volvos from a couple years ago, it's actually a lot better, particularly in terms of the navigation system. But there's still room for improvement.
Remember the old days when B-pillars used to T into a car's lower structure without so much as a gusset? Volvo doesn't. Heck, it makes this junction big enough on the S60 to use it advertising space for its SIPS Side Impact Protection System. There's even a fancy embossed logo there as if to say: "Hey, I'm really strong."
We don't doubt it.
This view offers a better perspective on the size of this pillar which contains the side-curtain airbag that's now the centerpiece of side-impact protection.
Although it has used different technologies as a means of side-impact protection, SIPS has been a part of Volvo nomenclature since 1991.
Take this journey on the way-back machine to revisist old-school SIPS:
Well, there it is — the place where spare tires used to reside. Also note at the top of the frame are the seatback release levers.
What do you suppose is under this cover?
An inflator/sealant kit. No real suprise. Some 2012 S60 owners, it seems, have had a bad experience with this solution. Also no real surprise.
I, too, prefer a real tire.
I'll be honest here: I had no idea what this button did at first glance. It seems so obvious now that I've pushed it. Clearly it's a...
...device for teaching a lippy mother-in-law a lesson about back-seat driving.
Last time she ever tells me where to park.
This photo is misleading. It looks like our long-term 2011 Volvo S60 T5 has a mechanical problem. A serious mechanical problem.
But it doesn't. In fact, our S60 has been dead reliable. It hasn't even used a drop of oil yet. I know. I've checked its old school dipstick myself, right before I took the aformentioned misleading image.
But solid reliability is only one of the Volvo's storylines. It's also fast becoming one of my favorite sedans. The more I drive it, the more I want to drive it.
Volvo got all the compromises right on this one. It's powerful, comfortable, well made and I like the way it rides. It isn't exactly naughty as they say on the TV commercials, but it is fun. I could even live with the color.
So I finally got a hold of our 2012 Volvo S60 T5's fuel log and updated its fuel numbers for September. Its best mpg went up from 26.4 in August to 28.1 in September. (In July its best was 21.9!) Its worst mpg stayed the same at 15.9. FYI, EPA rates the S60 at 20 mpg city and 30 mpg highway.
The Volvo achieved some of its best fuel numbers in September, up in the 20s rather than the high teens earlier in its term with us. This could be attributed to the fact that editor Brent Romans had it for most of last month and maybe, just maybe, isn't as much of a leadfoot as other editors on staff. At least, according to the numbers. When I asked Brent how he managed to get better mpg he replied, "Umm, probably just drove it conservatively. Staying out of turbo helps. Noticed that on GTI, too. And some of my fill ups are all highway from home to office."
By the way, looking at this picture I feel compelled to wish all of you a Happy October. Happy October!
When I think about which manufacturers have the best stock wheel designs, Volvo rarely comes to mind. The Germans are better than most in this regard, although even Audi and BMW have brought out some weak designs lately.
Maybe that's why the double spoke 18s on our S60 look good to me. They're a tasteful finish, an aggressive design and a reasonable size. Sure, eighteen-inch wheels aren't exactly small, but they fit the S60 well and still manage to deliver an acceptable ride quality. Not bad considering the car runs 40 series tires.
If it were my S60, I might have gone for the Ixion 18s instead though.
We've been voting for our annual Edmunds Recommended cars this week and one of the most divided votes was in the Sedans for Less Than $40,000 category. It's filled with entry-level luxury sedans that for the most part are difficult to argue against.
We ended up with a three-way tie for two spots, with the Volvo S60 getting a very boisterous amount of support. I'm not sure that would've happened without the extra time we've all got in the S60, a car that I think is safe to say has been a very pleasant surprise. The same could be said about the XC60, which was a top vote getter in its own Edmunds Recommended category.
So which of the following sedans would you pick?
Volvo S60, Infiniti G or Mercedes-Benz C-Class
When the weather gets crisp, you know what that means: It's time for seat heaters. Yay!
I know what you're thinking. "You use them all year long, Donna." And you'd be right. But for those of you who can't stand the thought of a toasty butt in summer, it's time now to start warming those buns.
Our Volvo S60 has three levels of seat heat, all of which, unfortunately, are too subtle for my tastes. On the highest setting they get only lukewarm. And I would prefer if they radiated further up my back. It's not the seat cushions that I enjoy hot as much as the back rest. They are so comforting early in the morning. And they also help you relax on the way home after a long day of desk jockeying.
OK, obligatory seat heater post ends here.
Stylish design is one thing. Stylish design that still manages to remain functional is much better. As you can see here, the S60's door panel looks like someone took some time to make it look like more than just your average armrest/window switch/handle. Nice, that's the way it should be on a car in this class.
Thankfully, they didn't go overboard though. The handle is still in the right place, the window switch is right where it should be and there's even a padded armrest. I've driven a few luxury cars lately that seemed to forget that you need to close the door once you open it with door handles moved too far forward to get any leverage. Weird window switches, rock hard armrests and tiny release latches are other common casualties when the designers get too cute. This is a good compromise between the two.
I have a vehicle message? What's this? Is it that Nigerian prince finally getting back to me about that check he promised was in the mail? Perhaps it's Bossman Oldham letting me know that Edmunds is going all motorcycles, all the time?
Nope, it's just the Volvo letting me know it's time for maintenance. Sigh.
But that's not the only message I received from our S60. It was a glorious Southern California morning. A bright blue sky overhead, birds chirping and I'm feeling pretty darned good. Then this song shuffled through via my iPhone.
Followed by this one.
This song was from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, when Ferris was set free from the shackles of school. He was deciding what to do on his glorious day. I'm pretty sure the Volvo was telling me to play hooky.
I thought back to when I was trapped in a truly awful job and a voice echoed in my head on the way to work. The voice said, "You don't want to go there, turn the car around."
So I did.
I went back home and called in to tell my boss, "I feel too good to come into work today. I'm calling in well."
He freaked. Really freaked. And this sealed it for me. I said, "And I quit. Life's too short to waste like this. Oh, and I'm taking my clients with me. Click"
And this all made me smile this morning, because I love my job and work with the best crew in the business. Plus, there were doughnuts waiting for me. I'll play hooky soon enough, and I'll do it with a really fun car.
I don't like this type of door handle. More than once — actually more than a few times — I've gotten my finger caught. It happens when I let go and the handle closes over on my finger.
I'm not generally a klutz so I blame the door handle, not user error.
I'm not sure. It seems pretty deep. I don't know how it happened or how long it's been there. I noticed it last night when I was opening the passenger door for someone. I tried to scratch it off with my fingernail but it didn't budge.
What do you think?
Last night was my first time driving our 2012 Volvo S60 T5, and I instantly liked it. It's hard for me to isolate any one thing that makes me feel that this is a car I'd buy. It's a combination of driveability, ergonomics and intuitive controls (although I'm a little worried by Brent's observation that the more you use the interface, the more annoying it is). Our review says the car has "cosseting" front seats, and that's no lie.
Overall, this seems like a car for a grown up: It doesn't need to shout or use gimmickry to win your admiration. Its understated elegance and performance do the job.
What are the cars that you love now, but would never have appealed to you when you were a driving newbie?
A lot of cars today have built-in delays in some way. Our Volvo has a few, but fortunately, it has nothing to do with steering or throttle tip-in.
I first noticed a delay between the time I hit the button to skip a track on the iPod. It took a good seven seconds or so for the current song to cut out and the next one to start; a little irritating, but certainly not the end of the world.
