RE: Volvo V60 Polestar: Review
Discussion
RenesisEvo said:
T4RRRHow are getting on with it?
I'd like to express my sincere thanks to Chris Mullord and Carley Bartley from the Volvo UK, and Mikael Olsson from Polestar Sweden, for arranging for me to have the car. I'll be back!
Review on the V60 Polestar
First off some context – as a prospective customer for one of these cars, and being somewhat ambivalent having read various reviews on the car, finally getting my mitts on one, to evaluate it for myself, was an offer too good to pass and I would like to express my thanks to Volvo UK and Polestar for the opportunity.
Quintessentially Swedish – whilst this may seem blindingly obvious, unlike the majority of its siblings, the V60 Polestar is built at the Torslanda plant in Gothenburg and has been a collaboration between Polestar and fellow Swedes including Ohlins (shock absorbers), Lesjöfors (springs) and Ferrita (active exhaust), amongst others.
Exterior
Understatement has historically been the order of the day for Volvos and this car is no exception – park it next to a V60 D2 in the same colour and apart from the wheels and brakes, it would take a purist to discern the two from a distance. The owners manual is at pains to highlight which of the wind-tunnel developed (aero) panels differ from the regular variants, but whilst they’re clearly functional, they’re not overt in the slightest.
The choice of colours is shared with all other variants in the range but there is no unique colour to set these cars apart, unlike with previous generations of performance oriented Volvos. Having seen the 508bhp S60 Polestar Concept, which did look stunning, I was really hoping that Polestar Blue (a.k.a. Swedish Racing Green) would be offered as an option for this Halo car, but that is unfortunately not the case.
508bhp Polestar Blue S60 Concept Car Looked Stunning!
Interior
You feel very snug and cocooned in this car – the Nubuck / leather seats offer good support and adjustment but are more plush than Sporty. The quick clearing windscreen, heated steering wheel (which thankfully lacks the Limited Edition numbering system used in some other markets) and heated seats (both front and rear) will be very welcome in the coming months. Volvos “floating” centre console can initially seem to be quite “busy” with lots of little buttons, but is fairly easy to get to grips with. However, the (sharp) edge of the panel on the drivers side is precisely where you would intuitively rest your left leg so it does get uncomfortable and annoying at times.
Not a fan of the numbering system used in some other markets
Volvo state these Limited Edition cars are based on the R-Design model, however, this particular car has been built as an SE LUX variant. Despite that it remains a very high specification vehicle with plenty of toys to keep the tech fanatics amongst us satisfied for some time, plus the car is absolutely loaded with passive safety features which are undoubtedly an indication of the route Volvo is heading with “Vision 2020”. The active TFT driver instrument panel is shared across all platforms and offers a choice of 3 themes, but why you would need an “ECO” mode in a 350bhp/500Nm 3litre 6-cylinder turbocharged engine is beyond me – it is akin to me deciding to run 950cc/min fuel injectors instead of 1000cc/min ones in the fervent belief that it will boost my eco-friendly credentials! It would have been much nicer to have one mode for Sport, or dare I say it, Track use, where some additional (and essential) information gauges like oil temperature and pressure were displayed.
ECO Mode......I've still not recovered from seeing it!
When driving at night, both door pockets and the drivers foot well are illuminated with soft glow LEDs and it is a pity that the same have not been used for the interior courtesy and map reading lights, in place of the existing conventional bulbs with their horrible yellow hue. To keep you singing along on those long drives, Harman Kardon’s Premium Audio system will impress most audiophiles amongst us, but demonstrates more so just how good the audio systems in Volvos of yesteryear have been, as it is the one item where near 10 years of evolution has not led to improvements which one would expect to be commensurate with that sort of time period.
