Last month we drove two vehicles, both 2015 models from Volvo, that easily made it onto our good-choices list.
The V60 T6 R-Design station wagon and the S60 T6 Drive-E Platinum sedan are interesting because they are good despite flaunting rules that have been the death of other brands.
Return of the station wagon
First, we note that Ford left Volvo for dead in 2009 when it downsized to save its own life. Chinese billionaire Yet Li rescued the company from the side of the road and folded it into his company, Geely Automobile Holdings. We note that in a similar effort, Saab wound up dead and buried after going through a succession of European and Chinese owners after being dumped by GM.
Second, the V60 and several other models in the current Volvo lineup are actually “station wagons” – a term we enclose in quotation marks because, for all intents and purposes, it could be listed in U.S. dictionaries as archaic and out of use in the automotive market here. Nevertheless, the practical vehicles still offered by Volvo are getting good reviews and doing well.
Volvo’s resurgence began at the top: As the new owner, Li left sales management and product development in the hands of seasoned Swedish managers and engineers. They in turn have been frugal and innovative, in the best Scandinavian traditions. To save development costs, both the station wagon and the sedan are based on the platform developed when Ford still owned the company, which is now used in the Ford Fusion and Land Rover Evoque and also underpins the Volvo XC60 Cross Country.
Starting with this proven platform, Volvo’s development managers have produced three versions of the station wagon: the economical turbocharged four-cylinder, T5 Drive-E with front-wheel drive; the T5 (no modifier) with Volvo’s traditional five-cylinder engine with all-wheel drive; and the car we tested, the peppy, turbocharged six-cylinder T6 R-Design with all-wheel drive.
Power for the T6 R-design comes from a three-liter turbocharged inline six-cylinder engine that churns out a strong 325 horsepower and 354 pound-feet of torque. The six-speed automatic transmission puts power to all four wheels. Unfortunately, the combination of power and all-wheel drive takes fuel efficiency down to 28 mpg on the highway and 22 mpg in city driving.
On the other hand, all the Volvo wagons are rated to tow 3,500 pounds – adequate for most medium-sized trailers and a real bonus for campers and boaters. The trail towing rating also applies to the T5 Drive-E model, with its smaller 2-liter inline four-cylinder engine rated at a respectable 240 horsepower/258 pound-feet of torque that gets 37 mpg highway and 29 mpg city.
The S60 T6 Drive-E is built on the same all-purpose platform as the V60 wagon, but with a hot new four-cylinder engine that gains additional power by the innovative combination of a turbocharger that drives an air-intake compressor off the exhaust gases and a supercharger that provides additional compression using power off the driveshaft, and a turbocharger that increases compression even further at speed with a turbine pushed by outflow of exhaust gases. The consequence is an amazing 302 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque from a 2-liter four-cylinder engine that still manages to produce 28 mpg in combined driving (24 city, 35 highway).
Pricey choices
To put that power to the wheels, the S60 uses a new eight-speed automatic transmission that smooths out power delivery and assures optimum power at all speeds. (Remember when five-speed automatic transmissions were the best anyone was making?)
In the sedan market, the S60 has to be considered a bit pricey, and customers have a wide range of choices in comparably priced sedans. With a base price of $39,000 and the Platinum safety and audio upgrades, fancy 19-inch wheels and blind-spot information system with front and rear parking beepers (not included with the rest of the Platinum safety options), plus metallic paint and heated seats (though no back-up camera), our test car was stickered at a near-luxury price of $46,525.
Yet anyone seeking a station wagon over a more imposing but less practical – and frankly, less stylish SUV – has only this Volvo model and the BMW 328i xDrive to choose from. Even if a higher ride height is preferred, the Volvo XC70 on the same platform is a great match to the comparable Audi Allroad.
Unfortunately, the station wagon is even more expensive than the sedan. With the hot T6 engine, it has a listed base price of $45,150. With fancy wheels and heated seats like the sedan, but without the fancy audio package, safety upgrades or back-up camera, it still would cost $48,225 if the dealer doesn’t negotiate.
We’d suggest that someone in the market for a practical wagon consider the T5 Drive-E version, in front-wheel-drive form, which has all the same packaging advantages as the T6 R-Design.
Either way, the differences in price are likely to soften over time, given the sturdy reliability of that Scandinavian engineering and the timelessness of the sleek Swedish design, so we think it’s worth a visit to your Volvo dealer to check out these two models.
Los Altos residents Gary and Genie Anderson are co-owners of Enthusiast Publications LLC, which edits several car club magazines and contributes articles and columns to automotive magazines and online services.
