Test drive Volvo S60 2000 - 2004 sedan

Volvo S60: Higher link

The debut of Volvo S60, held several years ago, was not an event of a universal scale, so the premiere of the new Volvo sedan was held in a normal, working environment. And even then, only a few months after the debut of the model, we took the top version for the test, the sports modification of the S60 T5, equipped with a 250-horsepower engine. I liked the car, and we decided to return to this car, but in a more democratic configuration. We have on the test - Volvo S60 2.4 ...
 
They always argued about the external design of this model, from the very moment of its appearance. Someone seemed too muscular, others, on the contrary, liked that the novelty was not as fresh as other modern machines. Be that as it may, but one thing can be said for sure: the work of the chief designer Volvo did not go unnoticed: a pronounced waist line, which automobile journalists called the Volvo shoulder, is the same distinctive sign of the company's cars as a large false radiator grille with a diagonal transplanting it. emblem. However, there are also enough other features that are also characteristic only for this brand. Recently, all Volvo is flaunted with huge rear lights, a strongly tilted rear stand and strongly bulging, relative to the hood line, a false radiator grill. In principle, Volvo has always been recognizable and distinctive, but now we can safely say that Mark has found the only and unique style that Mercedes and BMW has and who are so proud of the designers of these companies.
 
We also worked well on the interior: just as stylish, high quality, expensive. Personally, I believe that the interior of all Volvo of recent years, including the latest updated version of the S40/V40 model, is the best example of how the driver can be made at the same time beautiful, convenient and expensive. The V70 and the S80 sedan has become characteristic after the emergence of the V70 station wagon, the dashboard and the central console, deployed towards the driver, create a feeling of comfort and safety. In the S60 salon, it really feels that the machine can very successfully withstand the blows, it has powerful roof racks, quite thick in the section of the door. In general, complete compliance with the designed image.
 
This car also moves, respectively: softly, almost silently, ignoring most of the irregularities of the road surface. And if the sports version of the T5, which we tested earlier, is still a little harsh so that it can be called it comfortable, then S60 2.4 is just right. The suspension is not hard, but not too soft. True, she very willingly recounts all small road cracks, but the pits and potholes of a larger caliber do not seem to exist. At least the passengers of this car do not cause discomfort. The steering, if we draw analogies between the cars of the BMW and Mercedes brand, is a little reminiscent of the latter: the efforts on the steering wheel are minimal, there are also no vibrations, but there is practically no feedback. In general, for an active drive on a winding highway, this modification, like all other versions of the S60, is not suitable, its purpose is speed movement along relatively even highway, and the distance in this case is far from paramount importance. A little cotton steering and far from the most informative pedal of the brake echoes and the gearbox, the machine is also more located to the measured movement.
 
And although the automatic transmission is very suitable for the image, I would prefer a version with mechanics. As we have repeatedly noted in our tests, automatic boxes installed on Volvo behave far from being as excellent as everything else in this car. There seems to be no obvious shortcomings in it, but this machine is clearly disharmonious with the image of an expensive, prestigious and high-quality car. Somewhere, switching is too sharp, somewhere, on the contrary, the program should be changed much earlier, and in some cases not at all switching. But in the S60, even in the previously tested sports version of the T5, the machine is very much damped by the dynamics of the car, especially in a dilated urban rhythm of movement. His delay is just enough in order to turn a powerful car into a kind of American pure, more or less tolerably accelerating on long straight lines, when the motor has the opportunity to unlearn properly and completely inadequately behaved when moving in the acceleration mode. And if American models have such a lack of gearbox at least somehow leveled by a huge torque of the engine, most often an eight-cylinder, then on the S60 everything is slightly different: for an active drive, a manual mode of switching is vital.
 
However, all this is relative. Truly active drivers are actually very few, which means that during operation, some phlegmatic machine will not cause you unpleasant sensations. The car accelerates, thanks to a low pressure turbine, quickly and assertively, the engine at the dispersal also does not particularly solo, so the driver will probably not be about what kind of transfer is currently accelerating. In addition, the sixty itself does not provoke at all to violation of the speed limit: it does not have the peppercorn that all BMW or psycho Subaru with turbocharged engines are so proud of. Volvo, whatever one may say, is a car for a calm, balanced, consisted as a person and as a person’s specialist with income above average. It is not for nothing that high -paying specialists, lawyers, doctors, and managers most often travel to Volvo all over the world.
 
As for our market, the S60 model in general and version 2.4 in particular has very good chances to achieve serious success. We love expensive and high -quality cars, and some do not like the bored German models only because they meet literally everywhere. The Volvo S60 in this case has all the trump cards: there are still relatively few such cars, and in terms of assembly quality, as well as IPOs, it is not inferior, as previously wrote, the best foreign analogues. More specifically - German models of this class ...
 
Text: Pavel Kozlovsky
 

Source: Autogazet / N 28 (374) dated 08.21.02