Engine and Gearbox
The transverse mounted 6-cylinder twin-scroll turbocharged engine has a very wide torque spread and does feel like it still has quite a lot in reserve, which coupled with a progressive electronic throttle makes it feel very flexible. This is a bonus as the 6-speed automatic gearbox it is mated to needs precisely that. The gearbox is the one item I expected to absolutely detest, but in reality I couldn’t! It is old-school and slow for an auto-box in a modern day performance car, and does needlessly hunt through the gears when cruising, but is a vast improvement over the standard offering. Switching into sport mode instantly results in a quicker throttle response and you can use the flappy paddles to hold any given gear until you decide to change it, even if that means sitting on the rev-limiter if you don’t!
Sport mode also opens the two electronic actuators in the active exhaust system, resulting in a very un-Volvo like rasp which is never over-powering inside the cabin, but is accompanied by a screamer-pipe like whoosh when heard outside. Be prepared for pedestrians to look for the invisible car behind your V60 Polestar…..because it certainly can’t be a Volvo which is making that sort of noise! Launch control, whilst enabling swift progress, is a little underwhelming as you can feel the electronics holding the car back initially, presumably to protect the gearbox – fortunately you can use that function as often as you like though, with no requirement to sign disclaimers of any sort…..
In terms of all out performance, unlike its 508bhp bigger brother, this car isn’t devastatingly quick and will not break or set any records, but that isn’t its purpose either. As a first attempt at a full production performance variant, it’s full marks to Polestar for effort, as you can tell that there has been extensive (additional) engineering which has gone into this car. Some earlier speculation postulated that much higher performance cars from the likes of the “RS” and “M” stables will leave it for dead, and maybe they will, however, I don’t believe that was the intention. My view is that Volvo has unfortunately once again fallen into the same trap they did with the S60R and V70R variants in that their pricing and marketing strategy has inadvertently ended up pitting the car against much higher performance variants which they never intended it to.
Handling and Brakes
Within minutes of driving the car for the first time, it was apparent that this car was somewhat vague and nowhere near as positive as the pre-production model which I had been in for the run up the hill at Goodwood last August. Some cursory checks revealed that the tyres were grossly under-inflated and that the “Steering Force Level” had been set to low. With swift and simple rectification work, the level set to medium (its default setting), and the 20” Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres correctly inflated, the difference in steering feel and ride compliance was quite staggering and not what one would expect from a factory production Volvo car.
A chassis engineer from BMW “M” division once told me “There is no such thing as a bad road, only bad suspension” – now he’s clearly never driven on the B4040 in Gloucestershire, but 20 years on, I’m beginning to understand what he was getting at. As an out of the box package, the combination of 20 point adjustable Ohlins dampers with matching springs and roll-bars offer a firm but compliant ride, with only the slightest hint of harshness at very low speeds (under 20mph) on poor surfaces.
Start pushing the car hard though corners and all is forgiven as the combination of the suspension and stiff chassis comes into its own and the car starts to come alive. There is pure mechanical grip and traction here, no electronic damping trickery, which means that you can “attack” greasy autumnal country roads which are pot hole ridden and full of ruts, and still make alarming progress without it feeling uncomfortably hard or nerve-racking. Switching the “Steering Force Load” setting into “High” results in the feedback improving even more but in this mode there’s no mistaking the electrification of the system. Understeer is remarkably well controlled for a car of this weight and with the VSC switched off, the push from the rear becomes very discernible but never overwhelming. City driving is perfectly acceptable and there has been a significant improvement in the turning circle and absence of “side-hop” which did plague previous performance AWD variants.
Speed Sensitive Steering is shared with other variants
The biggest disappointment did not come with getting the car up to speed, but rather shedding it. With 371mm discs and 6-pot Brembos up front you would expect tremendous stopping power, but surprisingly, the brakes lacked feel. I don’t believe that fade would be a concern but pedal modulation certainly was and probably easily rectified with different (uprated) pads.
371mm Disc with Brembo 6-Pot anchors and shod with 245/35ZR20 Pilot Super Sport rubber
Maintenance
Here too I was pleasantly surprised and retail quotes from MRG Volvo in Chippenham came back as follows, and I’m sure there’s scope for some negotiation:
Routine Service - £250–£320
Major Service - £420
Front Brake Disc - £268
Front Brake Pad Kit – £337
245/35 ZR20 Michelin Pilot Super Sport - £150 (online quote)
Service schedules and parts are available throughout the international dealer network so that there is no limitation to only having maintenance carried out in the markets within which the cars are sold, plus the cars are fully Volvo warranty compliant.
