Volvo S60 review: Is this the luxury sedan you need in 2020?

CarExpert

Volvo is often overlooked when people are car shopping outside of the SUV segment. So, the new S60 has the looks, but is it worth stumping up money for? Paul Maric tests the entry-level all-wheel drive 2020 Volvo S60 T5 to see whether it goes up against the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Audi A4 and BMW 3 Series.  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 00:53 Interior: 02:49 Infotainment: 04:28 Features: 09:09  Practicality: 10:13 On the Road: 14:55 Verdict: 18:43  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #volvo #review #s60 @VolvoCars @VolvoCarsAus

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. What if I told you you could have a 3 Series or a C-Class but for less

00:04 money? Well, that's what this car is behind me. It's the Volvo S60. It is the brand's

00:10 competitor to cars like the C-Class, the 3 Series, and it's kind of like a premium version

00:14 of the Volkswagen Passat in that regard. Pricing starts at just under $55,000. You can go for

00:20 the wagon, which is the V60, for an extra $2,000, and you can see the rest of the S60

00:25 pricing down in the comments section below.

00:27 Today what we're going to do is a detailed review, and I want to see whether this really

00:31 does compete with a 3 Series or a C-Class so that you know when you're buying whether

00:35 this is worth looking at instead and saving a bit of money. Now, if you do want to skip

00:39 ahead to other parts of this review, you can use the time codes on the side there, or you

00:43 can scroll down to the description for the links to jump ahead. And while you're at it,

00:47 I'd love it if you could hit subscribe and also press the bell icon because that's going

00:50 to tell you every time we drive a new car.

00:54 Let's talk exterior. I personally think Volvo has nailed the design department of all their

00:59 cars. They just look nice and imposing on the road, and here with the S60 you can pick

01:03 from 13 different colours, and all but black and white are $1,200 extra. Let's have a look

01:08 at these details a little closer. This grille, it looks really cool. So it's recessed a little

01:14 bit, it's got these vertical slats, and then you can see the radiator behind it. Proudly

01:17 worn Volvo badge there too, and here this car has the optional 360 degree camera, so

01:22 the camera is embedded into the front grille there. Front parking sensors down the bottom,

01:27 this has both front and rear parking sensors, and it's just an elegant but imposing design,

01:31 and that follows on here to the headlights. So they're full LED headlights, but they have

01:35 this signature Thor's hammer, and I think that really just gives the car a little bit

01:40 of aggression out on the road, especially when it's coming up behind you. On the side

01:43 here the base model comes with 17-inch alloy wheels, 50 profile rubber. Often the issue

01:48 with Volvos, unless you option air suspension, the ride is incredibly firm because they fit

01:53 these sporty low profile tyres. Here on the other hand they're very chubby tyres, so you're

01:57 getting a lot of padding there, and they're not a huge alloy wheel either, so I'm keen

02:00 to see whether this rides better than other Volvos I've driven. In terms of the size,

02:05 the car's around the same size as a C-Class or a 3 Series, but it doesn't feel big on

02:09 the road, and yet it doesn't feel too small either, and I'll be keen to see whether there

02:12 is enough legroom in the back, because that's often the biggest issue with a C-Class or

02:16 a 3 Series, you just cannot fit passengers in the rear. Have a look at this back, I really

02:20 like it. So you've got these futuristic looking LED lights that wrap around the bottom. Volvos

02:25 LED game is really strong, so you can see at the front there you've got the Thor's

02:28 hammer, but at the back you've got an equally imposing design that'll make this car really

02:32 stand out at night time. The entire S60 range in Australia is all-wheel drive, so you're

02:37 getting that from the base model up, and despite the fact that all this stuff costs extra,

02:42 this car starts at a much lower price than a 3 Series or a C-Class, so you are getting

02:47 a whole lot more value for money here straight out of the box.

