Review: Volvo V60

Volvo cars have long come with advanced safety, engineering and comfort technology, but one of my favourite things you get is totally tech free, writes Brian Byrne.

It's the little plastic thing they fit at the side of the windscreen to hold a parking slip. Where it is easy for the parking warden to see, and for me there's no concern when I'm away that closing the door might have blown the ticket out of sight.

That happens. And it can be expensive in unclamping.


Anyhow, that was just a small sense of satisfaction when I got into the Volvo V60 for review. The other thing that pleased me was that in all this trend for SUV-style vehicles, there is still a space for a thing of beauty.

Which the V60 is, without argument. Its format described as 'estate', the V60 is as far away as you can get from the original boxy — but cavernous — Volvo wagons of old. While we are still buying our cars with our hearts as much as our heads, something like this will always keep owners smiling.

Especially family owners. That's the bedrock of Volvo estate ownership, and there is still demand for it. Sure, the company has spread out its SUV range, stylish in their own way, and very capable. But I'd hope they wouldn't abandon their estate heritage. I expect not, as the V60 is built on the same scalable architecture used for its XC60 and 90 series cars.

It's a premium car, in my mind as much so as any of the other established premiums — Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi. So one expects a premium experience. In the review D4 Inscription grade car it was there in spades. The grey exterior reinforced the elegance, the maroon brown leather interior might be an acquired taste to some, but I liked its perceived warmth.

There was real warmth too, in the heated seats and steering wheel, both welcome in the recent arrival of proper winter. On heated steering wheels, I appreciate them only for a couple of minutes, when I much prefer to switch them off. But I guess if I was living in the car's home country, with regular days in the minus teens and twenties, I'd really find the benefit.

A touch of crystal effect in the console mounted twist button added a little extra class every time I switched the car on and off (Start/Stop buttons have become so ubiquitous that there's no longer novelty).

It's a big car, with more than ample room for five and pretty well all the luggage they're likely to carry even on a weekend of adventure lifestyle. Appropriately, it has an automatic transmission, and in the review car's case a 190hp diesel which makes a strong case for pulling back on the 'diesel is dead' story of the moment. It is quiet, refined in operation, and will certainly prove its worth on the kind of long journeys in which this car will excel.

We're very familiar with the large vertical screen used to manage the various systems in Volvos. It takes a little learning to get the hang of everything available, but generally works well. I would still prefer real knob operations of the climate control, but it's not the worst.

Listing all the tech and comfort elements of this car would take far too long, and anyway they are no longer unique to Volvos. I'll just pick two that I used, and which worked well. One, the semi-autonomous feature with the active cruise control and lane guidance proved very effective in motorway traffic. Two, the very useful and effective 'bird's eye' view of all around the car while parking.

And that parking slip holder, of course.

PRICE: Starts at €46,489; Review car €55,995. I LIKED: Refined drive in pleasing premium space. RATING: 5/5.