Volvo S60 T5 strives to be a little naughty, but with nifty features it sure is nice

When Volvo introduced its all new S60 sedan for the 2011 model year it came only in the topline T6 variant with all wheel drive and a 300-horsepower turbo motor. T6 pricing passed the $50,000 mark with options and only attractive lease incentives made the, as the carmaker describes it, “very naughty Volvo” an easy decision.

For 2012 we see the introduction of the S60 T5 version of the multi-award winning car with prices starting at a much more palatable $31,850. The lower price may have made the S60 a value leader in the segment but has Volvo managed to keep the “naughty Swedish” in this ride?
    

When it comes to looks the answer is a resounding YES. I’ve got to give it to Volvo on this one – the S60 is sexy. This car stands out in the sea of the semi-luxury segment and together with the equally as sexy XC60 cross over sets the tone for the new design vocabulary coming from Volvo.

Volvo’s box is dead, or at least one could say they've stepped out of the legacy of square inspired roots. The new language starts with a familiar happy face and leads to a beautifully accented sweeping line to a buttoned up backend. 

Its wheels pushed to the corners and a longish 109.3 wheelbase, which is only bested by the Audi A4, give the car a planted stance that inspires confidence. The long C-pillar and very short rear overhang give the S60 a very compact look.

But looks can be deceiving – dimensionally the S60 is four inches longer and two inches wider than a BMW 3-series. The high roofline lends itself to segment leading passenger volume at 93 cubic feet.
 

The S60’s cabin is comfortable and seats are fantastic. A power driver seat with 3-position memory is surprisingly standard on all models but if you want your passenger to enjoy power adjustments you’ll need to add on the $1,900 “Premium Package” that also includes a power glass moonroof, auto dimming mirror with compass and a Homelink garage door opener.

The dash and center console are an evolution of previous Volvo interior designs and, in my opinion, could be seen as a little dated. Our tester was equipped with the optional $2,700 “Multimedia Package” and while the 7” color screen is very easy to use and has great voice controls, it could be brighter and is small by today’s standards, looking undersized for the dashboard.

The audio system is good but sounds better when the Audssey MultEQ XT surround sound processing is off.

The package also includes a rear-view camera which is good given the tall backend of the car.
 

Rear seat legroom is on par with the segment but that by no means equates to a lot of room for tall passengers. That said, rear seat occupants will find sporty seats that are well sculpted and comfortable as we would expect from Volvo.

Rear air vents on the B-pillar are a great idea.
 

The interior fit and finish is a step up from the previous generation S60 but is still Volvo-like with hard plastics hinting at cost savings measures here and there. Some cheap-feeling parts give way to a mix of high quality materials and the overall result is quite good and befitting of car that runs in the mid $30s. 

The chronographic-influenced gauges are a really neat touch and add a lot of style to the dash. It’s a shame they are lit so poorly at night, with nothing but a LED shining on them from the front —  they don’t themselves light up in a cool way.

The slot seen in the dash is for the key fob to be inserted to start the engine. It is sort of fiddly in that you have to wait for the key to eject when you are ready to get out and if you have more keys on your key ring they bang around on the dash.
 

Hit the button on the center stack and the spring-loaded rear seat headrests bow down, giving the driver a completely unobstructed view out the rear window. Your next passenger back there will have to manually return them to a comfortable position but it’s a great feature I wish most every car had. Why didn’t I think of that? 

Trunk space at 12 cubic feet is on par with competitors. Take a look at how the lid extends far above the opening, making loading much easier. Of course the back seats fold down but so does the front passenger seat! It’s a highly unique, functional design allowing something long to run from the front dash through the trunk – nice one Volvo.

Visibility and maneuverability are so great that the optional blind spot monitoring system is rather unnecessary on this car. During the test drive, I noted that parallel parking and just general placing the S60 where you want it is a joy. It’s a great sized car that’s easy to move around.

The integral turn signals on the side mirrors are a nice touch.
 

Acceleration is eager and it's easy to drive the S60 quickly around town. It FEELS quick with all that torque and torque steer (the tendency for front-wheel-drive cars to steer themselves under heavy acceleration) is mostly well controlled. 

She’s a nice drive, but let’s not kid ourselves here, the BMW 3-series has nothing to fear as T5 is more comfort cruiser than all-out sports sedan.
 

Our tester came with the optional “Dynamic Package” which includes these “Sleipner” 18” alloy wheels and speed sensitive steering, with the ability to select through the computer how much resistance you’d like in the steering effort. The package also includes a feature called “Dynamic Chassis,” which Volvo says “has been engineered to deliver the utmost driving pleasure”. It’s $900 well spent. 

The turbocharged inline 5-cylinder engine is familiarly Volvo and is a real winner. It has great performance with 250-horsepower on tap – that’s 46 more horses than the Lexus IS 250 and 20 more than the BMW 328i. Torque is what matters getting around town; it’s how fast the car FEELS, and the T5 delivers 266 lb-ft at a low engine speed of 1,800 rpm. Only the Audi A4’s 258 @ 1,500 rpm comes close to comparison. The S60’s 0-60 time of 6.8 seconds makes it the quickest of its main rivals. 

Fuel economy at 20 city/30 highway is about the same as competitors despite making a lot more power and weighing in at 3,548 pounds. Expect about 23 mpg in a combined cycle, which is pretty good. 

I drove the hotter and significantly more expensive 300-horsepower T6 version some weeks after testing this T5 and I would be hard pressed to recommend paying the price for the T6 unless you need all-wheel-drive, which is only available in the T6.

The T5 starts at $31,850
The T6 starts at $38,575
Both prices include a $875 destination charge.

Those with good credit will currently find great leasing incentives on the T5.
 

Always a safety leader, Volvo has given this S60 more than 22 standard safety features, including its “City Safety” system. According to Volvo, 75% of all reported collisions occur at speeds of less than 19 mph and half in city traffic. City Safety uses an infrared laser to determine if the vehicle is approaching an object too quickly from behind and will automatically slow or stop the car while alerting the driver.

If the driver does nothing at speeds from 9-18 mph, City Safety will alert the driver and begin slowing the vehicle to lessen impact potential. At speeds below 9 mph the system can actually stop the car altogether.

Fortunately, I was not in a situation where I had to test the system as a driver on Houston streets. But after observing a demonstration from the passenger seat at Momentum Volvo, where the vehicle stopped itself when encountering a barrier, I was impressed.

The S60 was the last Volvo to be introduced under Ford before the American automaker sold the brand to Chinese carmaker Geely in August 2010 for $1.8 billion (Ford had paid $6.5 billion in 1999).

Volvo's new Chinese owners are standing behind its newly acquired brand with a best in its class protection program called “Safe + Secure." All new Volvos come with a five year or 60,000 mile warranty, five years of wear and tear coverage (brake pads, rotors, wipers, etc), five years complimentary factory scheduled maintenance, and five years roadside assistance.
 

Has Volvo succeeded in making the T5 the “naughty Volvo”? I would say it’s more nice then it is naughty, but for a Volvo it’s certainly out of the box, off the norm, marching to a different drum — OK, I’ll give it to them, even naughty.

Will it attract younger buyers? Possibly. It has a lot going for it and is a compelling alternative to the norm and certainly non-naughties like the BMW 3-Series, Mercedes C-class, Lexus IS250, Acura TSX, and Infinity G25. 

See the Volvo S60 at Volvocars.com