Volvo S60R Test Drive
Casey's List: The Good
The Bad
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Mrs. Superdork Let's start with the outside. I love the looks of the body, which is saying a lot because I normally despise sedans. The R features a tiny spoiler on the trunk lid which isn't even noticeable at first. I didn't like that as much, but then again it's better than a giant ricer-wing blocking my rear view. The car is nicely proportioned, and fairly boxy without being too angular (I hate bubble cars unless they're antiques). The R has a few extra emblems, and also different rims with an emblem on each rim. It sounds sort of tacky, but looks pretty good.
The R model has an interior fairly close to the non-R models, with a big exception being the gauges. They're bright blue, no matter what color interior you purchase. Very striking, but also a little distracting. I like my gauges to only be noticeable when I choose to notice them, and these screamed "LOOK AT ME!" The center dash panel with the radio and a/c controls is HUGE, but also very well laid out and very intuitive. My one complaint was a random small compartment (read: hole) in the console that I guess is for a cell phone. My Oakleys wouldn't fit in it, but my phone might. I am NOT a fan of random un-lidded compartments. If you're going to put holes in the dash and and console, at least give me a lid so I can cover the damn things. I'm also more likely to stuff crap in them, so I'd rather not have them at all. [End Rant.]
The leather in the Volvo was really nice, and the seats were comfortable and fairly supportive. I'm in search of lumbar support and while the Volvo had it, it wasn't quite as prominent as I hoped. But then no car has had what I'm looking for yet, so maybe my back is just weird. The back seats had head rests, but the S60 has a cool feature where you can hit a button and they both drop down so you can actually see out the back window. Cool!! Chris had fun trying to hit the sales girl in the head with them. Repeatedly.
The passenger seat was comfortable too, although I would opt for the power seat controls. We test drove several models and one had manual seat controls and I got the seat all out of whack and never could fix it.
This is all fun and games, but how does it drive? Ahh...it drives FAST. It was incredibly quick, which was good since we were in Austin which has the worst freeway on-ramps in America. Merge or Die is what I call them. No problem merging in the R, so we headed down 183 a ways and then I let Chris drive. The clutch was very bizarre; it was very, very short which made it hard to shift smoothly because you'd run out of clutch. You'd probably get used to it, but I didn't during the test drive. I don't think Chris had the same problems I did with the clutch, but he's used to a Vette while I'm used to sloppy-Miata shifting.
We sat down with the sales manager to work some numbers and the numbers he gave us were too high. Chris asked if there were any special promotions going on and was told no. Funny, when we got home and looked up Volvo's web site, it listed several promotions. I'd check with Volvo.com before visiting your dealer.