Category: Compact Executive 
Price Range: £19,995 to £24,770
Very refined, very comfortable, very relaxing, characterful engines, soothing over long distances, good looks freshened up for 2005
Not as much fun as a 3-Series, town ride not as good as a C-Class, not as economical as it ought to be.
A very impressive car from Volvo; not racy but refined and very satisfying over the long term. A very well-rounded car, particularly in D5 diesel form.
It would be more surprising if the S60 wasn't strong in this area. As it is, NCAP gives it four stars and an 82% rating for overall crash safety, a result aided by standard front and side airbags, and all Volvo's usual unique safety features. There are a number of cars, like Renault's Laguna, which score more highly than the S60, though Volvo, like Saab, emphasizes its analysis of real-life crashes in developing safety technology, rather than aiming to meet the NCAP laboratory-test criteria.
Volvo now - from September 2004 - fits a passenger airbag as standard. It was a no-cost option before, Volvo thinking that it was unsafe to have an airbag near a child seat, even a rear-facing one, but it now feels the benefits outweigh the risks and that improved airbag technology has made it safer. That said, you can switch the airbag off.
Security is in line with its rivals. From 2005, a new option called BLIS is offered. This is a Blind Spot Information System, which monitors surrounding traffic and illuminates a warning light by each rear-view mirror if there's another vehicle within range. In practice, BLIS is limited - it only works above 10kph, will only detect other vehicles travelling up to 20kph slower or 70kph faster, and it won't pick up on cyclists, moped riders or pedestrians, but it's a useful extra reminder, if not something to rely on.
Traction control and stability control are now standard across the range.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Volvo S60
wrote on 13 03 2008
wrote on 22 03 2007