02:49 So we're inside the S60 now, and I really like what Volvo's done here. They've gone

02:53 a slightly different direction with their infotainment system, it's a vertical screen,

02:57 and that gives them a bit more real estate around the cabin to add things like these

03:01 vertical air vents, and just the tiered dashboard system. I like the way that you have the

03:05 top section here, and it comes down, and it's broken apart by these metallic elements that

03:10 are kind of cold to the touch. It really just gives it a classy appearance, and everything

03:14 looks like it's more expensive than it actually is, and I think that's the thing with this

03:18 car. Now, can you hear that? Yeah, that's the noise of flexing plastic. So while it

03:25 all looks really good, the build quality I don't think is amazing, and if I grab this,

03:32 the whole centre section starts making noise. So this car's now built in the US, it's

03:37 not a Swedish-built car, and it's also not Chinese-built like some of Volvo's other

03:41 products, and it's made even funnier because there's a Swedish flag here. I think this

03:45 is like the sort of Australian equivalent of people putting Chev badges on their Holden

03:50 Commodores, and then in the US on the Chev SS, them putting Holden badges on there.

03:54 But anyway, let's see how soft-touch the dashboard is. We'll get our hardness tester

03:58 out. This measures hardness from 0 to 100, where 0 is soft and 100 is hard. I'm going

04:04 to attack that dashboard. We will see what it's like. So it's in the 70s there, which

04:11 is surprising because it's actually quite soft to touch, but it is quite hard on the

04:15 meter. Let's try this centre section. That's not too bad, that's under 50. So yeah, look,

04:21 a bit of a mixed bag. It does look nice, it is all sort of nice and soft, but yeah, really

04:27 not liking that. Okay, let's talk infotainment. Volvo's gone down the path of the portrait

04:33 screen to afford them a little bit more space when it comes to stacking applications. And

04:37 then you can control it just as a touchscreen or beneath it, you have the ability to go

04:41 up and down with volume and then play and pause. And then you also have a shortcut button

04:45 at the bottom that takes you back to this home screen. The home screen's stacked in

04:49 a way where you have navigation at the top, radio, and then your phone pairing. You can

04:53 then maximise each of these. So if I click on the maximise button for navigation, it

04:57 makes that take up most of the screen. It's a fairly quick system, moves around easily.

05:02 You can switch between 2D and 3D modes. There's a compass at the top there as well.

05:07 Then you have additional functions such as the ability to set destinations using a number

05:11 of different fields. You can select points of interest, or what you can do is search

05:16 for them by name using the keyboard. Alternatively, you can write things in like that, or you

05:24 can go down the path of putting a full address in, in the traditional way. On the home screen,

05:28 you also have the ability to swipe down from the top to get access to the car's settings,

05:33 the navigation settings, or the radio settings, depending on which context menu you're in,

05:37 plus the owner's manual. I'll show you what that looks like quickly. So it's an

05:40 interactive manual. Once it loads, you're able to jump through to different sections.

05:45 So for example, if we want to have a look at the exterior, we want to have a look at

05:48 the headlights, this will tell you how to replace the bulbs. So it's a good way to

05:53 remove the need for a physical manual. Everything is built into the screen.

05:57 We'll jump over to radio. The car comes standard with AM/FM/DAB+ digital radio,

06:03 plus the ability to store data and then stream from your phone as well. In terms of phone

06:08 connectivity, you have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are both

06:13 paired using a cable. There's no wireless linking system. I'll show you what that looks like.

06:18 The integration isn't that special. So the downside to the portrait screen means that

06:22 Apple CarPlay, which is natively a widescreen function, looks a little bit compact and

06:28 squeezed in there. And you can see it kind of looks a little bit awkward. There's no real

06:32 easy way around that while you do have a portrait screen. You can swipe to the left. This brings up

06:36 the rest of your settings for the radio and then allows you to go to the apps that are built into

06:41 the car. You can then add apps as well. These all need data functionality, so you need to pair the

06:45 car to a data device such as your phone for them to work. But it is handy having stuff like Spotify

06:51 if you don't have a phone capable of smartphone mirroring. Inside here you will find the ability

06:56 to look at the car's status. So these are any error messages the car's producing, whether the

07:00 car's oil levels and things are right. They all appear when the car is on. Same with tyre pressure

07:04 monitoring. And then there's another feature here, which is your driver performance. What kind of

07:08 fuel economy you've been achieving. And then you can customise what that graph looks like as well.

07:14 There's another section here if you swipe all the way across to the right. This is where you can

07:18 set all your safety aids. So switch instability control on and off and then features like your

07:22 lane keeping assistant, how far the distance alert will come on, stop start system and then you're

07:27 able to activate the camera. Drop the headrests from here, which is pretty cool. There's also a

07:32 reduced guard here. So if you are parking the car somewhere with the windows down, the alarm will go

07:36 off if it detects movement inside the car. By hitting that button, the alarm won't do anything.

