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.
The S80's marvellously inviting and restful cabin is one of its biggest attractions, and occupants will be equally impressed by their seats after a few hours. However, the standard suspension deals surprisingly badly with small bumps and damaged roads compared with many in this class, and while the Four-C suspension's electronic shock absorbers smooth your passage somewhat, they merely bring the S80 closer to the level it ought to achieve with the standard gear. Yet the Four-C system is an expensive extra.
In automatic form, the S80 sometimes responds jerkily to the accelerator, and there's some background wind roar at cruising speeds, too. For all this, the S80 is a restful ride on a long journey, provided the roads aren't too rough.
The S80 has one of the most spacious back seats in the class, and it has adequate oddments space, too. Room up front is very generous. The boot isn't the biggest around, but the rear seats split and fold. The back seats of Executive models, primarily intended for chauffeuring duties, are positioned slightly further back to enhance legroom - if at the expense of bootspace.
Four stars for the stereo but only two for navigation, which is a ludicrously expensive option even without a TV screen. And it's not the cleverest of systems, either. The stereos work a lot better, being easy to use, capable of swallowing multiple CDs and up to putting out plenty of high-quality sound via a minimum of six speakers.
