Having owned our S60 for nearly 2 months, I thought it would be worth giving a quick update on how it's going.
Lets get the bad bits out of the way:
- The turning circle really is as rubbish as people say. According to a US website, it's only 1m worse than an E46, certainly seems to be worse. It's not the end of the world, but does require more planning in tight areas.
- The fuel consumption isn't that brilliant, i.e. averaging around the mid to high 30s. Being fair, we spend most of our time in traffic jams, and our 330i would have been around 20mpg, so it's still a good 50-75% better. On a long run, we average in the 40s.
- Being a diesel, sounds like a world war 1 biplane when it's just been started on a cold day.
- We had the most annoying noise coming from the rear suspension. I thought we were going to have to replace the shocks and bushes. In the end I tracked it down to a combination of the head-restraint in my son's baby seat (solved with some bubble wrap) and my box of bits (e.g. first aid kit, fire extinguisher) knocking against the rear seat. It's nice when a potentially nasty fix turns out to be free for a change.
- Volvo main dealer service somehow manages to make BMW look cheap. A BMW big service for our 330i was £320, Volvo want £560. Lets just say that ours will only ever be seeing independant specialists.
In short, no real horror stories.
And the good bits:
- The best seats I've come across in a car (unless you need bucket seats for track work). Just amazingly comfortable. I recently sat in a new XF, and I'm sure that the Volvo seats are better.
- When it's warmed up and moving, it's VERY quiet. Much quieter than our 330i was. Even at standstill, it's much smoother than most diesels I've been in. The exception to this is when you floor it, when it almost sounds like a quieter version of an old Audi Quattro, which I guess makes sense as they both have 5 cylinder engines.
- Everything about the way the car drives is "waft". Light and easy controls, mid-range torque where you need it, amazingly smooth auto gear changes, nice ride.
- Whilst it's setup for comfort, it's not completely hopeless when shown a corner. The steering is progressive (if lacking in feedback) and the handling is fine. Linked to 225 tyres all round, and it's got more than adequate levels of grip. Doesn't tramline at all. Don't get me wrong, it is NOT a sports car, and doesn't make even the slightest attempt to be, but it won't wallow around like a supertanker in a swell when shown a corner and certainly doesn't leave you wondering what the wheels are upto.
- Bigger boot (by 30%), more width for rear seat passengers and a fold down rear seat, which allowed us to get a rolled up king sized memory foam mattress in it this morning.
- Quality interior. IMO the S60 is at least on par with our 330i, and feels very very solid. Makes something like a mk3 Mondeo look like it was made by Zanussi, i.e. like an appliance. I have to say that the way the doors close and everthing fits so well, I expected it to weigh lots. Kerb weight is around 1480kg, which is about 40kg lighter than our 330i was, lighter than a 320D, and a wopping 120kg lighter than say a Rover 75 CDTi, which I guess would have been a competitor when new.
- Brilliant stereo, well at least once you've realised that DP2 is a waste of time and disabled it. I wouldn't put it on par with a genuine dedicated home stereo system, but it's not a million miles adrift.
- Very effective dual zone climate control. In comparison the E46s seemed like it was broken. Even has vents in the B pillars for rear seat passengers.
- Oodles of toys, e.g. dipping rear view mirror, parking sensors, Ipod adapter, trip computer, cruise control, memory drivers seat etc etc.
In short, it's a lovely place to be unless the car is stone cold. Miles better than our 330i was for our needs.
Possibly more important is how it makes you feel. When I get our of it, I'm far less stressed than I was whilst driving our 330i, which rather surprised me, as most of our local journeys really aren't fun.
For anyone who's had enough of rock hard suspensions and stress, it's a brilliant option.
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