Volvo S60 T5 R-Design
Volvo’s occupy a particular, if unusual spot in the luxury car lineup. Not too flashy, no longer too boring; a reputation for reliability and build quality. Now Volvo go and mark their lineup in a model range, not by engine size but by an increasing number, allied to a letter, so the petrol gets a T and this model gets a 5, smaller in capacity and performance than its bigger T6 sibling but two up from the T3.
Then this one comes with Volvo’s R-Design. Which is a nice way of saying the factory pimped this one up. Now this isn’t LA Rap Star pimping exactly. More Nordic Engineer with an expense account pimping. So think understated brutality. Matte surfaces, symmetric pipes and a sort of glowering look. Not so much Schwarzenegger with gold teeth bearing an axe, more Daniel Craig as Bond looking out from under his brows probably packing discreetly in a shoulder holster. It looks good. In S60 form you get a practical sedan with quite a lot of room. The interior is simple and the gadgetry minimal. A descent AV interface which is on the appropriately small side. This remains a car not a moving entertainment system.
As for the technical specs, you get the S60’s 2nd highest output, 177kW from the 2 litre 4 cylinder. 320Nm are also available. This translates into a 0-100 of 7.3 for the manual and a combined consumption of 7.9l/100km while spewing 184 grams of CO2 every Km.
This translates as quick. Not riveting. But Quick. If showboating is your thing, or impressing potential partners with sideways antics to lure them into your boudoir seems likely, I would suggest looking elsewhere. The ethos seems to be getting there fast without ruffling feathers. Taught, fast but ultimately not engaging. Volvo’s place is for the executive who does not have a racing driver alter ego. Just one who is occasionally late for meetings. As with other Volvos, you can switch the traction control off, but only by scrolling through the on-board computers menu. Unlike the other executives which have a facia mountain button. Volvo clearly doesn’t expect you to use this feature often. Neither would I quite frankly. If that is your thing, you are clearly barking up the wrong tree. Volvo is for the evolved. The value system is a little quirky, a little different and thankfully no longer staid.
To sum up if you need a reasonably frugal full size executive that says to yourself and not others that you have made it, and you sometimes need to go places fast, you could certainly do worse than 400 odd k of Executive medium size sedan found here.