Let me give you some background info. My first car was a tastelessly modified orange Honda Fit. My second car was a Ford Focus ST in Tangerine Scream. So how did I wind up with a 2016 Volvo V60?
When I started the search to replace my Ford months ago, Volvo wasn't even on my radar. Maybe deep down in my subconscious I knew they still existed, but they didn't seem relevant to me in any way. I had a very specific set of skills needs. I'm starting a job this summer that requires a 53 mile rural highway commute each way. I've always been a guy who wanted to live close to work, and I bike when I can, but life intervened and so here I am. My new car needed to be quiet and comfortable... which the Ford Focus is decidedly not!
I was also looking for AWD. I've been a massive proponent of snow tires and have gone through many New England winters with my FWD Honda and Ford, but after driving my wife's Subaru Crosstrek with snow tires in a snowstorm, I decided to step up to AWD. In my logical brain I've told myself repeatedly that snow tires + FWD handles and stops equally as well as AWD. With that said, I was surprised by how much more confidence I had in the Subaru, so I decided to finally join the AWD bandwagon.
Oh, and regarding fun - last summer I bought a 2006 Miata, something I've always wanted. Not only is it an absolutely brilliant car, but it also meant I could prioritize comfort more in my daily driver.
One of the biggest surprises in my car search was how much my opinions differed from car journalist opinions. That's actually what motivated me to start this blog. I was interested in fun, but also refinement and practicality - these are rarely touched upon in your average car magazine article.
So here's what I test drove, and how I wound up with the oddball Volvo choice, one of 3407 sold in 2016 in the US.
- 2014 Audi A4 Quattro - I rented this on a road trip down the Pacific Coast Highway. It was a car that seemed to everything well, yet left nearly no impression on me. It was a relatively dull drive, didn't feel particularly quick, and didn't leave me with a sense of luxury, sport, or, well, much of anything. Milquetoast. That's how I would describe it. I've known several people with severe reliability issues on their Audis, so basically this was out. The Audi felt like a fancy, potentially less reliable Toyota Camry. Yes, I know that Audi has improved dramatically in recent reliability ratings, but word of mouth is still a big influence.
- 2014 BMW 320i xDrive - I wanted so much to enjoy this car. Alas, where to begin. The interior looked and felt cheap. The drivetrain, benchmark of its class, was adequately powerful and stunningly efficient (at least per EPA claims) but made an awful racket. The seats were flat and the Sensatec didn't feel as good as Mercedes' MB-Tex. Freeway noise levels were surprisingly intrusive for a luxury car, particularly wind noise. Both my wife and I were unimpressed.
- 2015 Mercedes E300 4Matic - Gorgeous exterior and interior, but lacked the sense of solidity that I might have expected from Mercedes. Closing the door didn't give me the sense of Teutonic gravitas that I was looking for. That wasn't necessarily a deal-breaker, however. The deal-breaker was COMAND. This system is utterly indecipherable, and I'm generally obsessed and very facile with tech!
- 2017 Honda CR-V - I was disappointed by this car industry darling. Nearly every auto publication has given it glowing reviews and I went in expecting so much more. The interior looks fabulous from 5 feet away, but then you get closer and - Mother Of God. The dashboard is covered in (bad) fake leather with fake stitching. This is unforgivable. There is bad fake wood to make matters worse. Auto publications have been writing that its NVH is improved, but compared to what? It sounded like a tin can on the highway. The infotainment system graphics and layout looked like one of my college programming projects. It wasn't for me.
- 2017 Subaru Forester - If you ask Consumer Reports what car to get, they will tell you "Subaru Forester." Here in New England, car buyers have heeded their words - nearly every 4th car seems to be a Forester. I test drove a bare bones manual transmission model. On one hand the sheer practicality of this car was seriously impressive. The interior is massive and the windshield view feels like a school bus. On the other hand, the Forester's interior is rather basic, it feels underpowered, and it lacked the highway cruising ability that I was looking for. The shifter was vague, and frankly, I'd recommend just getting the CVT.
- 2017 Subaru Impreza - If every 4th car in New England is a Forester, then another 1/4 of our cars are Imprezas or Crosstreks. I test drove a well equipped Impreza Premium. This was another case of auto-journalists-say-one-thing, reality-turns-out-otherwise. I was eagerly anticipating the new Impreza because it was supposed to have significantly improved NVH characteristics. It did not. It was loud and uncomfortable. The front seats gave me a backache within a few minutes, a problem shared with my wife's 2015 Crosstrek. Subaru has some kind of overly aggressive lumbar bolstering that is nonadjustable. The engine struggled to get it up to speed. Pros? The Eyesight system was very impressive and comprehensive, particularly at this price point. And let's face it, the Impreza is an incredible value in its lower-equipped forms around $20,000.
- 2017 Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen 4Motion - I was actually very impressed by the Golf. The exterior is clean and will age gracefully like most VWs. The interior felt top-notch, although the seats could be better. NVH was reasonable and power from the turbocharged 1.8 liter motor felt more than adequate. The DSG transmission felt quick-witted. I seemed to like everything about this car, and yet I just didn't connect with it. Reliability fears didn't help. I decided to pass.
