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S60 competitors are a varied lot that includes the Alfa Romeo Giulia, Audi A4, BMW 3 Series, Lexus IS and Mercedes-Benz C300. The 2019 Volvo S60 is an all-new vehicle based on the company’s SPA (Scalable Product Architecture) chassis that already underpins the XC90 SUV and S90 sedan. Double A-arm front suspension is now used in place of MacPherson struts, and the multilink rear suspension features a transverse composite leaf spring. Otherwise, the only other negative note from the brief time I had in the cars was some of the harder, simpler plastics used on the center cupholder area on the lower Momentum trims. Beyond my slight frustrations with the Polestar Engineered version and its arcade joystick selector, my only other notes on what stood out as non-ideal came from the infotainment system. The system was updated to respond quicker than on past Volvos, and it is responsive.
Volvo S60 Review 2019: Photos, Details, Specs, Pros and Cons - Business Insider
Volvo S60 Review 2019: Photos, Details, Specs, Pros and Cons.
Posted: Tue, 04 Jun 2019 07:00:00 GMT [source]
T6 R-Design: $46,400 or $850/mo • T8 Polestar Engineered: TBD or $1,100/mo
If you’re looking for a midsize European sedan offering sublime comfort, good style, abundant safety hardware and sporty driving manners, the U.S.-built Volvo S60 delivers on all counts. Yet, with this S60 tuned to be sportier than average, it still feels like a proper luxury car in that noises from the outside, the tires, and the engine are still well muted and bumpy roads don’t get far past the suspension to your bum. If you’re seeking a proper sports sedan, then perhaps these measures are unwanted, but for those wanting an even balance, the S60 T6 AWD R-Design teeters perfectly between these two poles. The 2019 Volvo S60 is one of the best sedans the company has ever built, and one of the best four-door options on the road today. Gone are the days of the S60 mostly being known for good seats—it’s become the total package.
Second Generation S60 Production Years:
The electric G-Class arrives with more power than even the AMG G63 and no sacrifice to its off-roading ability. I was the one who got followed by the CHP for a bit, so I wasn’t exactly tearing rubber with the full might of the Polestar’s potential torque and power. This is the one that was briefly available as a subscription on the rough-starting Care By Volvo program before all 20 cars were snapped up in less than an hour. Volvo was keen to tell me that there will be more available soon enough, maybe even to own.
Performance & Handling
The upgraded suspension carries the car’s extra weight perfectly through a good road, with the help of the strong gold-painted brakes, to. It also has gold seatbelts, which sort of makes the S60's otherwise refined and quiet interior feel like a pop up night club in a bank. This S60 T6 AWD R-Design test car also comes with a couple optional upgrades to further improve safety, starting with full LED headlights that actively bend around corners and feature automatic high beams.
Engine
I want all the connecting points of the car—and my passengers—all stressing when I slam it. Then there’s the special Polestar Engineered option on the T8, which boosts power on the hybrid model even higher to 416 HP and 494 lb-ft of torque. Volvo says it’s also capable of an estimated 21 miles on electric power alone. There’s a lot of technology happening to make this little 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine produce 316 hp and 296 pound-feet of torque, not the least of which is both a turbocharger and supercharger operating simultaneously. The supercharger does its work at lower RPMs, while the turbocharger takes over at speed to boost power higher in the rev range. They combine beautifully to create a linear power curve that belies the complexities involved to make it all happen.
Volvo S60 T6 AWD R-Design
This T6 model’s engine impressively produces over 300 horsepower while at the same time achieving over 30 miles per gallon on the highway. The Environmental Protection Agency officially rates the S60 T6 AWD R-Design at 21 mpg in the city, 32 on the highway, and 25 combined, and my week spent driving it in all manner of ways supports those numbers. As you might expect on account of it being a Volvo, the S60 is about as safe a car to drive as they come.
The now-familiar four-tile layout still works like a dream, with familiar tablet gestures (pinch and pull, swipe, etc.) working just like they should. Bluetooth hands-free and audio streaming are standard, as are Apple CarPlay and Android Auto (both of which require a USB connection). The S60 Inscription, also with the 250-horsepower 2.0-liter, builds on that with bright chrome window trim and driftwood inlays, together with 4-zone climate control and power front seats that offer lumbar support and power-cushion extensions.