But when an idiot driver in the opposite direction turned left right in front of me, then hit their brakes halfway through the turn, I noticed another delay. I swerved out of the way, laid on the horn and had my finger out if its holster by the time the City Safe/collision alert lights and sirens went off. I looked in my mirrors and figured that this "talented" motorist decided part-way through the turn to make it a U-turn. But really, I would've expected the collision alert system to have activated when the other car was directly in front of the Volvo.
It just goes to show that you should never rely on these systems. An alert driver behind the wheel is still the best feature.
Some cars make it so difficult to adjust the clock to Daylight Saving. How many of you find yourselves driving around with the wrong time the rest of the year than bothering to figure out how to change it. Raise your hand. I'll have you know that with the 2012 Volvo S60 T5 that isn't an issue. I figured it out all by myself and without having to crack open the manual once.
First let me say that I actually like how the "OK," "Menu" and "Exit" are grouped together on one button. Editor Brent Romans blogged his dislike for the Volvo's interface but at least with regards to adjusting the time, it couldn't be more simple.
1) Under settings, find "System options."
2) Hit "OK" on "Time."
3) Scroll to hour, minute or AM/PM, hit "OK" and then scroll to the correct time.
4) Then scroll to "OK" and hit the "OK" button.
Easy peasy, no? Of course it would be even easier if car clocks just automatically adjusted to DST like my iPhone and computer but at least this wasn't too bad.
This past weekend I was invited to this food event in Culver City. Unlike my other blogger friends, I lucked out by being given a VIP parking pass. Hee! This afforded me parking right behind the tents instead of in the depths of the underground garage. Score! Little did I know that the food event was sponsored by Volvo. First hint of this was the fact that when I got back to my car to leave the event, our long-term 2012 Volvo S60 T5 was surrounded by other Volvos. And no, they didn't give me the VIP pass because I happened to be driving a Volvo but funny how that worked out.
Even surrounded by its kin, ours still stands out. Times like this I really appreciate that orange color. And our S60 is so snazzy and non-boring. Anyway, the more I drive our Volvo the more I like it. Not only for its plush interior with technological conveniences but its power. Passing power FTW!
This weekend I drove long distances, like to a tea room 30 miles away in Sierra Madre, and then just in and around town, like to this food event. None of that weekend traffic annoyed me as much. Seat heaters, Sirius' 1st Wave and lotsa power made it all better.
What's with the manual mode on the transmission of our longterm 2012 Volvo S60 T5? It doesn't shift quickly, and it makes no attempt whatsoever to match revs, that's what.
Don't fire up your Amiga to tell me that doesn't matter, that nobody uses manual mode. I do. It matters to me. Even in non-performance-oriented cars, manual modes are a boon. In slow and go driving, downshifting is preferable to braking. So there.
Anyway, I'm encouraged that Volvo took the step to include a manual mode in the S60 T5 autobox, but the execution could be better.
Rushing my daughter out the door this morning, I told her to go get in the funny colored Volvo parked to the left of our front door.
She stepped out on the porch and said, "I'm going to school in a rolling carrot stick?"
"Move," I said.
Half way to school her friend Corrina's mom pulled into the lane behind us.
"Wave to Corrina," I said.
"I did. She doesn't recognize me in this block of cheese," she replied.
Perhaps tomorrow someone should take the bus.
I tend to forget that Volvo has positioned the latest S60 as more of a sport sedan than ever before. Instead, I keep thinking it's just a midsize luxury sedan that's surprisingly fast.
With that in mind, I hustled our S60 around a little faster than normal when I could this weekend to see if it really was an legit alternative to a base A4 or 3 Series. Turns out, it's pretty damn close.
As smooth as the ride is during normal driving, the S60 doesn't just flop over when you toss it into a turn. There's plenty of grip, the steering is reasonably precise and it doesn't constantly want to push its way off the road. So in other words, it can hold its own when asked. Ultimately I would probably rather have something with rear wheel drive for myself, but I couldn't blame anyone for compromising a little steering feel to get the S60's level of performance and comfort.
So this morning I'm reading the Volvo's owner's manual — 351 pages of riveting enlightenment (and you thought I never touched the things) — and I come across this little gem.
Can you guess what these are for?
That's right, this sedan has a fold-flat (or nearly so) passenger seat for hauling long, wide or flat cargo. The manual details how to achieve this automotive yoga move:
And the real reason I was digging through the manual? Well, I was looking for a seat-related answer. There are six pages dedicated to the seats in the S60's manual. None of them answered my question. I still don't have an answer. So on Monday it's your chance to show your knowledge.
Tune in then for the question.
This is the shifter arrangement on our S60 as viewed from the driver's seat. Not a big deal, but...
Wouldn't it make more sense if it looked like this:
I prefer the manual gate be a little closer to home.
Just a thought.
Otherwise, and despite its placement, this car has a terrific Sport mode. Slap the lever over into the manual gate, and without moving it fore or aft, the throttle response quickens and gears hold longer. The whole driving experience becomes more engaging.
Nice.
See that little nubbin on the side of the Volvo's passenger seat headrest? I have no idea what it does. I explorered every page dedicated to seats in the S60's owner's manual and found nothing. I pulled and pushed on it. Nothing. I tried to hang things on it. Nothing.
It's the only one of its kind anywhere in the car.
I'm at a loss. Are you?
The Volvo wanted service, so the Volvo got served. We'd extended the S60's 7,500-mile check-up by about 800 miles, and you never know about these Scandinavian types. One minute you're clashing pitchers of lager and singing sea shanties, the next you're bare-knuckle brawling in a snow drift. Best not to push it. Volvo of Santa Monica changed the oil, and checked our tires and brake pads at no charge.
Just shy of six months in our fleet, the S60 has driven about 8,300 miles, so we're a little off the pace of our usual target. I propose that those of us with longer commutes — more specifically, me — spend more time in this car. I could be pretty content driving the S60 everyday, I think. It doesn't pin the needle in any one category (although there aren't many better interiors), but instead feels totally balanced and refined.
Meanwhile, do gardens exist in New Jersey? I mean places where life grows and flourishes? Sorry, I know...cheap shot before the holiday break at one of the easiest targets in the union. All readers from Franklin Lakes to Cumberland county....bring it. Both barrels!
This weekend I threw my two kids in our long-term 2012 Volvo S60 T5 and headed east to north Phoenix to look at and test drive a 1969 Camaro that my father and I have been thinking about purchasing with money we don't have. We don't have any free time or garage space for it either, but we want it and right now that's all that matters.
We drove out to Phoenix on Friday and back to Los Angeles on Saturday.
And the Volvo made it a very enjoyable run. It was comfortable, powerful and it can cover 500 miles on a tank if you milk it. This is an excellent sedan. Everytime I drive it I think the S60 should be getting more respect in the marketplace than it is.
For the record the drive was 457 miles each way. I averaged 26.5 mpg heading east and 26.7 mpg westbound. The EPA estimates its highway mileage at 30 mpg.
This is an anchor point attached to a non-movable portion of the seat rail on the rear of the S60's driver's seat. There are two per seat. I'm unsure what they're intended for. The owner's manual doesn't seem to acknowledge their existence.
I say they're rear-facing child seat anchors. What do you think?
Volvo conducted a series of sociological experiments at nightclubs in five European countries to see which city in these countries would be crowned "The Most Naughty."
What does the Volvo S60 have to do with it? Volvo says it "inspired" the experiment.
These nightclub experiments, conducted by a cultural anthropologist, are part of an ad campaign for The Naughty Volvo, which started with the world release of the S60 last year. Perhaps this ad campaign is not part of the U.S strategy, as I've never seen or heard anything about this.
Volvo says that for The Naughty Volvo, "the aim is for driving pleasure, world-class design, and innovative safety to attract more customers to the Volvo brand."