After driving the above cars, I felt like I had a daunting task still ahead of me. I hadn't even narrowed down what type of car I wanted! I certainly preferred a wagon, but the realities of the US market means small SUVs and sedans are far more abundant. I struggled with whether I should return to the Subaru dealership and test drive an Outback, but my local dealership is rather slow and I didn't feel like spending more time there.
A few weeks ago I was idly watching YouTube car videos and came across the fantastic Motor Trend review of a Volvo V60 Polestar. It dawned on me - Volvo! Volvo makes cars other than the XC90! I browsed around and discovered that the Volvo dealer two miles from my house had a lightly used 2016 V60 T5 AWD in stock. I didn't go into the test drive with any expectations of liking the car, but I wound up liking it a great deal. Some thoughts below:
- Exterior - Tasteful, sober, and restrained, with the boomerang-shaped taillight cluster providing a nice bit of exuberance. The V60 is a fantastic Q-ship in its powerful T6 R-Design and Polestar forms.
- Interior - Inside, the V60 is gorgeous, versatile, and the front seats are unbelievably comfortable. Materials seem excellent. The rear seat is comically small, however.
- Build Quality - This car feels very well built. Volvo has managed to make their aging S/V60 platform feel more solid than Mercedes or BMW, at least in my humble opinion. The doors feel like they're carved from stone and the car rides with a pleasing sense of substantialness.
- Performance - I found the V60 to be surprisingly peppy with its 250 hp, 266 lb-ft turbocharged 5-cylinder engine. The 6-speed automatic transmission isn't as seamless as BMW's ZF 8 speed unit, but goes about its business efficiently and doesn't call much attention to itself. Handling is fairly flat on sweeping curves. The steering is electro-hydraulic, offering more feedback than most of the other cars I test drove.
With that said, this is not a car you drive with your hair on fire. Apart from performance numbers, the impression I had of this car's drivetrain was a general sense of relaxation. I tend to have a light right foot, and in regular driving the car rides its broad torque curve at low revs, barely cresting 3000 rpm on many local drives. The engine makes a pleasant grooooan that doesn't sound quite as refined as a Toyota/Lexus V6 or a BMW I6, yet sounds markedly better than most of the 2.0Ts in the other luxury cars I drove.
Fuel economy is rated at a disappointing 20 city / 29 highway, probably attributed to the older drivetrain. This is ameliorated significantly because it only requires 87 octane, whereas many cars in its class require premium (~15% more expensive where I live). I'll update this blog once I have more data on real world mileage - published reports of MPG on this vehicle are a little hard to find, likely due to its low sales numbers. - NVH/Comfort - The quietest cars I've ever driven remain my father's 1999 Toyota Solara and a 1998 Lexus LS400 that I briefly considered purchasing a few years ago. The Volvo isn't quite at those benchmarks. It is, however, subjectively similar to the 2001 BMW 525i that my father later owned. There is a hint of wind and road noise at 75 mph, but the din is relatively refined and doesn't grate or cause fatigue. It seemed markedly better than the BMW 3-Series, similar to the Audi (B8 generation), and not quite as good as the Mercedes C-Class. Of course, I drove all of these cars in different contexts so these are subjective impressions only. The ride is slightly stiff but not objectionable at all, and markedly better with 17" wheels compared to 18".
- Infotainment/Tech - The base radio sound quality is decent and helped by the generally good isolation of the car. The infotainment unit is not a touchscreen. Instead, it's operated through two knobs on the dashboard. Operation is intuitive and responsive. BLIS (Blind Spot Information System) provides blind spot monitoring. The parking sensors and back-up camera are useful although the camera quality is muddy.
- Value - This is a big one. For my budget, I could get a new or nearly-new V60, or a CPO German luxury sedan with 20-30,000 miles. Furthermore, Volvo's options are much more reasonable and inclusive than the penny-pinching Germans. It's borderline insulting to get a car with Bluetooth phone connectivity, and then have to pay extra for streaming audio. Incredible.
Objectively, I liked most aspects of the V60 more than its German competition, with some minor exceptions (I'd pretty much ruled out the Japanese cars). BMW clearly has it beat in terms of handling, suspension compliance, and fuel efficiency. Mercedes has more visual appeal, outside and in, although it's a bit over-styled for my tastes. The V60 just seemed to fit me. It fits me physically, in the sense that the seats are absolutely amazing and ergonomics are excellent. It fits my needs - the Volvo seems to be perfectly designed for my long highway commute and periodic road trips. It covers highway miles with comfort and serenity, and has enough passing power to dispatch left lane pirates. It fits my budget. It also fits my style as a nerdy guy who generally avoids flashy things.
The car near my house sold quickly, but I managed to track down a similarly equipped 2016 model with just 5,000 miles on it in Connecticut. One week and a several thousand dollar down payment later, and the car is mine the bank's!! I look forward to updating this blog with my random thoughts and hopefully lots of road trip photos in both my new V60 and my old Miata, plus whatever else might wander into my garage in the future.
