Volvo S60 hits the cool spot

Better performance, roadholding, dynamics and improved, sharper steering.

Years ago I had an ancient neighbour who owned an equally ancient brown Volvo station wagon. He worked in his garden every Saturday and wore a tweed jacket and a green tie while pruning his rose bushes.

He would then carefully load the off-cuts into the back of his Volvo and take it to the garden refuse dump. When he came home he washed and polished the tank-like beast and parked it in his garage until the next Saturday when the same performance was repeated.

And that image of Volvo vehicles and their owners have been stuck firmly in my head until fairly recently when I got to drive the delightful and cocky little Volvo C30.

Suddenly here was a Volvo that was not for the old and grey. A little impractical perhaps, and the handling still far from sharp, but the top of the range C30 with the T5 engine was lively and fun enough with its 169kW/320Nm 2.0l engine which was good enough for a 0-100km/h dash in about 6.7 seconds.

However, in spite of the arrival of the zesty newcomer to the Volvo stable, the brand's sales (and world-wide profits) continued to slide.

'Come, Sven, let us jazz this up a bit'

Then a clever (probably slightly desperate) suit in a Volvo boardroom must have had an electric light bulb moment.

He gathered all his longhaired, clever white coats together, herded them into a room with designers, engineers and other experts, ordered a couple of cases of that vicious snake poison called Aquavit the Swedes are so fond of and told them: "Drink the lot and don't come out until you've come up with a car sexy, naughty and desirable enough to rescue Volvo from damnation.

It goes like a bomb - but you can stop it very quickly when you eed to.

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And full credit to them, they tried their best when they created the new S60 which not only is quite good looking, but handles surprisingly well and goes like the clappers.

And no, I haven't been at the Aquavit myself, but I have just spent some high-speed quality time at the wheel of three of the new S60 models - and what a mindset change it was.

What is immediately apparent is its newly acquired extrovert attitude, almost as though it is challenging prospective buyers shopping around for a C/D segment premium sedan to consider it to be on par with the traditional pack leaders such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Lexus and Jaguar.

And actually, it is entitled to try to muscle itself into the company of these big boys because suddenly the S60 is almost up there with them in several departments and even ahead of them with one or two newbies.

Some very useful add-ons

Not only is this probably the most dynamic range of cars Volvo has ever produced, but it the S60 also brims with a number of innovative features such as a Pedestrian Detection system which will automatically brake the car to a standstill if the driver does not respond quickly enough.

The new S60 range was launched in Europe in July and Volvo South Africa is initially launching the S60 with three derivatives. They are the T6, which is powered by a 3.0l, 6-cylinder 224kW/440Nm engine, the 2.0T which has a 2.0l, 4 cylinder 149kW/300Nm engine and D5 diesel which comes armed with a 2.4l, 5-cylinder motor that kicks out 151kW and 420Nm.

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The launch derivatives and prices (including CO2 emissions tax and 14% VAT, are: Volvo S60 2.0T Manual (R355 500) Volvo S60 2.0T Powershift (R371 900), Volvo S60 D5 Geartronic (R408 000) and Volvo S60 T6 Geartronic (R464 000).

Additional engine derivatives to follow at a later date are the T5 petrol, followed by a 1.6l turbocharged petrol engine available in two versions: a 132kW (T4) and a 110kW (T3) both with torque of 240 Nm. Two further diesel models, the 118kW D3 and a 1.6D DRIVE will also become available at a later stage.

Bringing out that naughty streak

I drove three of the new S60 derivatives at the media launch on fast stretches of isolated roads and mountain passes in the Karoo and was left completely open-mouthed by their performance, roadholding, dynamics and improved, sharper steering.

Suddenly they have muscles to flex and seem to beg to be driven hard. And we did and it was delightful to see how the quiet, clean-living and rather grey, law-abiding pillars of the Swedish motoring world had turned into party animals with a slightly naughty streak.

We stomped on their tails and flung them into corners with gay abandon and not once did they feel twitchy, lazy, lumpish or wallowing. In fact, over a long mountain pass with lots of twisties and short, fast sections we couldn't even make the tyres squeal once - and that was not due to lack of trying.

Clearly the clever Volvo chaps spent many long hours redesigning the chassis, suspension, driving gear and much of the other oily bits to turn the S60 into a revamped, new-feel Volvo. And they've certainly done a good job.

Not a hint of the East

The real good news is that there is not even a hint of Chinese to be detected anywhere in the S60 because we all know that Chinese car-makers now control the purse strings as the new owners of Volvo - and also that Chinese cars do not exactly have a wow! image in the eyes and minds of the average South African consumer.

The quiet, clean-living and rather grey, law-abiding pillars of the Swedish motoring world have turned into party animals with a slightly naughty streak.

Volvo hopes to sell 90 000 of the new S60 models annually with local projections of about 100 cars a month. Although perhaps a little optimistic, I reckon it is achievable because all Volvo has to do is to get prospective buyers' bums into the seats of the new cars and let the cars themselves do the rest of the sales job.

With such a drastically improved product it is difficult to decide where to start, so let's kick off by looking briefly at its new handling abilities for which much thanks should go to the re-designed chassis.

Exploiting the sporty new chassis to the limit

For a start, the cars are now longer and wider and buyers have the choice of two chassis - dynamic (which will be the standard version on all local Volvos) or standard (which the USA will no doubt favour).