Volvo Cars is putting most of this ad campaign online, and with it trying to reframe a "more playful dimension" of its vehicles — dimensions such as driving pleasure and daring design.
It's a hip new face of Volvo that we haven't seen before.
What do you think?
I like it, and I think it can re-frame Volvo's image.
Wow. I filled the fuel tank on our long-term 2012 Volvo S60 T5 over the long holiday weekend and got this message: 715 miles to empty tank.
That's incredible, I thought. In my recollection, that's the longest displayed fuel range I've ever seen in a vehicle, although I suppose some diesel-powered vehicles could achieve this.
A bit optimistic perhaps? Of course.
Almost immediately (after driviing 1 mile) the range dropped to 660 miles. After 25 city miles, it dropped to 370 miles.
Let's try to determine a more realistic fuel range for our Volvo S60...
Our Volvo has EPA fuel economy estimates of 20 mpg City, 30 highway, and 23 mpg combined. The best fuel economy we've achieved was 28.1 mpg.
With an 18.5 gallon fuel tank, and allowing for a 2 gallon reserve, at 28.1 mpg you would end up with a range of 463.7 miles. Which is a great realistic range. The best range ever for the S60 in our hands was 458.6 miles.
OK, so let's try the best possible parameters and recalculate. Based on the EPA 30 mpg Highway and running the 18.5 gallon tank dry, you would end up with a 555 mile range.
That's still way off from the stupendous 715 mile displayed range.
I guess the takeaway from this is that people are bound to be disappointed if you create such great expectations.
I still haven't decided if I like driving our long-term Volvo S60 T5 (largely because it only comes with an automatic), but I sure haven't gotten tired of looking at it. Every time I'm with this car, I find some new detail that I like and today it's the parking and approach lights.
Our T5 does not have the optional adaptive bi-xenon headlights (<sad clown></sad clown>), yet it still has sweet looking auxiliary lights that make it fun to be around this car at night. This stuff wouldn't be worth much if there wasn't any substance behind them, but on a car like the S60, which is agreeable in most respects, it endears the car to me more.
I drove our long-term 2012 Volvo S60 T5 last weekend and then took off for the Detroit Auto Show and didn't bother to blog on it. Well, here's my attempt to make up for that.
I've been lukewarm on this car in spite of its interesting shape and bronzy cantelope paint, but my expectations were out of sync with reality: At least in T5 form, the S60 is one of those cars that's more about the total experience than any one (exciting) aspect.
Photo by Scott Jacobs
Even with 250 horsepower and 266 pound-feet of torque, the turbo inline-5 feels lazy and sounds like a diesel (but doesn't deliver diesel-like mpg). There's a noticeable delay when you punch the throttle off the line or when cruising in traffic, and it feels like it's a combination of turbo lag and the six-speed automatic transmission's software. Would a manual transmission (not available in the U.S.) make it better? I can't stop imagining that it would.
But, but, I said I'd started liking the car more, didn't I? And, well, there is plenty of torque to work with once the turbocharger is making full boost, and while the S60 T5 is far from the quickest car in its class, acceleration is respectable, as our track test attests, and typical passing and merging maneuvers are easy.
Also, the S60 T5's ride quality is spot-on for Southern California freeways. It's compliant enough to be comfortable over broken pavement, yet it's still very controlled. I like the steering, too. The effort level is always appropriate, and there's good feel on-center and when turning into cloverleaf freeway interchanges.
Finally, the seats in this car are excellent, and I'm not just parroting some old Volvo cliche. Nope, they're well-shaped and supportive, and I've never once felt discomfort while sitting in this car.
Add all this together, and I think you (and I) have to say that this is a pleasurable commuter car... even if it isn't exactly the car I want it to be. Any cars that you've driven or owned that took you a while to warm up to — that were ultimately more than the sum of their parts?
Who is the Snake Doctor and why does the S60 keep searching for him?
Seems our staff cobra tamer A. Austria has duly charmed the S60. After I bumped the Doctor from the paired phones list (can't bump a mobile handle that pays homage to a pretty good Van Hagar album, after all), the S60 refused to find my phone. And I mean flat out refused.
Even after trying all combinations of shutting off the ignition, exiting the car, locking/unlocking, and even cycling my phone off and on a couple of times, the S60 would not find my phone.
Instead, it first searched for Snake Doctor — last charmer in the driver's seat, apparently — then looked for previously connected devices, then urged me to ensure that my phone was discoverable. I've paired my phone — a 3G iPhone that runs on kerosene — with the S60 before, no problem. Not this time. Thus ensued a quick spiral into a Bluetooth rabbit hole: checking the manual, deleting other phones, pairing the phone with another car to rule out a hardware issue.
This continued for 30 minutes. The first 15 minutes, I felt it was something of a job responsibility to try and get to the bottom of the issue. The next 15 minutes were pure mindless, irrational focus on a trivial matter. And when no apparent answer presented itself, I drove the S60 home in a funk, disliking it intensely. Lumbar's too aggressive. Engine's too loud. Too many stupid esoteric controls and switches. A dumb, lumpy 3-Series pretender.
All was forgotten after a good night's sleep. Next morning, the neighbor said how much she liked the color. The engine fired up with its distant shake and clatter that always makes me think it’s a diesel. It's a sound that indicates the engine is ready to do some work for you. In the end, I never did figure out the issue. The phone would still not pair the next morning. And it was still looking for that hack physician.
"What was that?" Riswick says as this raspy metal-on-metal grinding noise starts up right when I tip into the throttle.
We're carpooling and inching along in the usual nightmarish traffic on the 10 freeway (caused by the even more nightmarish traffic on the 405) and then all of a sudden the noise happens. It sounds like the noise they use to let the audience know that a movie serial killer is about to strike. It sounds like knives sharpening. James didn't notice that between the first few starts and this one I'd turned on the AC.
The noise happens for just under a second right as you transition from idle to on-throttle. Smash the go pedal and there's no such noise. Ease into it to avoid hitting the car in front of you and there it is again. It's a noise I've heard on some newer AC systems, ones with fancy clutches to try and be as un-parasitic as possible, but this one happens slightly more often and slightly louder. It's noticeable with talk radio on, but inaudible with music.
I don't think it's broken, just annoying in a car with so few actual faults.
If you need more power than this in a Volvo, there's something wrong with you. The S60's T5 engine has a wonderful low-end punch and gets up to speed just quick enough that it makes you ponder, "Why would someone need more than this?"
From zero to 60 mph, the difference between T5 and T6 is certainly not insignificant — 7.3 seconds versus 5.9. The T6 R-Design would be quicker still. And true, if you want all-wheel-drive, then you'll have to step up to the quicker T6.
While there's nothing wrong with wanting more power than T5 provides, I just don't get why you'd need it in this car. If you want guts, buy something sportier like the 335i, C350 Sport or G37. Having a 300- or 325-horsepower Volvo S60 just seems sort of pointless. That's not slagging the S60 in any way (it's a wonderful car), but most people don't need that much power. I'm just saying that "most people" should feel good about their choice to stick with the T5.
I agree with Riswick's comments regarding the Volvo from a few days ago: No one really needs more power or acceleration than what's provided by the S60 T5's turbocharged five-cylinder. The 250 hp and 266 lb.-ft. of torque get this car on down the road just fine. With verve even, at times.
Yet despite this engine's good throttle response, minimal turbo lag and general workhorse nature, I just don't like it that much.
The problem is that it sounds and feels overly coarse to me, nowhere near as smooth as Volvo's excellent turbocharged inline-six. I mean, you can actually feel the coarseness through the accelerator pedal of the T5. It's not horrible, but it's there.
