Road trip report - Montreal uphill both ways in a snowstorm

Montreal, Quebec is an easy 180 mile drive from home and my wife and I love to head there for quick getaways. Even in the dead of winter, the city is full of character, charm, and great food. This past weekend we booked the lovely Loews Hotel Vogue in downtown and packed up the V60 for a road trip.

Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating this weekend. We were hit by a moderate snowstorm on the way up but the V60 was completely undeterred, as the roads remained fairly clear. The outbound trip took about 3 uneventful hours.

Architecture is not one of Montreal's strong suits

The food and drink makes up for the lack of architectural splendor

On Sunday, northern New England and southern Quebec was hit by a big Nor'easter dumping around 12-18 inches of snow. We had a late checkout scheduled at the hotel (4 PM!) but the snow was already coming down heavily, so we left Montreal around 2 PM. By then, the roads were already a slippery mess.

The highway out of Montreal

The V60 was the perfect vehicle for this. Despite incredibly nasty road conditions, the car was surefooted and confidence-inspiring. As we hit Vermont, the skies darkened and visibility plummeted. Snowplows seemed M.I.A. as large stretches of highway were inches-deep with wet, heavy snow.

Looking good, eh?

It took us about 5 hours to cover the 180 mile return journey including an extended probing screening at the border. I couldn't have asked for a better car for the treacherous drive. The front seats remained super supportive and I can see this being an outstanding car for long road trips. The only real issue remains the terrible, very bad headlights. Terrible! Sad! On dark country highways, there simply isn't enough illumination from the low beams to keep a safe view of the road ahead. I'd highly recommend checking out the xenon headlights if you are considering the V60 or S60.

The car is reporting 26.2 MPG for the journey on 87 octane, and the hand-calculated mileage is 25.5 MPG.

Afterthoughts

Minor nitpick: The front parking sensors get iced over too easily, leading to false-positive beeps in the middle of nowhere.

Minor victory: There is, it turns out, a way to adjust the defroster intensity! When you hit "max defrost" the system immediately turns the fans to hurricane force. In my past cars there was usually a "normal defrost" setting, but not in the Volvo, as I've previously mentioned. You can, however, manually turn the fan speed knob down to quiet the cacophony. Success!