Wilvo S60 test drive since 2010 sedan

Finishing touch

Having introduced the Volvo S60 sedan in Paris, the company applied the last bar on the canvas, which has worked hard in recent years. The total audit of the existing model range is completed. The once widespread judgment: the safety of Volvo cars - this is certainly boxed forms and sheep obedience - has completely ceased to be true. Of course, the new car will have critics, as without them, but they will not be able to deny that the changes have occurred radical.

 

I recall the seventies. Among the rare foreign cars (there were practically no them in private hands) on Moscow streets mainly Mercedes and Volvo cars. What were guided by the servants of the then servants of the people, choosing cars for them?

 

Mercedes - I see, have seen enough of foreign films: prestige, exclusivity, status ... and Volvo has to do with it? Modest square cars with a two hundredth series did not seem to encourage a waste of folk remedies. Really already in those days the ministers heard something about the safety of Volvo models?

 

I must think, they heard. Even then, the company had an image of a manufacturer of family cars, conservative outwardly, reliable and hardy. Hence their specific habits - like calm people who are in no hurry.

 

I must say that periodically this idyll was violated. Among the outrageous of peace was, for example, the Volvo P1800 compartment, later - C70, but these were exceptions to the rule. The appearance of the sedan S60 can make such exceptions with a new rule ...

 

At our disposal - Volvo S60 T5. The car is designed in the new company style of the company, first embodied in the Great Sedan S80, and then in the V70 station wagon. Yes, and the S60 was built on the same large platform as the S80 and V70 - the same pendants on subframes (the front - Macpherson with a hard triangular lever, the rear is independent multi -link), the same steering mechanisms ... The wheelbase has become slightly smaller.

 

The tone in the appearance sets the sloping rear window and the windows of the rear doors, almost symmetrical front relative to the middle rack. In profile - almost a compartment. Royal rear lights on the youth S60 are much more appropriate than on a more conservative S80. The small -depot seventeen -inch wheels built in the front bumper fog and narrow gaps of air intakes look elegant. You can’t say right away that this is Volvo.

 

But in the salon, proprietary affiliation is felt right away. The combination of chopped lines and pointed faces distinguished all the cars of the brand, and the new style took this motive into service, thoroughly processing it in the spirit of the times.

 

The cabin is spacious and light. There are so many buttons on the wide central console that I don’t want to count. However, the sound controls and climate are quite large and are conveniently located.

 

At the base of the console is the most prominent element of the interior - the node of the gear lever. Something cosmic, visually quite corresponding to the Spaceball name invented for him, the cosmic ball of that is,. The head of a skin -covered head crings a naked lever that gracefully sticking out of the hemisphere (no leather gloves for you), an aluminum facility of the node. Continuous hi-tech ...

 

When tapping this extraterrestrial beauty, it turned out, however, that this is not aluminum, but only an aluminized plastic. Sincerely sorry. It is clear that real aluminum would cost more than plastic - well, let $ 100. From the point of view of the manufacturer, this miserable stomnon, multiplied, say, 100 thousand cars, turns into an impressive $ 10 million per year. But will the one who lays thirty to seconds of thousands of dollars for the car to pay a hundred and a half for a real thing?

 

In the rise of the console, cup holders and a telephone tube are hidden, the control buttons are located on the consoles. Insert the SIM card and say as much as you want.

 

Sleep, a seat with good lateral support is regulated using an electric drive (there is a memory for three positions). The adjustment range is impressive, especially in the longitudinal direction, which will certainly be welcomed by tall drivers.

 

The lumbar support is manually adjusted by a lever on the side of the back, the steering column has two (also mechanical) adjustments - along the length and angle of inclination. All this is enough to configure the driver's workplace to any growth. The seat at first seems harsh, but only at the beginning.

 

Sitting behind the wheel is very convenient, the controls are easily available, the steering wheel with a leather rim is pleasantly in the hands. The buttons responsible for the brightness of the glow of the combination of devices and partially - for music and mobile communications are carried out to his hub.

 

There are no comments to the pedals, efforts are in the usual framework. If the entire knot was a little to the left, it would be better.

 

The visibility of the driver’s place is normal, the front racks almost do not interfere, and the head seats can be folded by pressing the button on the central console.

 

At first, it seemed to me that the roll of roof caused damage to the residential volume for the rear passengers, but the place for their heads was quite enough. With knees, the situation is worse. For sitting behind, individual lighting devices in the ceiling are installed, the average armrest extended can be transformed into a children's seat that can withstand weight up to 36 kg. The trunk seems huge - like a deep cave (the effect is enhanced by a sloping rear window and small entrance sizes).

 

The engineering space in the organization resembles the motor compartment V70. The five -cylinder engine is installed transversely and has a characteristic plastic sleeve of the cooling system, longitudinally passing above it. Motor version of T5 with a working volume of 2319 cm cubic meter. It is equipped with turbocharged, which allows you to remove 250 hp from it. (5200 rpm./Min.), Twisting at 330 Nm is kept in the range from 2500 to 5200 rpm.

