volvo S60 R- any good?

almoststew1990

almoststew1990

almoststew1990

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I've seen a few of these crop up in my "5 grand for something fast" hunt. With a 2.5t 30hp engine (presumably shared with with focus st or rs, which I can't find for 5k) I don't doubt it's fast in a straight line, but how would it compare to a 325/30ci and VRS on the following-

B road fun
Comfort / toys
Economy on a motorway run
Reliability
Consumables cost

Here is the S60 I've seen most recently
Http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201402121747115
 
I had a s60r for a short time.

Good car, very comfy but low on tech, so it will likely still have a tape player and the sat nav is near useless. Well built etc.

The engine was pretty decent. 300bhp, not the same as the Focus RS engine but similar. I had quite a few cars with 300ish but the Volvo actually felt a bit special compared to say the 335i. It felt quicker and sounded better to me as well.

Handling wise, they all have adjustable shocks, which I cant remember the name of. Settings were normal, hard or very hard basically. I never used anything other than the normal comfort setting as that was low and stiff anyway. Handling was fine, I probably never pushed it much to be honest but most people probably don't. Ride on the normal setting was perfect.

Good cars, I would have another. Fuel consumption was terrible though. I averaged 30mpg in the 335i where the same driving gave 17 to 19 in the Volvo. I also remember a weak point was the "angle gear" I believe in the 4wd system somewhere. I didn't have it long (only got rid due to dealer issues).
 
I've heard the AWD system and gearbox can be prone to failure, but otherwise they seem fairly solid. I've always been put off by them because nice examples still seem to fetch upwards of £6k which seems a lot for the kind of car it is, and I wouldn't want to risk buying a dodgy example because of the bills they can throw up.
 
almoststew1990 said:
Thanks for the input. The fuel consumption is a bit worrying as I will be doing 20k a year!

20k isn't disiesal territory is it?
Click to expand...

Depends on your opinion really - I do over 20k in a 3.0 petrol averaging 22MPG. My logic is that petrol is easy to budget for, whereas some of the bills thrown up by a lot of diesels aren't, and can quite easily wipe out your fuel savings. Not sure if I'd be choosing an S60R to do 20k a year in though.
 
I'll look into the 2.4 t5 but it might feel a bit less special / rare than the r version. I'd massively prefer a manual so it is good to know the autobox in the S60 is naff.

What's a Q Car?
 
Perhaps, but the cost associated with the R can be heavy, the fancy suspensive and angle gear made of cheese aren't good. Visually it's most the alloys that set them apart.
 
Ive always liked the idea of a Q car a lot hmmm...

One last random Volvo question- does the 2.4 have that fantastic 90s volvo low 'howl' engine noise? We're they 5 cylinders'?
 
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