It’s fair to say that the new Volvo S60 is the Swedish company’s most important car ever.It is the first “Dynamic” Volvo as they say, and the first “Cool” Volvo which won’t make you committing suicide after a 5 minute drive! Now as they are preparing the final production version for the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, new details and pictures of this nice car are released.
At launch, the S60 will be available with two petrol and two diesel engines. The petrol models include a 304 bhp 3.0 liter for the T6 and a 203 bhp 2.0 liter in the 2.0T model. the first is a six and the latter a four-cylinder engine, both with in-line formation. The 2.0 liter model is actually the new four-cylinder 2.0 GTDi (Gasoline Turbocharged Direct Injection) which has been recently introduced.
As for the diesels, there’s the D5 with a 205 bhp 2.4 liter 5-cylinder engine and the D3 with a 163 bhp 2.0 liter 5-cylinder.
But during the first year of production Volvo will add four new models to the range including the T3,T4 and T5 petrol wit power ranging from 150 to 240 hp and a 1.6 D DRIVe model with 115 hp.
This being a Volvo means it’ll come with a great number of safety features, some of them really amazing. This car can detect pedestrians and avoid hitting them up to speed 35 km/h! Pedestrian Detection with Full Auto Brake can avoid a collision with a pedestrian at speeds of up to 35 km/h if the driver does not react in time. At higher speeds, the focus is on slowing down the car as much as possible prior to the impact.
A lower speed of impact means that the risk of serious injury is significantly reduced. For instance, if speed is cut from 50 km/h to 25 km/h, Pedestrian Detection with full auto brake is expected to reduce the fatality risk by as much as 20 percent and in some cases by up to 85 percent. So you have to say this car is the most high-tech Volvo ever too!
The S60 is the first sedan model on the market with Advanced Stability Control. With a new roll angle sensor, it is possible to identify any skidding tendency at a very early stage. This means that the Dynamic Stability and Traction Control (DSTC) can step in earlier and with greater precision. Advanced Stability Control is a great asset in dynamic driving involving considerable lateral forces, thus improving handling and rapid avoidance manoeuvres.
Volvo alsp promises superb build and used material quality for the S60, plus many new features. For example the car gets an all-new infotainment system where information from the audio unit, navigation system, mobile phone and other functions is presented on a five-inch or seven-inch colour screen in the upper part of the centre console. The screen is installed high to make it easy for the driver to keep his or her eyes on the road.
So what we need to know at this point is that how much this groundbreaking Volvo will cost. If it’s reasonably priced then we can get over the fact that it is still a Volvo (you know, when someone asks you what you drive these days and you say a Volvo, it’s not a good impression!), but if it’s priced like say a BMW 3-series, then we’d still go for the Bimmer!