So Am I Buying One?
Well the answer in short is a resounding YES, I absolutely want to.........BUT I will not, and that’s primarily down to the eye-watering list-price of £49,775, a sentiment which has already been expressed in this thread.
The T6 R-Design variants (list price of around £40k when sold) weren’t huge sellers in the UK market and frequently attracted discounts of up to £9000, hence the current pricing does sound somewhat ambitious. I accept that the car has every single factory option fathomable, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that residuals have always been a weak point for the S60/V60 petrol range. The same V60 Polestars cost around £35k in Japan and the USA and closer to £60k in Switzerland, where they appear to be selling well, but other markets have really struggled to shift them quickly (e.g. Australia, who have dropped their retail price by around £6k just recently). I don’t believe that Volvo has ever been a “driveway jewellery” brand in the UK, and is all the better for it in my humble opinion, but just claiming that something is “premium” doesn’t necessarily automatically make it so in the eyes of prospective buyers, that’s an accolade which needs to be earned.
The V60 Plug-in Hybrid is probably the closest car there is to the V60 Polestar in terms of price, niche and limited numbers. Even this flagship variant has exchanged hands at close to half the list-price, through the UK dealer network only recently, and that was for a car which hadn’t even made it to its first birthday. These facts have made me feel a little jittery, and it would seem that I’m not alone as right this minute as a surprisingly large number of the initial batch of cars are up for sale (largely unregistered) on the likes of Autotrader and even eBay!
There will be one resounding Limited Edition appeal to this car though, and that is it will be the very last hurrah of the 6-cylinder turbo variants which Volvo produce – its replacement will have a 2litre 4-cylinder VEA (Volvo Engineering Architecture) twin-charged engine which ironically is more powerful in standard form, but will obviously lack the purity of that glorious 6-cylinder soundtrack.
The very last of the 6-pot turbos from Volvo
The V60 Polestar will certainly appeal to some, who like myself are looking for something a little bit quirky and different from the mainstream. I really wanted to feel that I was sitting in a £50k car, but sadly I didn’t. Hence, unless by some miracle the pricing structure changes, I will just have to ride out the next year and then start trawling the Volvo Selekt used car website and look out for the inevitable, OR I could be completely wrong and these cars will maintain rock solid residuals and I will regret my decision.....only time will tell!
First off some context – as a prospective customer for one of these cars, and being somewhat ambivalent having read various reviews on the car, finally getting my mitts on one, to evaluate it for myself, was an offer too good to pass and I would like to express my thanks to Volvo UK and Polestar for the opportunity.
Quintessentially Swedish – whilst this may seem blindingly obvious, unlike the majority of its siblings, the V60 Polestar is built at the Torslanda plant in Gothenburg and has been a collaboration between Polestar and fellow Swedes including Ohlins (shock absorbers), Lesjöfors (springs) and Ferrita (active exhaust), amongst others.
Exterior
Understatement has historically been the order of the day for Volvos and this car is no exception – park it next to a V60 D2 in the same colour and apart from the wheels and brakes, it would take a purist to discern the two from a distance. The owners manual is at pains to highlight which of the wind-tunnel developed (aero) panels differ from the regular variants, but whilst they’re clearly functional, they’re not overt in the slightest.
The choice of colours is shared with all other variants in the range but there is no unique colour to set these cars apart, unlike with previous generations of performance oriented Volvos. Having seen the 508bhp S60 Polestar Concept, which did look stunning, I was really hoping that Polestar Blue (a.k.a. Swedish Racing Green) would be offered as an option for this Halo car, but that is unfortunately not the case.
508bhp Polestar Blue S60 Concept Car Looked Stunning!