And because of that, I sometimes find myself thinking, "I kinda wish this was the six." Not because of the T6's extra 50 horsepower, but because it simply feels like a more polished, sophisticated piece.
For some, this bit of coarseness won't matter at all. And good for you. But for me, even as nice as the S60 T5 is as an overall car, I'm pretty sure I would try to opt up for the T6 to get the smoother engine sound and feel that I crave.
Our 2012 Volvo S60 T5 has decent trunk capacity at 13.9 cubic feet. Using the handy Edmunds comparator, we can see that is competitive with the BMW 3-series at 12.0 cu. ft. and the Acura TSX at 14.0 cu. ft.
However, there's a bit of intrusion from the hinge covers. When I loaded suitcases into this vehicle I should have been able to get another small roll-on bag in the there, but I couldn't because of that hinge cover.
The upside for this type of system is that it's simpler, cheaper, and less likely to break than some multi-link systems. And it won't squash you gear like some hinges that protrude into the trunk.
Most of you have your trunk hinge preferences, it seems, from previous posts like this.
Let's hear the rationale.
(More pics on the jump.)
I like the quality feel of the Volvo S60 T5's controls. There's a fluidity of operation about them which makes you appreciate Volvo's attention to detail.
The turn signal stalk's detents are near-perfect, meaning the pressure needed to push/pull the stalk part way to just signal a few times without accidentally locking it into a constant signal is completely natural. And it has such a nice, smooth and damped action.
Same goes for the dual-zone climate control temperature knobs, which are large and feature spot-on detents, making it easy to move just one click at a time. The stereo volume and tuning control knobs are pretty good, too, although the detents could use a smidge more resistance.
Even the power window controls on the door have a nice texture to them, and don't feel hard and cheap.
I used to own a 2002 Volvo S60. I didn't choose it, I got it by marriage, and besides the fact that it was the base 168-horsepower 2.4-liter inline-5 (ugh, compared to the available turbos), I really disliked the car for one specific reason: seat comfort.
And I mean seats all around. The rear seats had zero legroom, but that was primarily my daughter's problem.
The front seats were roomier, but I never had any luck maneuvering them into a comfortable position. Not the driver's seat with its power controls, or the nightmarish passenger side's manual controls.
That S60 hung around my house for seven long years, and we never got over our differences.
Which probably makes me appreciate the driving comfort of our long-term 2012 S60 even more.
Following its 2011 redesign, the Volvo S60 was never rated by NHTSA regarding safety. Well, NHTSA has finally gotten around to putting the current-gen S60 through its battery of crash tests. Did the S60 turn in a performance that validates Volvo's longstanding reputation for safety? Answer after the jump.
The S60 earned a perfect five-star rating in frontal, rollover, side pole and side barrier crashes, resulting in an overall safety rating of five stars. Not too bad, and keep in mind that NHTSA overhauled its testing system last year in ways that make it more difficult for models to score five-star ratings.
Volvo's S60 is only the eighth 2012 model to get NHTSA's five-star seal of approval. Other vehicles that have managed this achievement include the Volkswagen Passat, Toyota Camry, Saab 9-4X, Chevrolet Sonic, Chevrolet Camaro, Cadillac SRX and the Cadillac CTS.
I spotted this red S60 on the road a couple days ago. Have you seen a lot of new-generation S60s where you live? I honestly haven't seen very many. And with Jersey plates in Southern California, this one was no doubt a manufacturer-sourced car just like ours. It still looked good going down the road, though.
Crash, Boom, Bang!
As my colleague Warren Clarke pointed out a few days ago, the Volvo S60 aced NHTSA's battery of crash tests. Impressive stuff, no doubt, but my juvenile brain wants to see carnage. Click through to see various S60's get mangled in the name of safety (and, for me, fascination).
This first one shows various angles of the same frontal crash test. I was most intrigued by the underbody shot at the end that shows how the energy is channeled throughout the chassis.
Now, we have the side pole impact test. Man, I wish these videos had sound.
And here's the side impact test. It makes my hips hurt just watching this.
Bonus round: here's the IIHS test with sound.
Drive safe, everybody.
Going back and looking at our semi-recent posts on the S60, I've noticed how a few editors have noted that the car has grown on them. Basically, the more they drive it, the more they like it.
You can count me in that group, too. I can't really give you a definitive reason as to why we've reacted this way. Maybe it's because Volvo's been lacking a competitive entry-luxury sedan for so long that we've just been pleasantly surprised. Or maybe it's because the S60's character is very well suited for daily driving/commuting, which is what we mostly do with our long-term cars. Maybe it's both. But I will say the S60 is one of my top five favorite cars in the fleet right now.
James Riswick says to get the S60 T5, the model (like ours) with the turbocharged 2.5-liter inline-5 good for 250 hp. Mike Monticello, on the other hand, would prefer the T6 with its 300-hp, turbo inline-6. It's not an easy decision.
I relate to both statements. James is right; the T5 should be great for most people. But Mike's got a point about it being a bit unrefined. Plus, who wouldn't want 325 hp and 354 lb-ft from the R-Design (or T6 Polestar upgrade)?
One other aspect to consider: the T6 comes with all-wheel drive. There have been a few times recently when I've been accelerating out of a corner in our S60, and its front-drive layout is all too obvious and cheapens the overall experience of the car.
The T6 would solve that. Then again, if I really want a sport sedan, am I going to buy an S60? At that point a BMW 3 Series or Infiniti G would make more sense.
Our S60 T5 charms because it's sporty enough, but also comfortable. Sigh. It's tough. But put me down for the T5.
I was looking at our S60 T5's introduction recently and was reminded on how our car stickered at $41,350. It kind of seems like a lot of money, but our long-termer is loaded up with just about every option Volvo offers for the T5.
Buying a new, $40,000 entry-level luxury sedan doesn't really fit my budget or lifestyle right now. But it did occur to me that if you had 40 grand to spend, there's a pretty eclectic group of cool 2012 vehicles waiting for you. The usual suspects are here, of course — the Audi A4, the BMW 328i, the Infiniti G. Then again, you could get a Ford Flex Titanium or a Ford Mustang Boss 302. Or maybe you'd want a Chrysler 300C, a Hyundai Genesis V6 or a Silverado 2500HD with the turbodiesel engine. Or you could go slightly used, opening up all sorts of other possibilities.
All you need is, well, $40,000. But given our S60's equipment, $40,000 seems like a competitive price.
Last night, there was cold weather and a fair amount of rain, and the S60 didn't seem too crazy about it.
The cold start as I left from the parking structure here at work was rough. Made a pit stop at Whole Foods to get some groceries and the cold start after that detour was rough as well. I pressed the ignition button and the engine coughed and hacked for a moment or two, like a chain smoker with bronchitis, before finding its groove.
I started the car when I got home last night, while the engine was still warm, and there was no sign of the problem. The engine also turned over just fine in this morning's weather, which was much toastier than last night's.
Someone gently suggested that user error may be the culprit, as has been the case with push-button-ignition cars like our S60 in the past. Maybe I didn't hold down the ignition button long enough to achieve a smooth start. It's possible, but I've driven our Volvo many times before. I'm familiar with its ignition and I've never had a problem with it.
Anyway, we'll keep an eye out to see if happens again.
Any S60 owners out there? Have you had any problems starting the car in colder weather?
OK, our S60 doesn't need xenon headlights. The standard halogens are fine from a lighting standpoint. But having xenons would help support the premium feel of the rest of the car. It just doesn't quite seem like a luxury sedan with that yellowish halogen illumination. (FYI: The illumination in the photo looks a lot better than it does in person.)