07:41 So it means you can leave your pet in the car if you have to, although I think you're meant to leave

07:44 your pet in the car. But whatever scenario it is where stuff's going to be moving inside the car

07:49 when it's locked. And then you can also change the cornering lights and a couple of other sort

07:53 of bits and pieces there as well. So it is a really good infotainment system. The only thing

07:57 I don't like, and I've had to start the car here to show you this, is that adjusting temperatures

08:01 while you're driving is a little tricky. So pretend you're driving here, you've got to move

08:04 that up and down. And if you want to try and sort of nail your temperature, you're taking your eyes

08:08 off the road, there isn't just a swivel, which I'm not really a big fan of because it means that you

08:13 do need to get your attention away from the task of driving to do something as simple as changing

08:17 the temperature. While the car's still on, I'll show you here the settings menu that allows us to

08:21 adjust what's displayed ahead of the driver. So if we jump into the My Car menu, you can change the

08:27 themes on the display ahead of the driver. So you can go minimalistic, performance, chrome rings.

08:32 You can also change the display theme over here. That automatically switches between day and night

08:37 as required. And then you can also change the contents of the display. So if we go into here,

08:42 you can change it to show the map in the centre, which is what we have now. You can change it to

08:46 show the current media or to show nothing at all, just so you get the speedometer there.

08:50 And then finally here in the settings menu, you can adjust the rest of the car's features.

08:54 One that I like though, is if you come down to communication, the ability to set the car up as

08:58 a Wi-Fi hotspot, so your other passengers in the car can connect to the car's Wi-Fi system and share

09:04 one connection instead of all having to have data. Pretty useful if you've got kids that have iPads

09:08 and other connected devices. Let's talk about the other features that you're getting. So you have

09:11 an auto-dimming rear vision mirror. Being a Volvo, they're pretty big on safety. So low and high

09:16 speed autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection. You have blind spot monitoring built

09:22 into those wing mirrors, a lane keeping assistant, reverse view camera. But one thing to note here,

09:27 Volvo has kind of gone down the path of Porsche in terms of options. So this car may look like

09:32 it comes with a lot of stuff like your moonroof, you have the 360 camera. It's all optional

09:37 features. So it is disappointing that a lot of that stuff isn't standard. I think I'd prefer

09:42 probably a slightly higher base price with more standard equipment as opposed to needing to come

09:46 in and spend another three, four, five grand to get some of the features that you'd expect to have

09:50 in this calibre of car. Now, what does the key look like? It's quite a cool looking key. So it

09:55 looks like a block. You've got the Volvo there on the back. Then on the side, you have like an

10:00 emergency button. And then on the other side, lock, unlock, and then a button for the boot.

10:05 And that sits in your pocket. So it's a proximity entry for the doors and also start. You simply

10:10 have it in your pocket. It's like this switch and the car switches on. Okay, what about storage?

10:14 I'm going to disconnect my phone. Let's have a look. So up the front, there's like a little coin

10:19 tray type thing. Let's see if that fits the phone. Hey, the phone kind of fits snugly into there.

10:24 Then there's this cover that retracts and that gives you a whole bunch of extra storage with

10:29 a 12-volt outlet. Let's see if that fits our bottle. That fits in there perfectly fine. You

10:34 can actually fit three bottles along there. And then inside the door, you have bottle storage as

10:39 well and then room for other bits and pieces. Center console, that's reasonably sized. That's

10:44 where you'll find your two USB ports. Over here, we have the glove box, another reasonably sized

10:50 glove box. And then I love the fact that the manual and other sort of parts that you don't

10:55 need to access often are hidden away at the top. So they're not going to get in the way of actually

10:58 being able to store things in there. There's also some netting off to the side. What about seat

11:03 comfort? It's probably my favorite thing about Volvo's seat comfort. This seat looks comfortable

11:08 when you're looking at it and I can tell you right now, it is very comfortable to sit in. So

11:13 yeah, that's just nice. It feels like it'd be good for a long drive. Steering wheel sits nicely in

11:18 the hand. Everything here is really easy to reach, but like I said, it's just a little bit fiddly

11:22 that all of your critical functions are here on the screen. Why not just have a couple of buttons

11:26 here for the climate control? So backseat, what's it like in the S60? Surprisingly roomy. Check that