Interior
You feel very snug and cocooned in this car – the Nubuck / leather seats offer good support and adjustment but are more plush than Sporty. The quick clearing windscreen, heated steering wheel (which thankfully lacks the Limited Edition numbering system used in some other markets) and heated seats (both front and rear) will be very welcome in the coming months. Volvos “floating” centre console can initially seem to be quite “busy” with lots of little buttons, but is fairly easy to get to grips with. However, the (sharp) edge of the panel on the drivers side is precisely where you would intuitively rest your left leg so it does get uncomfortable and annoying at times.
Not a fan of the numbering system used in some other markets
Volvo state these Limited Edition cars are based on the R-Design model, however, this particular car has been built as an SE LUX variant. Despite that it remains a very high specification vehicle with plenty of toys to keep the tech fanatics amongst us satisfied for some time, plus the car is absolutely loaded with passive safety features which are undoubtedly an indication of the route Volvo is heading with “Vision 2020”. The active TFT driver instrument panel is shared across all platforms and offers a choice of 3 themes, but why you would need an “ECO” mode in a 350bhp/500Nm 3litre 6-cylinder turbocharged engine is beyond me – it is akin to me deciding to run 950cc/min fuel injectors instead of 1000cc/min ones in the fervent belief that it will boost my eco-friendly credentials! It would have been much nicer to have one mode for Sport, or dare I say it, Track use, where some additional (and essential) information gauges like oil temperature and pressure were displayed.
ECO Mode......I've still not recovered from seeing it!
When driving at night, both door pockets and the drivers foot well are illuminated with soft glow LEDs and it is a pity that the same have not been used for the interior courtesy and map reading lights, in place of the existing conventional bulbs with their horrible yellow hue. To keep you singing along on those long drives, Harman Kardon’s Premium Audio system will impress most audiophiles amongst us, but demonstrates more so just how good the audio systems in Volvos of yesteryear have been, as it is the one item where near 10 years of evolution has not led to improvements which one would expect to be commensurate with that sort of time period.
Engine and Gearbox
The transverse mounted 6-cylinder twin-scroll turbocharged engine has a very wide torque spread and does feel like it still has quite a lot in reserve, which coupled with a progressive electronic throttle makes it feel very flexible. This is a bonus as the 6-speed automatic gearbox it is mated to needs precisely that. The gearbox is the one item I expected to absolutely detest, but in reality I couldn’t! It is old-school and slow for an auto-box in a modern day performance car, and does needlessly hunt through the gears when cruising, but is a vast improvement over the standard offering. Switching into sport mode instantly results in a quicker throttle response and you can use the flappy paddles to hold any given gear until you decide to change it, even if that means sitting on the rev-limiter if you don’t!
Sport mode also opens the two electronic actuators in the active exhaust system, resulting in a very un-Volvo like rasp which is never over-powering inside the cabin, but is accompanied by a screamer-pipe like whoosh when heard outside. Be prepared for pedestrians to look for the invisible car behind your V60 Polestar…..because it certainly can’t be a Volvo which is making that sort of noise! Launch control, whilst enabling swift progress, is a little underwhelming as you can feel the electronics holding the car back initially, presumably to protect the gearbox – fortunately you can use that function as often as you like though, with no requirement to sign disclaimers of any sort…..
In terms of all out performance, unlike its 508bhp bigger brother, this car isn’t devastatingly quick and will not break or set any records, but that isn’t its purpose either. As a first attempt at a full production performance variant, it’s full marks to Polestar for effort, as you can tell that there has been extensive (additional) engineering which has gone into this car. Some earlier speculation postulated that much higher performance cars from the likes of the “RS” and “M” stables will leave it for dead, and maybe they will, however, I don’t believe that was the intention. My view is that Volvo has unfortunately once again fallen into the same trap they did with the S60R and V70R variants in that their pricing and marketing strategy has inadvertently ended up pitting the car against much higher performance variants which they never intended it to.