Getting (adaptive) xenons for the T5 is surprisingly affordable — MSRP is $800. After the jump I've listed some other entry-luxury sedans and how much it'll cost you got get xenons on them.
Acura TSX: Standard
Audi A4: $1,100 (Style package)
BMW 328i (2011): $900 (individual option)
Cadillac CTS: $2,065 (Touring package)
Infiniti G25 Sedan: Standard
Lexus IS250: $3,340 (Navigation with additional options)
Lincoln MKZ: $5,695 (Ultimate package)
Mercedes-Benz C250: $1,290 (Lighting package)
Not only does the S60 have concealed trunk hinges, it also offers these handy release levers for the rear seatbacks. Not sure why more cars don't have these, but they make loading something larger into the trunk much easier.
Climbing into the rear seat and releasing the seat backs from the inside isn't any great chore, but having exterior releases isn't exactly a massive feat of engineering either. I also noticed that the trunk is pretty large for a car in this class, or at least it looks that way since there aren't any significant intrusions. Overall, it's a well thought out setup that gives this sedan an added measure of practicality.
I'm a 'clean windshield' guy — I use the sprayers nearly every time I get in a different car. And though you can't tell from this photo, our longterm 2012 Volvo S60 T5 has some seriously powerful windshield and headlight washers.
These sprayers manhandle the intended targets, sure, but they also take care of the side windows and the backlight in a way I don't recall seeing on another car recently. And I don't mean a little mist or a few droplets on these secondary surfaces — in this Volvo, the sides and rear get drizzled with surprisingly even coverage.
Part of this is because the S60's backlight is very steeply raked, but it takes pump pressure too. One downside is that there's no rear wiper so the droplets tend to stick around, mingle with any grit or grime and form spots. Ah well.
Parking our longterm 2012 Volvo S60 in Edmunds Intergalactic Headquarters parking garage yesterday, I noticed a distinct groany noise that was vaguely reminiscent of the power steering in my first car.
That car, an '82 Olds Cutlass Supreme, had a perpetual power steering leak (among others) that at the time I was too poor to fix. Even finding gas money was like an easter egg hunt at each fuel stop. I'd search for loose change under the seats, carpet, in the trunk, jammed in the dash, etc. Back to the leak. Over time the power steering pump would develop a groan when you turned the wheel. That was how I gauged the fluid level, actually.
Anyway, memories. Our Volvo elicts them. I switched its a/c off and on to try to pinpoint the noise it made, and, sure enough, doing so made the groan come and go. It's not really the worrying kind of noise, but it is peculiar given how quiet modern cars usually are.
I hadn't taken our Volvo in several weeks and did a quick survey of its safety features as I drove home yesterday afternoon. The distance alert and lane departure warning features have their own buttons, which I turned on just for fun. The distance alert was set a little too generously for me, but I was too lazy to adjust it on the fly, so I turned it off. I'm not much of a lane-drifter, so that went, too.
One feature that I have carped about in other cars but which can actually be useful sometimes is a blind spot warning system. It's in our long-term Mazda 3, Ford Explorer and Nissan Quest (and maybe some other test cars that I'm overlooking). I looked for it in the Volvo, but ours doesn't have the feature. I think that's odd: Blind spotting seems like it should be standard in a Volvo — particularly one that's so laden with other safety goodies.
It turns out that "preventive safety" features are bundled into what's called the Technology Package (MSRP: $2,100). (Maybe you have to call it a Technology Package to justify the price. If you called it the Safety Package, perhaps buyers would wonder why the stuff wasn't standard.)
The package includes collision warning and pedestrian detection with full auto brake; adaptive cruise control with "queue assist;" distance alert; driver alert control and lane departure warning.
The blind spot system isn't part of that offering. On its Web site, Volvo doesn't even list it as a safety feature. It's merely an a la carte "Driver Support" feature. MSRP is $700.
It seems to me that a blind-spot warning is unequivocally a safety feature. Why isn't it wrapped in with the other preventive safety systems in the Technology Package? Would it have pushed the cost of safety too close to the $3,000 threshold?
It's 6:12 and one of my coworkers (who lives in my neighborhood and isn't James Riswick) calls to ask if I'm near the office. "I am," I say, "just about a mile from it on an errand and then right home. Probably 10 min until I hit the office and then home." They ask if I can stop to pick something up they'd left in the office. "Sure! NP. Home by 7." It was rush hour, sure, but it's only about 9 miles, that seemed reasonable.
At 6:32 I called them back. "I'm going to have to revise my time estimate. I've gone about 900 feet since we last talked."
Things only got worse from there...
Before I moved to LA I never thought that I'd advocate for more automatics. But five years of dealing with sub 5mph commutes and a knee surgery have me praising the new generation of fast, fully-controllable automatics.
Senior Editor Erin Riches brings you a video review of the Volvo S60 model range. The action footage features our S60 T5 long-termer.
See the video after the jump...
Of all the things to incorporate high technology, you would think that the side mirrors would be the last place you would find anything of note. Sure, every concept car of the twenty years has been rolled out with tiny mirrors in place of the real mirrors, but there hasn't been much in the way of advancements on real cars.
As you can see here, our S60 actually has a pretty expensive set of mirrors. In addition to the neatly integrated turn signals, a feature I find quite effective, these mirrors also incorporate sensors for the lane departure warning system. Should someone misjudge their distance from our S60 and clip one of the mirrors off, it won't be a matter of just snapping it back into place.
Like so many other aspects of modern cars, now even the simplest of features is a complicated piece.
Volvo is recalling nearly 3,000 S60s and XC60s because of a potential fuel leak.
"An incorrect mixture of underbody coating and over-application can result in rigid, icicle-like areas hanging from the vehicle's undercarriage," said NHTSA in its recalls summary of the problem. "If this condition exists, the underbody coating may penetrate the fuel lines and cause fuel leakage, increasing the risk of a crash."
Third recall for the new S60, I think? I'm losing track.
Glancing down at this control cluster in the S60 reminded me of all the stuff cars don't really need these days. The headlight switch is one of them. Whenever I get in a car with automatic headlights, I set the switch to "A" and leave it there for the rest of my time behind the wheel. Sure, there are times here and there when I need to turn the lights on in the middle of the day, but how often is that? Once a month? Once a year?
And that leads me to the utterly ridiculous gas door button. Yeah, yeah, it's for security, but given that I've never met a single person who has ever had gasoline siphoned out of their car, I'm okay with having an unlocked gas door. Or have it so the gas door is locked when the doors are locked, simple.
Several staff members here have discussed the merits of the Volvo S60 T6 over our long-term 2012 Volvo S60 T5. My preference, not surprisingly, is the S60 R-Design.
Like the T6, it has the inline turbo 6 and AWD, but the R-Design is rated at 325 hp vs. 300 for the T6. This kills the T5 with its 250 hp and FWD. Of course, the R-Design's base price is just more than 10K over the $31,300 base price of our T5. But the R includes a few standard features including Xenon headlamps. Regardless, you did buy your Mega Millions tickets, right?
The real reason I prefer the R-Design is for the styling, of course. While our long-term T5 is nice, the styling is pretty plain. The S60 R-Design is great looking, sexy even. You can't say that about too many Volvos.
Hit the jump to see the video of the S60 and V60 R-Design in action.
Overall, the S60's total package doesn't feel quite as reactive as a 3 Series. The Volvo's five-cylinder sounds just slightly coarse and it doesn't change direction as fast as the class benchmark. But the S60 probably also doesn't get its due credit for being a real driver's car.
The steering wheel's scalloped, nearly-flat sides, for example, infuse the S60 with a measure of sport that complements that rest of its driver-centric controls and comforts. It's a small detail and, one could argue, slightly poseur-ish. But it's a small detail enhanced by the fun that the S60 can unleash when you roll on its throttle with some conviction.