In essence the chassis descriptions tell the whole story - different designs and settings for different ride styles.

Part of the new set-up also includes quicker, more direct steering with better feedback, tweaked spring struts, more damping and stiffer bushes.

To add to the driving dynamic fun the software in the AWD (All Wheel Drive) system has been modified to allow the four-wheel drive variants (four-wheel drive is standard in the T6) of the all-new Volvo S60 to exploit the sporty new chassis to the limit.

Bum, leg and shoulder space have also increased.

All variants of the new S60 can be specified with a FOUR-C active chassis which has been modified and refined for better control and feel. This is a sophisticated, self-adjusting chassis system that uses a number of sensors to monitor the car's behaviour continuously. In mere fractions of a second, the dampers are adjusted to suit the current driving situation.

With three alternative chassis settings, all it takes is for the driver to press a button to alter the car's character: Comfort, Sport or Advanced.

Auto oversteer correction

The S60 is also the world's first sedan to brag with "Advanced Stability Control" (in Volvo-speak) which in essence is an early warning and skid correcting system. Fairly high-tech, but it does have the advantage of operating totally independently and without any input from the driver although it does have a sport setting that allows for more enthusiastic driving.

One of the beauties of this system is that it steps in and corrects the set-up when the car goes into oversteer.

In addition the S60 also has new Corner Traction Control for smoother, faster, safer high-speed cornering.... Again much too technical to be entertaining enough to describe in detail here. Suffice to say: "It's there and it works!"

Room for a surfboard - if you have one.

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But all the fancy equipment, improved steering, faster speeds and better roadholding are useless - and even dangerous - unless a car has the necessary anchors to bring the party to a rapid, safe halt.

And here, too, the S60 scores well with an integrated system with hydraulic brake assist and ABS working in tandem for maximum stopping power.

It's not on top... It's in-n-side...

The engine's power is delivered to the wheels via Volvo's second-generation six-speed automatic Geartronic transmission. New valves and lower friction mean faster gear changes than before. AWD (All Wheel Drive) is standard on the 3.0T (T6).

In line with modern engine development the new Volvos also have cleaner, more frugal engines which your local dealer will be only to happy to tell you about in great detail.

But 99% of all of this is tucked away below the metal.

The cool appeal of the S60 is its sharper looks - for this is one sleek sedan with its cheeky front, strongly chiselled bonnet, big air intakes, nice bits of chrome and a handsome coupe-like sloping roof, all nicely rounded off by smart sporty alloys and low profile rubbers.

The living quarters are also surprisingly un-Scandinavian in its playfulness and sporty appeal - far removed from the boring traditional interior lay-out of Volvo cabins.

A cabin with a new angle

The quality is good and it looks younger, fresher, prettier than ever before with enough leather, shiny metal, wood and quality plastic to appeal to younger buyers. Even the stitching on the seats is different to the norm, which is quite a step into the real world by the conservative Swedish interior decorators...

What I found particularly appealing is that the instruments and centre stack are now angled towards the driver. It gives the car a nice sporty feeling and goes well with the three-spoke steering wheel and the new sports seats.

Bum, leg and shoulder space have also increased and three cheers for the fact that the 'olde worlde' truck handbrake has finally been assigned to the rubbish bin and replaced by an electronic finger-operated brake switch.

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Other comfort features include clever (but, unfortunately, expensive optional extras) such as Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), which automatically maintains a set gap to the vehicle in front, parking sensors front and rear, and Park Assist cameras.

Where you can see it

Standard across the range is a new Infotainment system where information from the audio unit, navigation system, mobile phone and other functions is presented on a five-inch or seven-inch colour screen in the upper part of the centre console. (Importantly, the screen has a high position to make it easy for the driver to keep his or her eyes on the road).

All the functions can be controlled from the steering wheel or via controls located directly below the colour screen.

Integrated navigation with voice control is available as an option, as is the possibility of using Bluetooth to connect the driver's own mobile phone to the car's infotainment system.

The S60 also scores big time with an ultra fancy audio system which is made up of a digital 5x130W amplifier, surround sound and 12 loudspeakers.

(In addition to the top-of-the line Premium Sound, which comes with a 7-inch screen, the all-new S60 is available with a choice of three other audio systems).

Coming from the land of cold, snow, ice and blizzards it stands to reason that temperature control would be, as always, an important part of the Volvo make-up and the new Electronic Climate Control system (ECC) offers automatic control of both temperature and ventilation with an optional IAQS (Interior Air Quality System) which prevents particles and unpleasant odours from entering the cabin.

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Very cleverly, when the car is unlocked using the remote control, the passenger compartment is automatically ventilated if the outdoor temperature exceeds 10 degrees Celsius.

How nice is it going to be to slide on to a cool seat after your S60 has been basking in the hot sun all day in the parking lot while you drooled over the itsy-bitsy beauties on Clifton Beach...

All these bits and pieces and fancy kit come together very nicely in an end product which is probably the finest Volvo yet made. It has been built to do one mammoth and vastly responsible (and fairly desperate) job - and that is to not only rebuild a once strong, respected, highly profitable brand but to inject into it a new spirit of excitement, desirability, class, status and zesty youthfulness.

It is a massive challenge, but I reckon Volvo has given the S60 its best shot. It deserves to do well.

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