Volvo S60 T6 R-Design

SPECIFICATIONS

1. Using a turbocharged 3.0L straight-six engine tuned by Polestar, the S60 T6 R-Design makes 325 hp and 354 lb-ft of torque. 2. Fuel economy is 18 mpg city and 26 mpg highway. 3. T6 R-Design models feature a stiffer suspension, upgraded brakes, speed sensitive steering and sporty body work. 4. The S60 is one of the only cars in its class to earn a NHTSA Top Safety Pick Plus rating.

PREVIEW

For the past 20 years, the sport sedan segment has been dominated by German automakers that blend dynamic handling with luxury and outright performance. Recently, however,Cadillac snuck up on the BMW 3 series with the ATS, while Volvo is proving itself a worthy adversary to Audi with the Volvo S60.

In its T6 R-Design spec, a potent power plant and surefooted AWD make it a rival to the well-received S4, while maintaining signature Volvo qualities.

INTERIOR

There’s plenty to enjoy in the cabin with luxurious leather seats that are extremely supportive and perfectly appointed, though rear-seat passengers will find legroom more accommodating in the Volvo’s main rivals. Other small touches help make the S60 T6 R-Design stand out as a truly special product, with R-Design embroidery on the seats, blue-glowing gauges and a slick rippled texture on the aluminum accents that put the usual wood or piano black trim in other luxury vehicles to shame.

Outside of the Nav, you have to resort to a control knob and all the screens are littered with text selections, rather than icons and graphics. Reading those settings and descriptions and fiddling with the knob while driving is certain to trigger the driver alertness warning system, front collision alert, blind-spot assist and whatever other alert system that’s currently enabled.While interior design is solid, Volvo drops the ball a bit when it comes to audio and infotainment. A cluster of buttons so small you’d need an Alan key to hit them sits in the center console. The lack of touch-screen, or joystick means you have to use these buttons to move about on the navigation screen. Simply put, it’s just not intuitive.

You won’t miss the audible warnings either, thanks to a lackluster sound system. While Volvo dubs it “Premium Sound” it’s clear that the Swedes have a different scale for audio quality, and didn’t benchmark the high-end audio systems found in competing BMW or Audi vehicles.

UNDER THE HOOD

While high-tech computers and sensors are found throughout the vehicle, under-the-hood you’ll find the textbook European example of how to motivate a car to go fast. Volvo has literally put a spin on the inline six-cylinder, with the turbocharged engine developing 300 hp and 325 lb-ft of torque. That, however, is in normal trim. The R-Design model features some handiwork from Polestar, Volvo’s in-house tuning company, which has bumped up the T6 engine to 325 hp and 354 lb-ft of torque.

In theory, pairing such an impressive (or possibly excessive) safety suite with Volvo’s T6 engine could be like going to CES with a Luddite. Might one spoil the experience for the other?It’s got the grunt needed to get to autobahn certified speeds, and is officially rated to hit 60 mph from a standstill in 5.8 seconds. In reality, the car feels quite a bit quicker.

Our time with the car says the two can very-much co-exist. In fact, the high-tech gizmos take the monotony and frustration out of gridlock driving, and when the road opens up, the S60 is as exciting to drive as any other sport sedan out there.

While Volvo doesn’t have the name recognition of Audi’s impressive quattro AWD system, the setup in the S60 T6 R-Design isn’t dimwitted at all. In fact, it sends power to the wheels with the most traction, eliminating most torque steer.The overall driving experience can be best described as solid, with wonderful throttle and brake pedal response as well as a customizable steering feel. Without an adaptive suspension setting, however, the S60 T6 R-Design is a headache on broken or under-maintained roads. It’s far too stiff for many of the roads we drove on, detracting from our enjoyment of its other qualities.