11:32 out. I've got a fair bit of knee room there and this seat is pretty far back in my standard driving

11:37 position. Toe room isn't amazing and there's a weird sensation of the floor being really high

11:43 or these seats being really low. Like my knees are sitting up. It's like I'm standing to attention

11:48 ready to focus on something. A little strange, but the seats are extremely comfortable and I

11:54 love that they've gone to the effort here to put leather all the way right through to the door,

11:59 so they don't just stop on the edge of the seat. So it kind of shows that they've put a little bit

12:03 of extra effort in. Center armrest here. This is like spring loaded as well, so as you bring it

12:08 down it's got a soft descent. There's a tray there if you want to play like checkers or something

12:14 like that. Up the front you have the bottle holders. They fit in well. They've got rubber

12:19 edges on them and then a little tray at the bottom. That is joined by a bottle holder in

12:25 the door that's very unco and weird and kind of just swallows the bottle randomly, so that's not

12:31 the best design in the world. Under here there's even more storage if you want to hide some stuff.

12:36 Now there is a ski port here, but it's one way, so you've got to open it from the boot. You can't

12:41 then open it from here, which is strange because normally they have a system where you can lock it

12:45 from the boot, so you can't open it from here, but this has just no physical ability to do that,

12:50 which is kind of an odd thing to have. Isofix points on the two outside seats. Unlike Volvo's

12:56 SUVs that have the rising booster seat built into them, these are just a flat base and they have no

13:01 further adjustment. Matte pockets in the back of the seats. 12-volt outlet. Little coin trinket

13:07 tray there, and then the air vents are built into the door, so you can actually adjust very nicely

13:12 where that's going to be blowing. Now this is a cool feature. So a lot of cars have like a

13:17 retractable sunblind at the back that's powered. This one is manual, but it does mean that you can

13:24 just make it a little more private in the back here if you want to, and then your top

13:28 tailors are built into these covers at the back. So yeah, overall it's a nice place to be seated.

13:33 With the mass adoption of SUVs, people are kind of forgetting how practical

13:37 sedans can be. So let's have a look at the boot space here. So you crack the boot open

13:41 just using that rubber button under there. The boot comes open with this spring-loaded system.

13:45 You know what I find interesting? A while ago, a lot of manufacturers trialled using a hydraulic

13:50 system for boot arms, but you can see here Volvo's stuck with a tried and tested method. I can see a

13:55 spring hidden under there. So 442 litres of cargo space available. You have a little net on the side

14:01 there, a 12-volt outlet, and then beneath the floor you have a space saver spare tyre, a jack,

14:06 and a couple of other electronic components. Now before I put the luggage in, have a look at this.

14:11 To drop the rear seats, you don't drop them from inside. There's two buttons up the top here that

14:18 you press. It drops the headrests, and then the seats just fold out of the way. That's a pretty

14:25 clever system. I like that sort of stuff. Let's see how it fits our bags in. We'll pop these in.

14:30 There we go. Not a problem at all. So decent-sized boot, easy to get bags in and out,

14:36 and with a boot floor that sits below the lip, everything's going to be holding steady.

14:41 And before I close this, you have a safety triangle, and up here you've got a couple

14:44 of buttons. So this one's blank because in upper models this is a self-closing boot,

14:48 and that presses it. This one, on the other hand, if you push that with the key in your

14:51 pocket and then shut the boot, it's going to lock the car as you walk away.

14:55 So we have jumped behind the wheel of the S60. Let me run you through the engine specifications

15:02 first. So at the entry level, you've got a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine.

15:07 It makes 187 kilowatts of power and 350 newton-metres of torque. That's all mated to an

15:13 eight-speed automatic gearbox, and it's just a torque converter, so no dual clutch, no CVT,

15:18 it's all very straightforward. And you'll notice as well there's no paddles on the steering wheel,

15:22 so it's all automatically shifted, or if you do want to do manual shifting, you have to use the

15:26 gear lever. Officially, that means it's good for a 0-100km/h dash of 6.4 seconds. That's a pretty

15:33 decent number. It's not going to be crazy fast, but it is fast enough to give you a feeling of

15:39 pace behind the wheel when you're buried in throttle. It also has a decent engine note as

15:43 well, so when you sink the slipper in, you can hear it doing stuff. So it doesn't sound like a

15:49 dull thrum, it actually feels like it's doing something and gives you that little kick in the

15:53 back. Unlike the 3 Series and the C-Class that are both rear-wheel drive, the Volvo system here

15:58 is all-wheel drive for Australia, so it gives you a little bit more confidence behind the wheel if

16:03 you're doing a trip to the snow or something like that. It just gives you that added traction and

16:07 surety that you won't find in a rear-wheel drive or strictly front-wheel drive car.

