| "Volvo.
It's boxy
but good"
Ever since the movie "Crazy People" used that phrase in a fictitious
advertising campaign, the words just seem to run through my head any time
I hear the name, Volvo. Today, "boxy" is hardly an
apt. description for Volvo styling as one look at the sleek sedan in the
photo above will tell you. Perhaps, they finally moved the styling
department out of the back room and substituted their straight edges for French
Curves. Whatever their
story, Volvo is coming out with some seriously good looking automobiles these days.
Safety is still
Volvo's number one focus and the primary quality that they build their reputation on. But are they that much safer than other
brands? Sure, they have all the newest safety advances like side and
front & rear head air bags, seat belt pretensioners and the like, but
other cars in this class have these features as well. If you look at statistics, you may find that Volvos are
involved in fewer crashes with fewer injuries or fatalities than other cars, but I attribute that to the simple
fact that
people buying a Volvo are more safety conscious
than the average car buyer and drive accordingly. These drivers choose the car with
the best reputation for safety regardless of how it looks. Whether
these statistics hold up now that Volvo is so attractive for its style and comfort as well as for
safety remains to be seen.
 The S60 is a small sedan in the same category as the Mercedes C-Class
and the Audi A4. I thoroughly enjoyed driving this small Volvo
and found it to be a responsive road car with adequate power, excellent
brakes, secure, well-controlled handling and a vault-like
body structure.
Inside the car, the driver's seat had a cocoon-like feeling of comfort that stands out from the
increasing crowd of excellent sedans in this near-luxury price
range. On a long Interstate trip, the substantial feel of this car
seemed to melt away the miles and added to
the feeling of safety that Volvos are famous for.
My front seat passenger however, was not crazy about the positioning of the stationary,
non-adjustable headrest when she reclined the seat to catch some Z's on
the long trip. As far as I was concerned, my headrest was just fine.
If I had a complaint, it would be the lack of a true center armrest on the console.
There are a total of three cup holders up front, one in the dash and
two more in the
console under a cover. But depending on how you option this car, you
can potentially lose two of these cupholders leaving just one for your morning
java. One of the console cup holders is used up with the accessory ashtray,
while the optional telephone's keypad replaces the pop-out cup holder in the dash.
So, lets see... one cupholder holds
the coffee that you are drinking, a second cupholder is for the ashtray
that holds the cigarette that you are smoking, and the third deals with
the phone that you hold to your ear. That's two vises and an indispensable
link to the civilized world, with an ongoing debate by some as
to which are vices and which is the
link to civilization.
That cell phone option also adds a button on the right spoke of the steering wheel
above the auxiliary radio buttons to allow easy answering of the phone without
taking your hands off the wheel. The phone package also includes a speaker built
into the driver's headrest. There is a handset in the console
compartment for private calls when you don't want to use a speakerphone.
 The
interior feels expensive and has a rich fit and finish
throughout. The instruments are clear and easy to read, but the
clock at the bottom of the tach dial is not very convenient for anyone but
the driver. This is a pet peeve of mine, the clock belongs in the
center of the dash where everyone can see it.
The rear passenger compartment is comfortable, if
somewhat tight when there are long-legged people occupying the front
seats, but it holds its own when compared with other small sedans in this
segment. The
rear arm rest has a retractable pair of
cup holders and a small covered storage compartment
The split rear
seat folds down and opens a large pass-through to the trunk. The
center
arm rest provides a smaller pass-through without sacrificing the rear seats.
There is a button on the dash to drop the three rear headrests for better
visibility, but unlike some Mercedes models which also have this feature,
the headrests drop forward requiring rear seat passengers to lift them up
before seating themselves. Perhaps, this can be considered a safety
feature, since other cars fold the head rests back onto the package shelf
allowing passengers in the rear to ride without the
benefit of headrest protection.
 The
5 cylinder turbocharged engine sounded a bit coarse compared to the 6
cylinder engines that fill this segment, but the turbocharger gives it an
almost musical quality which sounds pleasant
overall. The 5 speed automatic is excellent with intuitive shift points
that happen exactly when they should. With the shifter in Drive, a
simple flick to the left puts you in manual control of when shifts take
place. You move the stick forward to up shift, and back to down
shift, but unlike
most manu-matics that just limit the top gear the transmission will shift
up to, this manual mode gives you true control. With this Volvo Automatic, you can start off in either 1st, 2nd or
3rd and hold that gear as long as you wish.
The system only
intercedes when a gear would be harmful to the engine. This power
train has flexible
power delivery, especially at highway speeds, but it could use a bit more torque
for off-the-line acceleration.
The ride is reasonably good, but can become somewhat choppy on bad
roads. Overall, not a bad compromise between ride and aggressive
drivability. This small sedan has a nimble quality with a
substantial but accurate steering feel. Overall, the handling is quite
sporty and un-Volvo like. The Michelin MXV-4 tires are slanted toward
a smooth quiet ride, so cornering limits come up early and make themselves
known gradually, but safely.
Yes, Volvo is stepping out of the "Box" these days and are producing some (dare-I-say) genuinely
beautiful designs with the S60 series no exception.
Bravo Volvo.
Click
here for more pictures of the Volvo S60
Your Comments
Do you have any feedback on the
Volvo S60? Any opinions or experiences of your own? We would love to hear
from you. Click
here to send us your comments
How does the S60
fit your driving style?
Conservative
drivers This
car lives for conservative drivers. Responses to driver inputs are
smooth and predictable, and passengers will feel at ease just because they
see the Volvo nameplate.
Sporty
drivers will
like the steering feel and the powerful brakes, but the engine could use
more low end grunt.
Fast
drivers Seems like blasphemy to driver a
Volvo fast. Oh, it can handle most anything that you throw at it,
but you have to worry about what people will think. If they see a
Volvo being driven fast, they will assume that you must have stolen it
because a true Volvo owner would never drive like that.
Specifications
2002 Volvo S60 AWD 4-Door Sedan |
Family Car Parts Store