Volvo S60 Safety
With its low hood and short rear deck, the 2019 Volvo S60 looks like a modern sedan shaped in the wind tunnel, but it’s a handsome design that’s still very much a Volvo. Notable details include attractive sculpting on the hood and sides of the car, along with T-shaped LED “Thor’s Hammer” front driving lights. In back, dual chromed exhausts are on duty beneath LED taillights that emphasize the width of the new S60. If there’s any doubt this car is a Volvo, a big badge in the middle of the diagonally bisected grille leaves no doubt. Also, in a neat trick, Volvo stylists have made it look as if the grille floats inside the S60’s front opening.
Volvo S60 T5 AWD Inscription
The vertical central screen is huge with crisp graphics and a powerful-enough processor to keep pace with inputs, while the flat menu structure of three screens that you swipe left or right to access is ingenious. Impressively, this screen and the Sensus infotainment with navigation is standard on all S60s. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto come standard on every S60 as well, as does a hands-free trunk, keyless entry, a parking assist system for both parallel and perpendicular spots, and an air filtration system. As mentioned, the even larger 12.3-inch driver’s display that houses the digital gauges and gives redundant access to main parts of the Sensus infotainment system is equally impressive, though it’s not available on the base T5 FWD Inscription model. When the first of the Volvo S60 generations burst onto the scene in 2000, it was only the second Volvo to follow the Swedish automaker’s new corporate design language previewed by the 1992 ECC concept car and launched as the 1998 S80 large sedan.
Sedans may be out of fashion right now, but I’m here to sing their praises – in particular, I’m here to praise the 2019 Volvo S60 T6 AWD R-Design that I drove for a week recently. While crossover SUVs are all the rage for their carrying capacity, taller stance and off-road pretensions, sedans win when it comes to elegance, lower center of gravity, and ability to conceal and secure cargo. Compared to the XC60, S60’s midsize equivalent in the Volvo lineup, the S60 T6 AWD delivers objectively superior fuel economy (21 mpg city/32 mpg highway/25 mpg combined for S60 vs. 21 mpg city/27 mpg highway/23 mpg combined for XC60) and subjectively better handling. This tester is the T6 AWD R-Design model, which starts at $46,400 and features the S60’s second-most powerful engine – a trick 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine that’s both turbocharged and supercharged to produce 316 horsepower.
Best of all is the optional set of 19-inch R-Design wheels that sets the perfect tone for this car’s mission. If you want to adjust the heads-up display, for example, you swipe to the right on the main screen, where you’re ambushed by rows and rows of icons for just about every function on the car. This is how most of the adjustments are made (happily not stuff like wiper speed, as on a Tesla Model 3). That includes the safety alerts, engine start-stop, rear-headrest remote folding, and cruise control settings. All cars come with automatic emergency braking, forward collision warning, and cross-traffic alert and braking, drive-mode selection, road-sign information in Volvo’s new digital driver display standard, and the Pilot Assist semi-autonomous system standard.
The M440i and 430i now benefit from mild-hybrid technology, improving engine response and efficiency. It’s also just as solid on the road and in the bends as the Polestar was, and I’m confident I could have pushed it a lot harder than possible on most of the roads we drove on. It’s a Volvo that wants to have fun, even if the squeezing seatbelt has the potential to rupture a bladder if you even think about getting a little bit of air. Ultimately the Polestar left me wanting more, though I’d like to drive one again, with fewer cops around next time.
But to access most of the car’s adjustments is a little overwhelming at first. You’ll have to do some math to compare that to covering the lease, insurance, taxes and maintenance on anything else you’re considering, but it’s promisingly competitive. It’s basically Apple Care and the iPhone upgrade program all in one, but, you know, a car. Something you can drive, not something that makes you irrationally mad at somebody in a blue shirt. I even think the smaller proportions makes the design language edge out the S90.
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