16:11 Fuel economy comes in at 7.3 litres per 100km, but I reckon that's a highly ambitious figure.

16:17 We're averaging currently 12 litres per 100km. Granted, the car has been idling a fair bit,

16:23 we've been doing a little bit of driving to and from locations, and there hasn't been a great

16:27 deal of highway driving, but that is a big step up from around the 7 litre per 100km mark. And

16:32 on top of that, you've got to use 95-ron premium unleaded petrol.

16:36 Let's talk drive modes. So you select them using this cool little switch here, it's like a

16:41 knurled dial of some sort. So you push it in, it brings up the drive modes, you have Eco,

16:45 Comfort and Dynamic. For Eco, it's, I don't know, it just kind of reduces air conditioning and

16:51 slows everything down. Comfort is the one you're going to be using for everyday driving, but if

16:55 you then put it into Dynamic and find yourself a couple of corners, this feels really impressive.

17:02 It sticks to the road beautifully and that all-wheel drive system isn't very clingy or

17:06 like a lot of on-demand systems where it waits until there's a loss of traction,

17:10 it actually feels quite progressive. Throttle feel is excellent too, like it just picks up and goes,

17:15 feeling through the steering is great as well. So in that Dynamic mode, it really gives you a

17:20 sense of engagement behind the wheel. While it isn't 3-series level in terms of what it

17:24 feels like, it is damn close. Let's talk about the ride. The ride is sensational. So I don't

17:31 know why, but in a lot of higher-end Volvos that don't have adaptive suspension or air suspension,

17:36 the ride is absolutely abysmal and often they're paired with low-profile sporty tyres in the

17:41 R-Design package. Here in the entry-level Momentum though, the ride is excellent. It's soaking up

17:46 bumps beautifully, it doesn't resonate any potholes or sharp brittle edges into the cabin,

17:51 and it just constantly feels like it's gliding along effortlessly. You don't have to worry about

17:55 not ticking some suspension option box, you can take it straight out of the box and it is good to

18:00 go. What about visibility? Visibility out the front's excellent, visibility out the rear is

18:04 good as well. The ability to drop those rear headrests means you can get extra viewing out

18:09 of that rear window. The wing mirrors are pretty decent sized as well and coupled with the blind

18:13 spot monitoring system, you're not going to lose any cars in there. So it is an easy car to drive,

18:18 and even if you're not used to driving a bigger car like this, it's going to be fairly straightforward

18:22 to park it and get it in and around tight spaces. Noise inside the cabin is really good, it's a

18:26 quiet place to be seated. The engine can intrude into the cabin a little, so if you give it a punch

18:31 you can hear it coming to life, but it's that sporty edge they've tried to give the car,

18:36 so I think it is all there on purpose. It's not really transmitting road noise,

18:40 which is the type of noise you really don't want in the car. So Volvo S60, it's not often that you

18:45 come across a car that you really enjoy driving. The car rides beautifully, the engine's got plenty

18:50 of poke, and it's really affordable as well. The only area that this car's let down in is the

18:54 options pricing. It's like a long list of options, it's like a Porsche, just without the Porsche

19:00 badge. So if you go into it knowing that you're going to have to tick a few boxes, you'll still

19:04 come out better than paying for a 3 Series or a C-Class. It's got all-wheel drive as standard,

19:09 and it's just a really nice and refined car. If you want something a little different that's going

19:13 to stand out from the crowd, I'd highly, highly recommend taking one for a test drive. Volvo,

19:17 big thumbs up from me. If you have enjoyed this video and found it useful, please hit the like

19:22 button. Also press subscribe and also the bell icon that's going to tell you every single time

19:26 we publish a new video. While you're there, let us know, have you bought an S60? Did you take

19:30 one for a test drive? Perhaps you bought a 3 Series or a C-Class over it. If you bought one,

19:34 are you enjoying it? What's it been like? Let us know in the comments section below,

19:37 but until next time, take it easy.

Category

Transcript

Recommended