Volvo S60 details released ahead of Geneva debut

Fifth Gear  Tuesday 09 February 2010

Volvo has released the details of the new S60 ahead of the car’s official debut at the Geneva show.

The saloon will launch into one of the car industry’s most competitive markets, but Volvo insists that the S60’s new design and superior driving characteristics will mean it can compete with the likes of BMW and Audi.

The company is touting the S60 as a four -door coupe – hardly an original pitch – but there’s no denying that the car’s fastback appearance. The long C-pillar and contoured shoulders give the S60 an athletic stance, but brand recognition has not been entirely sacrificed in the pursuit of increased sportiness; the car is still unmistakably a Volvo.
However, the S60 will need more than a handsome new body if it is to succeed against the best of the German opposition. Unsurprisingly, Volvo is promising a refined, sporty driving experience from the newly-developed ‘Dynamic’ chassis which will be standard in Europe and is based on Ford Mondeo hardware.

The S60 gets quicker steering, greater rigidity and stiffer suspension than the previous model, which should make for better handling, and the dampers were fine-tuned on English roads to find a better balance between comfort and body control.

Volvo has also added a new traction control system which uses torque vectoring to help make the S60 corner more smoothly. Rather than simply braking the inner driven wheel when it detects slip mid bend, the new Corner Traction Control system simultaneously transmits power to the outer driven wheel, reducing the car’s tendency to understeer.

For customers who value comfort over dynamic performance, the S60 can be specified with the FOUR-C chassis, which uses a number of sensors to continually adjust the car’s dampers to the road conditions. Offered as an option in Europe, the FOUR-C chassis will be standard in the US and Asia.

The S60 range will be available with a choice of three engines from launch; two diesels and one petrol. The latter will be Volvo’s 3.0-litre straight six developing 304bhp, while the 2.4-litre and 2.0-litre five-cylinder turbo diesels produce 205bhp and 163bhp, respectively. The petrol engine will come with four-wheel drive as standard.

Three smaller capacity petrol engines will be added to the range in the first year of production, as will a 1.6-litre DRIVe diesel which Volvo claims will be good for 67mpg.

The S60 also gets a plethora of safety features, including Volvo’s pedestrian detection system which automatically brakes the car if it detects someone stepping out into the road. The system is capable of avoiding a collision at speeds of up to 21mph if the driver does not react in time.

The new S60 will be built at the Volvo Cars factory in Ghent, Belgium. The first cars should reach their owners by the start of summer.