Many buyers in this segment would probably opt for the 3 Series out of familiarity, perceived status, or genuine appreciation for the badge, the S60 presents a nice alternative: a small sacrifice in overall dynamic ability for traditional Volvo goodness like innovative standard safety features, quality cabin and the fact that you won't find yourself lined up against four identical models in the evening rush hour.
Our longterm 2012 Volvo S60 T5 recently flashed up this maintenance alert, complete with a full- scale model of a 2mm open-end wrench. It pops up each time you start and stop the engine and goes away after a few seconds, presumably since the car figures you're soon to be preoccupied with other things. Like
building a model airplane
driving.
The alert is hard to miss, especially as it is accompanied by the orange "i" you see in the middle of the cluster.
So, yeah, we'll be doing something about that.
It's a good thing I know my town pretty well, else if I relied on our 2012 Volvo S60 T5's nav to get around, I'd be in trouble. I mean, check out that map. No street names, at least not on every street or even every other street when I want to look three streets ahead. What's the name of that street I'm approaching? Its thickness implies it's a major street so shouldn't its name at least be displayed?
When I rooted around the nav system's menu to see if there was perhaps an option I can switch on for street names, I only found this.
That I can tick off a box to show the name of the current road I'm on. The navigation guide didn't clear things up either. Seems that this nav system is notoriously vague, at least according to online forums and other reviews. Unless there's something that I'm (we're) missing. Any S60 owners care to clear this up?
Otherwise what's the point of having a map without street names?
We've had our longterm 2012 Volvo S60 T5 for about ten months and it recently crested the 15,000-mile mark. [cue the streamers, balloons and overly frosted cake]
In the meantime we've shared, well, a lot of impressions and observations... but it's entirely possible there's something we missed. If so, speak up! We want to know what you want to know.
The buttons in our longterm 2012 Volvo S60 T5 for lane departure warning and collision alert are always in the state you see above: off. I don't think this is a coincidence. To me — and other editors too, apparently — the overly conservative tuning of these "aids" is more of a nuisance than a help. In particular, the crash alert's flashing lights and squawking induces ten times the panic of the non-crash it detects. Every time it goes off I swear it takes six months off my life.
For those that own cars equipped with similar systems, what's your take — do you find them helpful, or in the off position?
Our Volvo S60 greeted me with a few warning messages:
Time for some maintenance.
There are certain things our Volvo S60 does a little too slowly and I'm not talking about its ride.
I've been driving it for the past two days and I noticed that the turn signals don't switch off right away after you make a turn. They continue for another couple of blinks.
Also, when I turn the car off, the radio continues to play as it does in some modern cars. In most cars, it switches off as soon as you open the driver door. But the Volvo continues for another couple of seconds. Not long but just long enough where I can imagine my neighbors wondering where the two-second blast of music came from.
It's like when you click on an internet link and the page takes a few seconds too long to load. It seems like an eternity in this quick-moving world.
In an earlier post I asked for your questions about our longterm 2012 Volvo S60 T5. Across the jump are my responses.
How is it that what appears to be an ideal sedan for commuting and long trips will not hit 20,000 miles in 12 months? Is it being passed over, or just getting short commuting trips?
It's being used routinely but not on the long, mile-racking road trips.
How's the sunroof?
No wetness observed after a car wash, so it appears to be working as expected.
Does your transmission give rough downshifts when the vehicle is cold and for the first 15 to 20 minutes of driving?
Haven't observed this, but I'll try to pay particular attention the next time I drive the S60. How rough is rough, and what does your dealer say about it?
How's the dealer treating you on those software updates?
We've not received any, so if there are updates we're missing then the answer is: pretty negligent.
Does Sensus (infotainment system) play Japanese, Chinese, and/or Korean music that is stored on your USB?
Now that's a strange one. Maybe Magrath has some music from those regions. He's out of town right now.
what is the point in having blue-ish LED accent lights and then ugly traditional yellow halogen lights next to it? It looks bad to me. Do you guys ever notice that as "owners"?
Nope.
It's spring, and California is busting out in every kind of flower. As I parked this weekend, I realized that our Volvo's unique shade of burnt orange is indeed a color that can be found in nature. It looks right at home in this patch of orange gazania.
What flower could have inspired your car's paint job?
We recently took our S60 to Santa Monica Volvo for its 15,000-mile maintenance. The latter consists an oil and filter change, cabin filter replacement and the typical check of all the other vital (coolant, power steering and windshield washer) fluids. No tire rotation is indicated in the maintenance schedule but we opted for one anyway in the name of extended tire life, and that cost us $45.
We dropped the car off (as the dealer is just a mile away) and the service folks there were friendly, efficient and not pushy. They didn't try to upsell us some additional "we recommend..." services not indicated in the Volvo's maintenance guide. About an hour later we got a call that our S60 was ready and waiting for us.
Volvo has since, via a special promotion that ends July 2, extended its complimentary maintenance to 45,000 miles on new (leftover) 2011 and 2012 models and to 50,000 for 2013 models.
I noticed today that the S60's trunklid has a lot going on under the lip where its release resides. Packaging here, like most places on a modern car, is critical.
Click on through for the full tour.
From left to right there's this key hole for the traditional key which hides inside the fob. Access to the key hole is made by removing the rubber plug. This is largely a contingency in case the electronic trunk release malfunctions or loses power. There's no interior release for the folding seats (it's in the trunk) and there is no pass through.
In the center is the trunk release and lock button.
On the right is the rear-view back-up camera.
Spaced evenly between the camera, trunk release and key hole are the lamps which illuminate the license plate.
Writing about freighters and transports all day can be tedious work. Every now and then, we need to get out of the office and make a run into the canyons or bullseye some Womprats. What better vehicle than our Volvo S60 Landspeeder? Of course, the T5 has been upgraded to a T16. (of course)
The ride is impeccable. Smoother than any vehicle we've ever tested. Road noise is virtually absent, too. Sure, it can' keep up with those ridiculous pod racers, but that's kid stuff. This is for those with more refined tastes. It's an elegant vehicle for a more civilized age. Then again, it can really haul the mail when you have to get back...home.
Driving north through the low, rolling land north of Merced, open range at first and then the cut-up country where the Merced River slows down after it comes out of Yosemite and then along the river under the oaks toward Snelling, I figured out that it was all very much not like Los Angeles.
Maybe this is why the 2012 Volvo S60 was so good to drive.
In L.A., the Volvo's soft springs make the car feel soggy and uncontrolled as it bounds over over the wretched San Diego Freeway, and then its stiff bushings harshly register the broken pavement at the same time.
But away in the country on a nicely paved California road, the springs and dampers work together to deliver the kind of comfort that you want for an all-day drive, and then the stiff bushings lend a perceptible measure of precision to the car's responses as the road winds past the little spring-time bolsas and across the creeks. Even the S60's soft throttle response works for you, as the car always stays calm as you hurtle along, easing into the brakes and then onto the gas.
As it sits here in the drive of my friends' house at the end of French Flat Road, they're kind of surprised to see a stylish Volvo. While it's easy to take for granted that everyone knows about Volvo's aspirations, there are plenty of people who still think of Volvo cars as simply boxy but good, just like always.
And yet in a way, they're attracted to this car for the same image of durability, utility and style that has always been the Volvo character. And if you were the kind of people who had not only designed your own house but built it too, and had a pocket-size Case crawler tractor and were planning to plant your own orchard (an incredible gesture of faith in the future), then a Volvo S60 would suit you a lot better than some tedious BMW sedan, no?
