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.
This is a big car, but a good-sized glass area and a relatively tight turning circle make the S80 fairly easy to manoeuvre, especially with the optional (but pricey) parking sensors.
The seat has a respectable degree of movement although the manual adjusters are fiddly, while the rake-and-reach adjustable steering wheel makes it easy to get comfortable. The control layout is very logical, the air conditioning and stereo being particularly easy to use.
Automatic transmission, which suits the car well, is a standard-fit four-speeder on the 2.9 and T6, and an optional five-speed for the rest. All S80s now come with standard cruise control.
This car doesn't look like a sports saloon, even in 272bhp T6 form, and doesn't prove one on the road. The more powerful versions, especially the T6, can move at quite a lick, but you certainly aren't likely to use that power to go haring across country roads because the S80 simply doesn't feel very athletic. Yet it's better than it was, the new steering gear boosting your confidence with its improved feel, while the Four-C system is able to tauten the suspension sufficiently to allow the Volvo to corner with some vigour, and a fair bit of tyre squeal too. Switch on the DSTC system, and the T6, in particular, can be flogged through corners at a pace likely to surprise onlookers, but if you want to drive like this and really enjoy it, buy something more sporting.
Performance really depends on the engine you select, so wide is the choice. The standard 140bhp five-cylinder petrol struggles slightly at one end of the range, needing 10.5 seconds to broach 62mph, while the potent twin-turbo T6 gets there in just 7.2 seconds. For many buyers, the economy and lower tax exposure of the 163bhp D5 diesel make it the best buy; plus, it's smooth and pretty quiet. It's also swifter than the cheapest petrol engine, but don't expect performance motoring.
You can also choose from a 2.5T (7.7 seconds to 62mph, and really as quick as you need an S80 to be) a - seemingly pointless - 2.9 six-cylinder which needs 8.9 seconds while the 2.0T takes 9.1seconds. All these engines are smooth five-and six-cylinders, although the T6 motor sounds a bit strained even at middle revs. Luckily its standard-fit four-speed auto gearbox operates in this range most of the time.