 

In addition, the Volvo S60 can be equipped with a 2435 cm cube engine, which develops a power of 170 or 200 hp. In atmospheric and boost options, respectively.

 

The box is a mechanical five -speed one, although you can order a car with a five -speed GEARTRONIC automatic, we know V70 XC. The drive, of course, is front.

 

Powerful in appearance wheeled brake mechanisms allow us to hope for a corresponding slowdown. The chassis is stuffed with electronics for the eyeballs. In addition to the traditional enhanced body with deformation zones, S60 safety is provided by all kinds of pillows, including an inflatable curtain.

 

It remains to understand how this handsome man drives. The clutch pedal is informative, the range is in the usual range for cars of this class and purpose. Go...

 

The programs are clearly and easily switching, the movements of the lever in the cladding from the side look spectacular (the driver usually does not look at him). The car is quite actively gaining speed, after three and a half thousand revolutions, the engine opens with a second wind, and acceleration becomes even more intense. Pleasant rumbling notes appear in the sound of the motor. At high speeds, the engine works better, in any case, the car allows you to know about this, demonstrating good acceptance at high speed.

 

At the same time, it turned out that the drive of the gearbox during quick switching begins to smear, that it can be attributed to heredity - the ancestors of the S60 were a degree of family transport. It is also worth noting a paradoxical combination of a distinct turbojah with good elasticity, almost always allowing you to go in the fourth and fifth gears.

 

The Volvo S60 T5 is likely to become a victim of magnificent sound insulation of the motor compartment and salon. The engine is more and more noticeable with an increase in revolutions, but so far they are low, you can go for a long time in reduced gears, and only a look at the tachometer makes you come to your senses.

 

The car, as befits Volvo models, is quite smooth, but the increased suspension rigidity makes itself felt. On the one hand, less than the swing and rolls, controllability and lateral stability in corners are good. On the other hand, the suspension and low -profile rubber pass knocks and small blows from small irregularities in the roadbins on the body. The dimension of the wheels and tires of the S60 is not too suitable for our roads, we would recommend rubber higher.

 

The car is fine on the road. In combination with a powerful engine, which must be prepared accordingly by promoting to working revolutions, this allows you to confidently feel both on an empty highway and in the traffic flow, where, if necessary, you can cheat through the entire width of the carriageway. Here, Volvo S60 does not behave as a family crew, but as a real athlete, quite corresponding to his appearance.

 

The brake dynamics also turned out to be on top, slow and confident slowing down, and in order for ABS to work, you need to try very hard.

 

In the bend, the car steadily holds the trajectory, demonstrating the habits typical of front -wheel drive cars. But something incomprehensible begins to happen at high speed. At the entrance to the turn, the car will first stubbornly, then the front end begins to smoothly outward (everything is fine, insufficient rotation is evident), but suddenly the rear wheels seem to be arguing and starting to overtake the front ones - as if the car had become rear -wheel drive ...

 

The situation, oddly enough, does not have dramatic development (if you do not take any convulsive actions). By the middle of the turn, the car independently stabilizes and successfully comes out of it. How does it happen?

 

Here it is worth recalling that Volvo S60 has two options for setting suspensions - Dynamic and Sport, which differ in the characteristics of stabilizers and shock absorbers. The Dynamic option is softer (it could be renamed Comfort, but this would not correspond to the image of the car), Sport is harder, more spoke.

 

In addition, the electronic systems that are equipped with the chassis are also different: the simplest Tracks (ordinary APS), STC (APS with several expanded functions) and the most complex DSTC (a full -fledged system for maintaining exchange rate stability).

 

We had a car equipped with a SPORT suspension (standard for cars with an T5 engine) and DSTC (option) system. If you correlate this equipment with the behavior of the machine in a speedy turn, the following explanation suggests itself. The urge to overtake the front wheels arising from the rear wheels - the reckoning for increased stiffness of the Sport suspension, which reduces the insufficient rotation of the car (or, the same, increases excess). And for the further independent alignment of the machine and a successful exit from the turn, it is necessary to thank the system of dynamic stabilization ...

 

Our communication with the new Volvo S60 T5, unfortunately, was short -lived. The car turned out to be very solid and solid, like all Volvo cars, but features appeared in it, previously not encountered. And even if the bright appearance and dynamic behavior of the S60 will seem to someone that are not relevant to the Volvian canons, we are a different opinion. By the way, some nod on Ford, they say, this is overseas influence. Nothing like that! Despite the purchase of a Volvo company Ford, the Americans did not manage to attach a hand to the S60 - the car was ready long before their arrival. So Volvo S60 is still a purely Swedish car. And with rivals (Mercedes C-class, BMW of the 3rd series and Audi A4) he will be able to compete. Including - price.

 

Text: Sergey Ivanov
 
 

 

Source: Motor magazine [No. 12/2000]