At least this Volvo and the Case are kind of the same color.
This previous weekend I blasted up to NorCal and picked up my new dog. Being 4 months old, he wouldn't be trusted on the fine luxurious leather, so a canine transport crate had to be used. Of course our Explorer, Quest or new Impreza would have been better for this, but we had to make due.
Problem was that the crate wouldn't fit through the rear doors, so a little tinkering had to be done.
Step 1: Dissembled crate into two halves and removed door.
Step 2: Rotated bottom half 90˚ clockwise and laid across back seat.
Step 3: Rotated top half 90˚ clockwise and fit through door opening on bottom half.
Step 4: Laid top half inside bottom half.
Step 5: Rotated top half 180˚counter clockwise to place on top.
Step 6: Attached door and hardware.
Mission Accomplished.
On a side note - the total milage for the trip - 940 miles with a 27.492 overall MPG.
This weekend I drove our 2012 Volvo S60 up to Sacramento and back, about 800 miles. The above photo was taken on the way back to L.A. yesterday when we stopped in Lebec, California, during the eclipse. Really cool effect on the shadows.
I took the 99 N up for the variety in landscape and the occasional third lane but then ran into a lot of construction and traffic. Around Sacramento, the Volvo was the vehicle of choice as I shuttled my parents and brother to dinner and brunch. They really liked all the tech in the car. On the way back, it was 5 South all the way which was pretty much free and clear, til we hit traffic at a standstill on the Grapevine for half an hour.
The EPA combined mpg for the S60 is 23 and even though I never used cruise control during the trip (that adaptive cruise will lull me to sleep) I managed to get an average of 23.8 mpg! Not too bad considering I like exercising the Volvo's 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-5.
When our S60 arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to see how many adjustments you could make. Almost a full year later, the surprises keep rolling in.
Besides the usual audio levels (bass, treble, balance and fader), which is quickly accessed by pressing the lower half of the volume/power dial, more in-depth audio adjustments are available in the menu. To be specific, there's a five-band graphic equalizer for the picky listener.
While I think most people will find the basic bass and treble adjustments adequate (as well as the sound quality), it's nice to see Volvo gives us more specialized options.
It's no secret how much I dislike our 2012 Volvo S60 T5's navigation system. Its lack of information frustrates me. But when I routed out the trip back to L.A. from Sacramento and it came back at me with the above estimate, well, suffice it to say the nav system is now dead to me.
For comparison's sake, Google Maps estimates the trip is 370 miles and would take 6 hours and 8 minutes to make. I'm guessing the nav calculated roundtrip for some reason.
Our 2012 Volvo S60 T5 saw a lot of backseat action during the road trip this weekend. My dog Mya occupied it for the 800-mile round trip on the highway while my dad and brother sat back there for the around-town excursions.
Since it was about 100 degrees or so up in Sacramento, getting cool air to the backseat occupants asap was critical, especially after the car had been sitting out in the afternoon sun for hours. Thankfully there are air vents on the B-pillars and I could point the large center air vent on the dash toward the rear for even more effective cooling.
First, the dog report...
The Volvo's backseat seems made for hauling around seatbelted hounds. Its seatbelt fasteners protrude from the seat for quick and easy buckling. And this probably won't be an issue for anyone else, but I like that the crevice between the seatback and seat cushion was deep enough so I could tuck her blanket in there without fear of her kicking it free and getting all over the leather. I put the center armrest down so that she wouldn't extend to the part of the seat that wasn't covered up, which was just fine by her as she spent most of the trip curled up into a small ball.
When two adults rode in the back — one 5'5" and the other 5'9" — they both said it was very comfortable with plenty of legroom (note: short people were in the front seats). My brother who totes a iPad and iPhone everywhere, appreciated the pocket behind the front seat and the small storage compartment in the center armest. In terms of how many people can comfortably fit back there, though, I could not see slotting a third person in there between those two.
OK, this isn't so much about our 2012 Volvo S60 T5 as it is its Sirius radio. While on a roadtrip with the Volvo I realized that it has that nifty option of saving songs to memory so that the next time it pops up somewhere on Sirius, it'll tell you where so you can switch over and catch your favorite song. If you've ever switched over to a station only to find it playing the very last notes of your fave block rocking beat, then you know how cool this is.
None of the other editors used this feature so there were no songs saved to the list so I decided to start my own. Didn't go too crazy with it, though, since it's not my car but wanted to see how it worked.
It was easy enough to save songs to the list. When your song is playing, hit "OK/Menu" to get the above screen. Then click on "Song memory" to get the "Add a song" option. Simple!
The only problem I found was that when adding songs from the decades stations...
...it'll save the song title along with the year the song came out in parentheses. This means that even when your song is playing on a different station, it won't play it since the title isn't the exact same way.
Anyway, no biggie, but something to note.
The current Guinness world record for a car with the highest miles on it belongs to a Volvo. This 1966 P1800S, to be specific, owned by Irv Gordon of New York. As of last November, this persistent P1800 had spun up 2.9 million miles on the odo. Mr. G figures within the next two years it will hit the magical 3,000,000-mile mark. If our S60 ultimately made it to just a tenth of that mileage, I'm sure it's owner would still be plenty impressed.
Any of you guys or gals have some good "Ya just can't kill it!" stories to tell?
Still impressed with how much functionality Volvo packs into this elegant interface. Navigating the display monitor using the OK/Menu and Exit button (top right) takes some practice, but otherwise this is a simple, unfussy control panel to use while driving. While everyone moves to dial controllers and five-button arrays, even small track pads, Volvo shows how you can still do it with a simple panel and a couple of knobs trimmed in pretty chrome.
How long will telephone number pads be relevant? Show of hands: how many of you know more than a handful of your immediate friends and family's telephone numbers from memory? Now we just store phone numbers as names in our contact lists on our phones. But there's still something vaguely reassuring about seeing the number pad there, floating just above Couch Potato Man.
Photo by swyngarden via Flickr
While driving our orange Volvo S60 this weekend, my husband was surprised at how snug the interior is. The S60 doesn't feel large inside, which I kind of like. The kids in the back seat didn't feel like they were miles away from us, but we didn't feel cramped, either. It was cozy. Coupled with the car's warm golden-orange paint, the feeling conjured the image of a ginger tabby curled up, all snug and safe.
Over this past memorial day weekend my wife and I logged almost 900 miles in the S60.While en route to Mammoth Lakes with three other cars full of friends, I finally accepted technology and shoved myself into 2012.
Let me explain. I don't drive long term cars much, and my personal vehicles include two thirty year old cars and a motorcycle. Things like nav, bluetooth, heated seats, and dual-zone-dvd-lane-departure-assist are not the norm. Take cruise control for example. When I'm taking a long trip in a modern car, I rarely set the cruise - I just forget. Now enter the the S60 and an adaptive cruise control system. To my stuck-in-the-80s mentality I might as well have been in a Mr. Fusion-powered DeLorean. Mile after mile ticked by, with us locked onto the rear of the caravan. Accel, decel, lasers, computing, data. How does this happen? The true test came when entering town. The tangerine swede slowed...slowed...slowed...and stopped behind a 4runner at a light. Now would it accelerate and resume the trip? It did.
Now that my mind is blown - how long do you think we're from driver input being a program or function without any pedal or wheel manipulation?
Wrap-Up
What We Got
One year ago Volvo Cars of North America offered us the keys to a 2012 Volvo S60 T5. It was the latest offering from a previously stagnant model line. The last major update to the S60 was almost 12 years ago. It was time to revisit the Volvo sedan.
