SA Road Tests

Welcome

This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.

*To read one of our road tests, just select from the menu on the left.

*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.

We drive the 2011 Volvo S60 3.0 turbo all wheel driving

Pure passion for driving

Interior pic by author

 Volvos have always been known as safe cars; solid, dependable and usually strategically placed in movies and TV sitcoms as the property of someone solid, dependable, upright and as boring as yesterday's cornflakes. There was once a happy time, though, when P544s and Amazons were bachelors' crumpet-catchers of choice and many went on to do good things in local rallies and saloon car races.

Since then, however, they have been shrugged off by car enthusiasts as quite luxurious but not up to the standards of handling and performance set by certain Germans. Volvo set about changing that precept with the 2009 XC60 SUV, billed at the time as "possibly the most sporting car Volvo has ever produced." Built on a new platform and with attention to suspension and drivetrain, it set new standards for SUVs and is actually very good for any class of car.

This is where the new S60, not to be lumped together with its 2000-to-2009 predecessor, comes in. Its design team abandoned the old P2 platform shared with certain 70-, 80- and 90-series models and moved the new car across to the Y20 pan used by the XC60. In doing so, it gained 61 mm of wheelbase, 26 mm in length and grew 42 mm wider with a 48 mm increase in height.

With the new platform came renewed development of the car's underpinnings: "This project has been about pure passion for the task of driving Volvo's chassis development expertise to its very pinnacle. We've crossed into territory where we've never been before," says Stefan Sällqvist, engineer in charge of chassis development.

The S60 can be specified with a choice of two chassis. In Europe and South Africa, customers get the newly developed dynamic chassis, while most markets in North America and Asia have the comfort version with the sporty variant available optionally. The difference between the two is in dampers and front and rear subframes, with the comfort variant being somewhat softer for a smoother ride on poorer road surfaces.

Available initially with a choice of three engines, the recently uprated 3.0 litre turbo fitted to our test car, a 2.0 litre turbo and the familiar 2.4 litre D5 diesel, a further five 1600 cc and 2.0 litre petrol and diesel motors will follow later. The 3.0 litre comes as "awd only." Described by some overseas testers as an entry-level luxury car, the S60 is aimed squarely at the likes of C-class Mercedes, BMW 3-series and Audi A4.

There is no doubting its credentials in respect of quality of fit, finish and standard equipment, while the new underpinnings make the car a pleasure to drive enthusiastically. While this reviewer would consider it at least equal to the small Mercedes, it will probably be a while before testers more skilled than he is, deliver objective verdicts on how it shapes up against the others.

One thing it has in common with its German competitors is a healthy list of options - not quite as long, but getting there. Our test car had the R29 000 Elite package; powered and heated front seats, active cornering lights, headlight washers, load holder, rain sensor, rear park assist, keyless drive, Blind Spot Information System, Sleipner 18" alloy wheels, High Performance sound system with Bluetooth, chrome decor around side windows, three-spoke leather steering wheel with decor inlays, bright decor on front and rear spoilers, and side skirts. What I did appreciate was both auxiliary and USB music inputs, with the USB providing full iPod compatibility via the original cable.

My notes describe the car as firm and solid, not as exciting as some perhaps, but comforting. It isn't as intense an experience as in the Quattro, for example, but probably more companionable in the long term. Driving the car in normal mode with the six-speed Geartronic, it's civilised and very Volvo. Slip into sport mode, however, and your nice polite Swede adopts a harder and more urgent persona. Reactions seem sharper and the engine growls a bit. Dare I say it? It seems almost rude by comparison with its usual genteel self.

Volvo wrote the handbook on seats, so I won't repeat what has been said so many times before. The newly modernised menu and control panel is not as intuitive as on lesser Volvos though. It's a major undertaking to select and file radio stations, for example. I'll have the old system back, please? Head- and kneeroom in the back seat area is sufficient for six-footers and entry and exit is comfortable enough. Although the back seat is sculpted for two, three head restraints and belts are supplied. Storage consists of a big glove box, centre console bin, door storage and the nook behind that downward-curving centre control panel.

The boot is not as big as on the C-class or an A4 for example, but quite adequate. Loading threshold is just above knee height and the sill is shallow. Surprising was the lack of even a spacesaver spare, just a Conti mobility kit under the floor panel. This may be the way of the future and OK for Europe, but it doesn't mean it's perfect for South Africa, unfortunately.

The numbers

Basic price: R464 000

Engine: 2953 cc, 24-valve, inline six cylinder

Power: 224 kW at 5600 rpm

Torque: 440 Nm between 2100 and 4200 rpm

Zero to 100 km/h: 7.3 seconds

Maximum speed: Governed to 250 km/h

Real life fuel consumption over 350 km: about 11.8 l/100 km

Tank: 68 litres

Maintenance plan: 5 years/100 000 km

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.

What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.

Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax. 

So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!

Comments?

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