The 2019 Volvo S60 T6 R-Design Has Become A Real Sport Sedan

Table Of Content

• T6 R-Design: $46,400 or $850/mo • T8 Polestar Engineered: TBD or $1,100/mo
• First Generation S60 Production Years:
• Turbo-and-Supercharged 2.0-Liter Four Cylinder (+Electric Motor on Polestar) • 8-Speed Automatic • AWD
• A Bigger Tax Credit For Going Electric: What It Could Mean For Consumers
• Volvo S60 T6 AWD R-Design Test Drive And Review: Elegant Fun

So many of the challenges in the physics of an SUV are eliminated when the bulk of the car is lower. The star of the show is the nine-inch Sensus Connect touchscreen, flanked by HVAC outlets. A single row of toggles run beneath the touchscreen, anchored with a knob at center. The center console is similarly clean and uncluttered, with a gear selector lever, gnurled drive-mode control wheel, and a tambour-covered pair of cupholders. If you’ve selected the premium Bowers & Wilkens sound system, you’re treated to an eyeball tweeter at the top center of the dash and shiny aluminum speaker grilles on the doors (not to mention amazing sound quality).

T6 R-Design: $46,400 or $850/mo • T8 Polestar Engineered: TBD or $1,100/mo

Rear seat passengers, especially, should be grateful, as compact luxury sedans are notorious for sacrificing rear seat head- and legroom on the altar of form over function – the S60 doesn’t. Being an R-Design model, this S60 test car also features a number of sporty exterior enhancements. The R-Design front grille is a high-gloss piano black mesh that matches the window trim and mirror caps. The lower rear bumper design is also specific to the R-Design and houses dual integrated tailpipes.

First Generation S60 Production Years:

Following a short front overhang with an upright grille, muscular wheel arches house aluminum alloy wheels. A deep scallop runs above the rocker panels, rising toward the rear of the vehicle. The greenhouse swoops back from the windshield, and slopes down in the rear, blurring the line between fastback and notchback.

Turbo-and-Supercharged 2.0-Liter Four Cylinder (+Electric Motor on Polestar) • 8-Speed Automatic • AWD

This T6 model’s engine impressively produces over 300 horsepower while at the same time achieving over 30 miles per gallon on the highway. The Environmental Protection Agency officially rates the S60 T6 AWD R-Design at 21 mpg in the city, 32 on the highway, and 25 combined, and my week spent driving it in all manner of ways supports those numbers. As you might expect on account of it being a Volvo, the S60 is about as safe a car to drive as they come.

Neither the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration nor the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has crash tested the new S60 yet, but being a Volvo, it’s a safe bet this sedan will pass with flying colors. With a starting price of only $35,800, the S60, a North American Car of the Year finalist, is a remarkably good deal. Only the Infiniti Q50 ($35,550) and the Acura TLX ($33,000) start lower, and they’re not in the same league as the S60 in terms of style and refinement. The S60’s true competitors – the German trio comprised of the Audi A4, BMW 3 Series, and Mercedes-Benz C-Class – are all the more expensive. In a way, Volvo saved the best for last, but the new S60, especially in the brand’s R-Design configuration, is only this good because of the four vehicles that went through this transformative process before it. Only through them are the S60’s superlative qualities honed to near perfection.

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The Polestar also gets a bespoke gear selector from the rest of the S60 fleet, and it’s not great. Instead of a traditional PRND selector, it’s one of those things that’s more like a joystick, which returns to center after each motion. You have to push it twice to put it in reverse, twice again to get into drive, with a separate button for park. There are steering wheel paddles for shifting, but no locked “manual” selection on the selector, so the car goes back to calling the shots too soon after you make a shift. The S60 T6 AWD R-Design offers a killer combination of everyday drivability and fun-to-drive character (even if it isn't as hot as the S60 can get). The car features multiple drive modes that top out in aggressiveness with Dynamic mode, but even the default Comfort mode is sharper and more engaging to drive than your standard compact luxury sedan.

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S60 competitors are a varied lot that includes the Alfa Romeo Giulia, Audi A4, BMW 3 Series, Lexus IS and Mercedes-Benz C300. The 2019 Volvo S60 is an all-new vehicle based on the company’s SPA (Scalable Product Architecture) chassis that already underpins the XC90 SUV and S90 sedan. Double A-arm front suspension is now used in place of MacPherson struts, and the multilink rear suspension features a transverse composite leaf spring. Otherwise, the only other negative note from the brief time I had in the cars was some of the harder, simpler plastics used on the center cupholder area on the lower Momentum trims. Beyond my slight frustrations with the Polestar Engineered version and its arcade joystick selector, my only other notes on what stood out as non-ideal came from the infotainment system. The system was updated to respond quicker than on past Volvos, and it is responsive.

It’s nice, it’s comfortable, it does things differently than your average BMW or Audi, but it also doesn’t really stand out in a major way. But the 2019 Volvo S60 is all-new, and now it aims to be more of a true sport sedan than ever. There’s a design rationale that supports the engineering decision to fix the distance between the front axle and the dashboard. Car designers frequently cite this dimension as a key determiner in the elegance of a car’s profile. S60 is thus imbued with a sophisticated profile, as the proportions of the rest of vehicle fall into line.

The upgraded suspension carries the car’s extra weight perfectly through a good road, with the help of the strong gold-painted brakes, to. It also has gold seatbelts, which sort of makes the S60's otherwise refined and quiet interior feel like a pop up night club in a bank. This S60 T6 AWD R-Design test car also comes with a couple optional upgrades to further improve safety, starting with full LED headlights that actively bend around corners and feature automatic high beams.

We require new ratings every time an all-new vehicle or a new generation of an existing vehicle comes out. Additionally, we reassess those ratings when a new-generation vehicle receives a mid-cycle refresh — basically, sprucing up a car in the middle of its product cycle (typically, around the 2-3 years mark) with a minor facelift, often with updates to features and technology. This all-new Volvo — a 3rd-generation car built at a new factory in South Carolina — is about five inches longer than the previous S60, so it has a much roomier back seat. The 2019 Volvo S60 is available through traditional channels or via Care by Volvo, a premium flat-rate subscription service.

If you’re looking for a midsize European sedan offering sublime comfort, good style, abundant safety hardware and sporty driving manners, the U.S.-built Volvo S60 delivers on all counts. Yet, with this S60 tuned to be sportier than average, it still feels like a proper luxury car in that noises from the outside, the tires, and the engine are still well muted and bumpy roads don’t get far past the suspension to your bum. If you’re seeking a proper sports sedan, then perhaps these measures are unwanted, but for those wanting an even balance, the S60 T6 AWD R-Design teeters perfectly between these two poles. The 2019 Volvo S60 is one of the best sedans the company has ever built, and one of the best four-door options on the road today. Gone are the days of the S60 mostly being known for good seats—it’s become the total package.