The S60 was all new. A turbocharged, 250-horsepower, 2.5-liter inline-5 powered our T5. Its six-speed automatic transmission offered Sport mode and adaptive shift capabilities. And a sport-tuned chassis supported the powertrain. Volvo designed this front-wheel-drive S60 to compete in a segment dominated by rear-wheel-drive competitors from BMW, Cadillac, Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz — not to mention Audi's all-wheel-drive A4. It was going to be a tough sell.
Our 2012 Volvo S60 wore almost every option available. The Multimedia package covered our sound system, navigation and rearview camera needs. The Technology and Climate packages offered a multitude of safety features, such as adaptive cruise control, collision warning, pedestrian detection, lane departure warning and the comfort of heated seats and upgraded air-quality management. The Leather Seating package added passenger power seat controls and a moonroof. And finally, the Dynamic package included 18-inch wheels and manually adjustable, speed-sensitive steering. Volvo Sensus managed the infotainment system, which allowed us to operate the contents of these packages in one convenient location. Our S60 was loaded and its $41,350 MSRP reflected as much.
The stage was set for 12 months or 20,000 miles with the new Swedish sedan.
Our Impressions
"It has the adroit responses and direct steering that distinguishes this generation of the S60 from previous Volvo sedans. But it also has the engine that time forgot — the T5.... Insert the key and the engine awakens like a large man roused mid-snore who then proceeds to grumble his way to the bathroom. That really sounds unflattering, but the sounds are familiar and endearing, and so far the torque has been adequate for all the passing and merging I've done." — Erin Riches
"I was a little surprised to learn that the 2.5-liter, inline five-cylinder in our Volvo S60 is rated at 30 mpg on the highway. It certainly doesn't feel like such a frugal car from behind the wheel. Yeah, it's a little wheezy-sounding, like most five-cylinders, but between the turbocharger and six-speed transmission, the S60 moves out quite nicely." — Ed Hellwig
"Volvo got all the compromises right on this one. It's powerful, comfortable, well made and I like the way it rides. It isn't exactly naughty as they say on the TV commercials, but it is fun. I could even live with the color." — Scott Oldham
"I like this whole car tremendously. The characteristic growl of the eager T5 engine, which consistently made me wonder why anyone would ever bother with the T6. The hydraulic power steering.... The spot-on driving position for tall dudes of Northern European descent. The new infotainment interface, which isn't the greatest thing around, but isn't a total flippin' disaster like the one in the XC60." — James Riswick
"Imagine my joy when I saw that our new long-term Volvo allows us to choose between low, medium and high (steering) effort. Even better, there's a significant difference between low and high. As for steering feel, well, there's not much — at least for my tastes. Still, it's a cool feature and I hope to see it in other cars." — Mark Takahashi
"It was pretty obvious that sedans like this might not work too well for family road trips. I've done it before when we just had one child, and that's been fine. But two small children made it much trickier. A Volvo XC60 would have been a more proper choice, and my wife would have been a lot happier, too." — Brent Romans
"The grooved, rutted freeways in L.A. really aren't anything like the perfectly maintained highways in Sweden, and with its 235/40R18 Continental ContiProContact tires, our S60 picks up a lot of those small surface irregularities and transmits them to the cabin. The ride usually isn't harsh, but it is busy, and a couple of my passengers commented on that." — Erin Riches
"The seats in the S60 are superb for road trips, the adaptive cruise control is an absolute stress-reducer and I'd recommend this car to anybody who is considering either a BMW 3 Series or a Mercedes-Benz C-Class because it a) rides much more smoothly than the BMW, and b) offers altitude-resistant power from its turbocharged engine that the C-Class does not." — Chris Walton
"I like the quality feel of the S60's controls. There's a fluidity of operation about them which makes you appreciate Volvo's attention to detail. The turn stalk's detents are near-perfect.... Same goes for the dual-zone climate control temperature knobs.... Even the power window controls on the door have a nice texture to them and don't feel hard and cheap." — Mike Monticello
"Our long-term S60 has some seriously powerful windshield and headlight washers. These sprayers manhandle the intended targets, sure, but they also take care of the side windows and the backlight in a way I don't recall seeing on another car recently. And I don't mean a little mist or a few droplets on these secondary surfaces — in this Volvo, the sides and rear get drizzled with surprisingly even coverage." — Jason Kavanagh
"Our S60 is covered with five years of free factory-scheduled maintenance and five years of free wear-and-tear replacements. Although, having read the fine print, I realized the scheduled maintenance is for the first six appointments only (up to 45,000 miles) and wear-and-tear is pretty much just brakes and wiper blades. Even so, the S60 should have a pretty inexpensive stay with us." — Brent Romans
"The air-conditioner is weak. It only cools the car when you have the fan cranked up to a ridiculously loud level. And it doesn't have enough vents for the driver.... It was quite miserable driving around in the sun. Give me an American car's A/C any day." — Donna DeRosa
"Left front tire is down to 20 psi. I might have had something to do with it, so I can help with whatever is needed to fix it." — James Riswick
Maintenance & Repairs
Regular Maintenance: Routine maintenance occurs at 7,500-mile intervals on the 2012 Volvo S60. Thanks to the Volvo Safe + Secure program, all visits were free for the first five years or 45,000 miles. We paid nothing for factory scheduled maintenance at 15,000 miles. Unfortunately, those weren't our only reasons to see the dealer.
Service Campaigns: Not a week into our test, two S60 recall notices were issued. One was for a fuel-pump software problem, which was remedied with a reflash. Another was for a potential fuel leak. The fuel leak recall range did not include our car. A third recall was announced for a different fuel leak concern which also did not pertain to our S60.
We only had to spend our own money once during this test. Physics and a curb bested the driver-side front tire sidewall, requiring replacement of the 18-inch Continental ContiProContact. This set us back $231.
Fuel Economy and Resale Value
Observed Fuel Economy: The EPA prepared us for 20 city and 30 highway mpg. After 19,000 miles on the road we averaged 23 mpg, slightly less than the EPA combined rating of 25 mpg. Our best single tank was below 29 mpg, suggesting the highway figure was slightly exaggerated. Still, it was no deal-breaker. And if we worked for it, a single-tank range of 500 miles was possible.
Resale and Depreciation: According to Edmunds TMV® calculations at the time of this article, our 2012 Volvo S60 T5 depreciated 26 percent from its original MSRP of $41,350. This figure is based on a private-party sale.
Summing Up
Pros: Competitive sport sedan capability with a reasonably smooth ride. In some ways the power and fuel economy of the T5 make the T6 moot. Free factory scheduled maintenance.
Cons: Our fully loaded 2012 Volvo S60 T5 cost more than $41,000. Three fuel system-related recalls in the first year. The lack of a spare tire was off-putting.
Bottom Line: A good balance of sport and comfort, power and fuel economy, the S60 does well with compromise. Its recall history in the first year was shaky. But five years and 45,000 miles of free scheduled maintenance helped ease the mind.
| Total Body Repair Costs: | None |
| Total Routine Maintenance Costs: | None (over 12 months) |
| Additional Maintenance Costs: | $231 |
| Warranty Repairs: | Fuel pump ECU update |
| Non-Warranty Repairs: | Replace one tire |
| Scheduled Dealer Visits: | 2 |
| Unscheduled Dealer Visits: | 1 |
| Days Out of Service: | 1 |
| Breakdowns Stranding Driver: | None |
| Best Fuel Economy: | 28.9 mpg |
| Worst Fuel Economy: | 15.9 mpg |
| Average Fuel Economy: | 22.8 mpg |
| True Market Value at service end: | $32,878 (private-party sale) |
| Depreciation: | $8,472 (or 26% of original MSRP) |
| Final Odometer Reading: | 19,169 miles |
The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.