RE: Volvo V60 Polestar: Review
Discussion
MonkeyMatt said:
his is no RS rival, its about on par with an Audi S4 or a BMW 335 but much more expensive! an RS4 or BMW M3 would leave it for dead! It does have some appeal though.
Really, I guess you have also driven one? I'd prefer a bit of V60 and a Caterham, rather than an RS6...it would also mean I would be able to drive without a paper bag on my head
Sir Bagalot said:
Gents. Cast your minds back to when Top Gear did Impreza Cosworth v Focus RS500 c Volvo C30 Polestar
http://vimeo.com/20754910What Polestar can do, wish they had put that into production at the time, I'd have bought one and a snotter for the longer trips I was doing.
MonkeyMatt said:
yonex said:
redwedge said:
I'm sure it's a great car, but fifty grands worth of great?
If Audi can sell RS's.....This seems to sit half way between the S4/335 and the M3/RS4 in terms of power and price. In terms of handling, well, it remains to be seen.
MonkeyMatt said:
his is no RS rival, its about on par with an Audi S4 or a BMW 335 but much more expensive! an RS4 or BMW M3 would leave it for dead! It does have some appeal though.
A 335i RWD estate is £40,460 with the standard auto boxA 335d x drive estate is £42,300 basic
An Audi S4 estate is £40,910 basic
That's without options, this will be better equipped and if you consider the bespoke engineering involved, such as the Ohlins dampers then I don't think it looks too bad - there's only 75 of them in the country too which may help shore up depreciation a bit. I'd certainly consider one over any of the above, test drive pending naturally, they'll sell them and I think the world is a better place for them, and hope it's a sign of things to come for Volvo.
Not forgetting what Volvo have been doing lately with 450HP 4 cylinder engines and Polestar's chassis knowledge I think it could be every bit as good, potentially better than fast Audi's/BMW's. The issue will be if the market is there?
yonex said:
MonkeyMatt said:
This is no RS rival, its about on par with an Audi S4 or a BMW 335 but much more expensive! an RS4 or BMW M3 would leave it for dead! It does have some appeal though.
Really, I guess you have also driven one? I'd prefer a bit of V60 and a Caterham, rather than an RS6...it would also mean I would be able to drive without a paper bag on my head
SteveSteveson said:
And this would leave the S4 or 335 for dead. Never mind that it probably probably has much better suspension, but it has 30 BHP more than the s4 and 60 more than the 335.
This seems to sit half way between the S4/335 and the M3/RS4 in terms of power and price. In terms of handling, well, it remains to be seen.
Recent autocar road test marks it down for having a hard ride and handling which is less engaging than its rivalsThis seems to sit half way between the S4/335 and the M3/RS4 in terms of power and price. In terms of handling, well, it remains to be seen.
SeiW500 said:
@ £35K yes...
@ £50K NO WAY!!!
Is 50k ok for a similar spec 3 series or S4 though?@ £50K NO WAY!!!
Clearly 35k would be yes for the polestar, for that you'd only get some crappy 2.0tdi A4 or 3 series with a few extras but still probably less spec than the V60.
Maybe Volvo should have stripped out all the nice stuff the others don't have as standard and priced it at £39k or something.
Axionknight said:
Considering the cars the V60 is being offered up against in this topic I think its detractors are missing something - unlike said rivals no one has ever looked at the V60 and thought there must be a tosser driving it......
That is worth a couple of grand on its own IMO.
That is worth a couple of grand on its own IMO.
yonex said:
Axionknight said:
Considering the cars the V60 is being offered up against in this topic I think its detractors are missing something - unlike said rivals no one has ever looked at the V60 and thought there must be a tosser driving it......
That is worth a couple of grand on its own IMO.
That is worth a couple of grand on its own IMO.
The B8 S4 Avant with its dual clutch S-Tronic gearbox also sneaks into the lower tax band by emitting 224g/km (225+ is the big one).
Anyone that has driven a dual clutch and then went back to an Auto (ZF aside) will know how lazy they feel and can make or break the experience.
Also, as previously proven, the S4 is underrated at 333bhp and regularly output ~350bhp out of the box.
We all know what happens to these with just a software map tune
No mention of what the Haldex setup is? Front biased which sends power to the back when slip is detected? Not sure but the S4 is permanent 60:40.
I do agree that being able to offer otherwise aftermarket components such as Brembo etc is a real plus.
Ok, I'm a bit biased on this one - I'll stick with my S4
Anyone that has driven a dual clutch and then went back to an Auto (ZF aside) will know how lazy they feel and can make or break the experience.
Also, as previously proven, the S4 is underrated at 333bhp and regularly output ~350bhp out of the box.
We all know what happens to these with just a software map tune
No mention of what the Haldex setup is? Front biased which sends power to the back when slip is detected? Not sure but the S4 is permanent 60:40.
I do agree that being able to offer otherwise aftermarket components such as Brembo etc is a real plus.
Ok, I'm a bit biased on this one - I'll stick with my S4
M7NDP said:
The B8 S4 Avant with its dual clutch S-Tronic gearbox also sneaks into the lower tax band by emitting 224g/km (225+ is the big one).
Anyone that has driven a dual clutch and then went back to an Auto (ZF aside) will know how lazy they feel and can make or break the experience.
Also, as previously proven, the S4 is underrated at 333bhp and regularly output ~350bhp out of the box.
We all know what happens to these with just a software map tune
No mention of what the Haldex setup is? Front biased which sends power to the back when slip is detected? Not sure but the S4 is permanent 60:40.
I do agree that being able to offer otherwise aftermarket components such as Brembo etc is a real plus.
Ok, I'm a bit biased on this one - I'll stick with my S4
You should know by now that Haldex usually has traction sent to the rears proactively, and definitely isn't one of those old-fashioned systems that need spinning wheels to start doing something. That was many many years ago, that one I believe has Haldex 5. Land Rover and a few others have specifically stated that their Haldex systems have 50/50 split as DEFAULT, and only starts to take out drive to the rears as speed increases enough to know that it isn't needed.Anyone that has driven a dual clutch and then went back to an Auto (ZF aside) will know how lazy they feel and can make or break the experience.
Also, as previously proven, the S4 is underrated at 333bhp and regularly output ~350bhp out of the box.
We all know what happens to these with just a software map tune
No mention of what the Haldex setup is? Front biased which sends power to the back when slip is detected? Not sure but the S4 is permanent 60:40.
I do agree that being able to offer otherwise aftermarket components such as Brembo etc is a real plus.
Ok, I'm a bit biased on this one - I'll stick with my S4
Anyway, it seems to work really well in the Audi vs. Volvo "FWD-based repmobile turned into a sportyish car"-category's battle: track testers Sport Auto found the results to be pretty convincing as the Volvo was a full 1.4 seconds faster than the Audi (at the Hockenheimring short track). Sure, the Audi had slightly tamer tires (Cinturato P7 vs. Pilot Super Sport) but that doesn't explain that margin! But above all the testers raved about how amazing the Volvo is to drive and how terrible the Audi was. They really wanted to get the point across on how completely the Volvo wiped the floors with the Audi and other Germans in the test (335xi and Insignia OPC)... And as tested the Audi was over 10k€ more expensive.
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