Category: Executive 
Price Range: £22,245 to £36,745
Spacious and attractive cabin, excellent seats and good general comfort make this an accomplished long distance car. Safety features and smooth engines are assets, too
Lesser five-cylinders lack urge, no version especially inspiring to drive, ride average even with Four-C damping option
Beginning to feel old, but remains an appealing long-distance cruiser. Good used buy.
Volvo's flagship model is now the XC90 off-roader, but its biggest saloon, the S80, is a credible player in the executive car park and has enjoyed reasonable success in a market dominated by German models such as the BMW 5-Series and the Mercedes E-Class. Its best feature is its cabin, which is spacious, airy and attractively designed with particularly comfortable seats. An impressive array of safety features and a competitive NCAP crash test score, reasonable pricing and fairly generous equipment levels are additional draws. The S80 is quite distinctively styled, though you couldn't call it a beauty.
Volvo has now freshened the S80 with a (very) light exterior rework, some interior improvements, a couple of engine upgrades and the option of an electronic shock absorber system called Four-C. The S80's steering has also been improved, but in essence, the car is pretty much the same as it was before the facelift - and so is beginning to look and feel a bit dated.
Early S80s gave a little trouble, but this is a reliable, well-made saloon that's very pleasant to ride in and good if you're travelling long distances. If you're after comfort and space, it makes a decent buy, particularly used, but if you're a keen driver, there are better choices, most notably the ubiquitous BMW 5-Series. However, the Volvo is usefully cheaper.
A confusingly wide range of engines includes a five-cylinder diesel of 170bhp - for most the best buy - as well as bi-fuel LPG and compressed natural gas-fuelled versions. The petrol range features two 2.4 five-cylinders of 140 and 170bhp, a new 2.0 Turbo of 180bhp, a 210bhp 2.5 Turbo (replacing the previous 200bhp 2.4 T) a 196bhp 2.9 six-cylinder and a twin-turbo version of this engine that's good for 272bhp.