Handling and Brakes
Within minutes of driving the car for the first time, it was apparent that this car was somewhat vague and nowhere near as positive as the pre-production model which I had been in for the run up the hill at Goodwood last August. Some cursory checks revealed that the tyres were grossly under-inflated and that the “Steering Force Level” had been set to low. With swift and simple rectification work, the level set to medium (its default setting), and the 20” Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres correctly inflated, the difference in steering feel and ride compliance was quite staggering and not what one would expect from a factory production Volvo car.
A chassis engineer from BMW “M” division once told me “There is no such thing as a bad road, only bad suspension” – now he’s clearly never driven on the B4040 in Gloucestershire, but 20 years on, I’m beginning to understand what he was getting at. As an out of the box package, the combination of 20 point adjustable Ohlins dampers with matching springs and roll-bars offer a firm but compliant ride, with only the slightest hint of harshness at very low speeds (under 20mph) on poor surfaces.
Start pushing the car hard though corners and all is forgiven as the combination of the suspension and stiff chassis comes into its own and the car starts to come alive. There is pure mechanical grip and traction here, no electronic damping trickery, which means that you can “attack” greasy autumnal country roads which are pot hole ridden and full of ruts, and still make alarming progress without it feeling uncomfortably hard or nerve-racking. Switching the “Steering Force Load” setting into “High” results in the feedback improving even more but in this mode there’s no mistaking the electrification of the system. Understeer is remarkably well controlled for a car of this weight and with the VSC switched off, the push from the rear becomes very discernible but never overwhelming. City driving is perfectly acceptable and there has been a significant improvement in the turning circle and absence of “side-hop” which did plague previous performance AWD variants.
Speed Sensitive Steering is shared with other variants
The biggest disappointment did not come with getting the car up to speed, but rather shedding it. With 371mm discs and 6-pot Brembos up front you would expect tremendous stopping power, but surprisingly, the brakes lacked feel. I don’t believe that fade would be a concern but pedal modulation certainly was and probably easily rectified with different (uprated) pads.
371mm Disc with Brembo 6-Pot anchors and shod with 245/35ZR20 Pilot Super Sport rubber
Maintenance
Here too I was pleasantly surprised and retail quotes from MRG Volvo in Chippenham came back as follows, and I’m sure there’s scope for some negotiation:
Routine Service - £250–£320
Major Service - £420
Front Brake Disc - £268
Front Brake Pad Kit – £337
245/35 ZR20 Michelin Pilot Super Sport - £150 (online quote)
Service schedules and parts are available throughout the international dealer network so that there is no limitation to only having maintenance carried out in the markets within which the cars are sold, plus the cars are fully Volvo warranty compliant.
So Am I Buying One?
Well the answer in short is a resounding YES, I absolutely want to.........BUT I will not, and that’s primarily down to the eye-watering list-price of £49,775, a sentiment which has already been expressed in this thread.
The T6 R-Design variants (list price of around £40k when sold) weren’t huge sellers in the UK market and frequently attracted discounts of up to £9000, hence the current pricing does sound somewhat ambitious. I accept that the car has every single factory option fathomable, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that residuals have always been a weak point for the S60/V60 petrol range. The same V60 Polestars cost around £35k in Japan and the USA and closer to £60k in Switzerland, where they appear to be selling well, but other markets have really struggled to shift them quickly (e.g. Australia, who have dropped their retail price by around £6k just recently). I don’t believe that Volvo has ever been a “driveway jewellery” brand in the UK, and is all the better for it in my humble opinion, but just claiming that something is “premium” doesn’t necessarily automatically make it so in the eyes of prospective buyers, that’s an accolade which needs to be earned.
The V60 Plug-in Hybrid is probably the closest car there is to the V60 Polestar in terms of price, niche and limited numbers. Even this flagship variant has exchanged hands at close to half the list-price, through the UK dealer network only recently, and that was for a car which hadn’t even made it to its first birthday. These facts have made me feel a little jittery, and it would seem that I’m not alone as right this minute as a surprisingly large number of the initial batch of cars are up for sale (largely unregistered) on the likes of Autotrader and even eBay!
