2011 Volvo S60 T6 AWD – Road Test « New and Used Car Listings

2011 Volvo S60 T6 AWD – Road Test

Volvo’s last new large sedan, the S80, didn’t exactly wow us. We might have said—actually, we did say—that the S80 had all the flavor of  Wasa crispbread. That car left us worried that the wacky engineering folks who created the 150-mph turbocharged bricks of the 1990s had left the company, or perhaps were hit with a debilitating depression after hearing that the hoped-for ABBA reunion would never materialize.

But we don’t let the vehicles of the past cloud our new-car judgments. We’re ready for surprises, good or bad, and occasionally the Swedes offer up shockers like the fleet-footed XC60, the chuckable C30, and transgender surgery. We weren’t immediately surprised by the new S60 because nothing about it stands out. It doesn’t have the overtly sports-car feel of its rear-drive peers. With a transverse-engine layout, a serious front-weight bias (61.7 percent of the 3896-pound curb weight rests on the front tires), and a standard all-wheel-drive system that is 95 percent front-drive most of the time, the S60 cannot pretend to be a sports car.

It took several days of study before we began to appreciate the way in which every aspect of the S60 sings with equal intensity and timbre. The primary controls, the powertrain, the ride, the sound—even the way the seat is cushioned—all come together in a harmonious and consistent way. The fact that there are no surprises or irregularities is itself an accomplishment. The S60 is at once refined, comfortable, and even a little sporty. Ultimately, it may not offer the graceful handling of the BMW 3-series, the serenity of a Lexus, or the elegant sheetmetal of an Audi, but the Volvo manages to rouse near greatness from a chorus of nicely entwined parts.

Constructed off the same sturdy platform as the larger S80, this S60 is fractionally bigger and 176 pounds heavier than the last one we tested, an S60R model. Like that S60R, the new S60 makes 300 horsepower, but the R had a high-strung five-cylinder engine that, while potent, had us reaching for the noise-canceling headphones. Crammed between this car’s strut towers now is a transversely mounted 3.0-liter, turbocharged inline-six that spins eagerly and doles out power with the progressivity of a non-turbo engine. The engine isn’t new—Volvo’s S80 and XC60 also use it—but the S60 was the first to get an internal-friction-reduction treatment and a bump from 281 horsepower to 300 (at 5600 rpm); torque is also up, from 295 pound-feet to 325 (at a higher 2100 rpm). The all-wheel-drive S60 hits 60 mph in an easy 5.5 seconds, a time that puts the heavier Volvo neatly between the BMW 328i and 335i. In most driving conditions, the six works quietly and keeps its combustive efforts on the far side of the fire wall. Spin it toward the 6600-rpm redline, and a 77-decibel growl sneaks into the cabin.