There will be one resounding Limited Edition appeal to this car though, and that is it will be the very last hurrah of the 6-cylinder turbo variants which Volvo produce – its replacement will have a 2litre 4-cylinder VEA (Volvo Engineering Architecture) twin-charged engine which ironically is more powerful in standard form, but will obviously lack the purity of that glorious 6-cylinder soundtrack.
The very last of the 6-pot turbos from Volvo
The V60 Polestar will certainly appeal to some, who like myself are looking for something a little bit quirky and different from the mainstream. I really wanted to feel that I was sitting in a £50k car, but sadly I didn’t. Hence, unless by some miracle the pricing structure changes, I will just have to ride out the next year and then start trawling the Volvo Selekt used car website and look out for the inevitable, OR I could be completely wrong and these cars will maintain rock solid residuals and I will regret my decision.....only time will tell!
Edited by T4RRR on Monday 17th November 21:56
Edited by T4RRR on Monday 17th November 22:27
CedricN said:
Any one heard anything about service life for the öhlins dampers? Nice low friction dampers tend to need extra care...
No idea on the indicated service life - they'll be covered under warranty for the duration of the 3 year one supplied with the car, plus the optional (paid) extended 1 year of course. If they did fail out of warranty, they will cost approx £700 for a front and £500 for a rear damper if sourced from a UK Volvo dealership, and approximately half that if bought from a Volvo dealership in the USA - and both will have exactly the same 1 year international Volvo warranty!
I was lucky enough to get a good long test drive in the V60 Polestar yesterday. What a car! It really will surprise you, so if you're in the market for an S4 / quick 3 series xdrive or the like try to get a go in the Volvo.
It is a characterful big yoke- can't hide its weight and has a relatively slow 'box by modern standards, but is really planted and quick. The interior is excellent and the car looks great in Polestar (or "Rebel") blue. I think Volvo are shipping the same one round all the dealers and getting as many people to drive it as possible to get the word out, so opportunities may be out there to have a go at the moment. I would take one over an S4- it is just more interesting and feels more sporty.
If Polestar do the same job on the V40 and it is priced right (<£35,000) then this would be a serious alternative to the M135i / Golf R / S3 etc.
It is a characterful big yoke- can't hide its weight and has a relatively slow 'box by modern standards, but is really planted and quick. The interior is excellent and the car looks great in Polestar (or "Rebel") blue. I think Volvo are shipping the same one round all the dealers and getting as many people to drive it as possible to get the word out, so opportunities may be out there to have a go at the moment. I would take one over an S4- it is just more interesting and feels more sporty.
If Polestar do the same job on the V40 and it is priced right (<£35,000) then this would be a serious alternative to the M135i / Golf R / S3 etc.
Now that these are selling for circa £45k new and £40k used, has anybody actually seen one on the road or know someone who has one; I'm just surprised that I've not seen or heard of a single owner who's piped up on any UK based forum? I have to say that the itch is getting stronger........
T4RRR said:
Now that these are selling for circa £45k new and £40k used, has anybody actually seen one on the road or know someone who has one; I'm just surprised that I've not seen or heard of a single owner who's piped up on any UK based forum? I have to say that the itch is getting stronger........
Don't know if you're still following this thread, but I pick up my brand new V60 Polestar tonight.Managed to get almost £10k off list price which I am more than happy with. Can't wait until 5pm!
S10GTA said:
norchi said:
S10GTA said:
Spotted this today
That is a 'powder blue' V40, slightly smaller.....Don.
T4RRR said:
Now that these are selling for circa £45k new and £40k used, has anybody actually seen one on the road or know someone who has one; I'm just surprised that I've not seen or heard of a single owner who's piped up on any UK based forum? I have to say that the itch is getting stronger........
Interesting review but one simple question how much do you actually want to spend on a car?After_Shock said:
Martin_M said:
Realistically, I'll be looking at a Golf R estate in 2-3 years - for an extra £20k what does the volvo really give you that the golf r won't?
Same argument to a 335i or an S4 Audi what do they offer over a Golf R? Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff