Engines? Still like ’em
Electrified cousins. By Colin Overland
Driving something that isn’t my S60 has given me a much better appreciation of what my Volvo is, and what’s so good about it.
The other car in question was the Polestar 2, the full-electric five-door from what has become a more or less separate company from Volvo.
Their designs are not unrelated, and they both have nice cabins, but the driving experience is completely different. The Polestar feels a bit remote and mued, whereas the S60 offers a much more direct connection between driver and road. My saloon feels alive and engaged with the whole driving process, in a way the Polestar doesn’t.
In both cases, the ride quality isn’t great, but you cut the S60 some slack because of its sporting ambitions; there’s a trade-off between comfort and bodyroll.
It’s maybe not fair to diss the Polestar on the basis of one morning’s drive, when I’ve clocked up almost 2000 miles in the last month in the Volvo; perhaps the 2’s charms would reveal themselves on longer acquaintance.
Those miles in the S60 have given me a chance to explore more of its electronic aids, with mixed results. The voice control is particularly mixed – sometimes responding quickly and accurately to my nav inputs or requests for a change of temperature, but other times getting completely the wrong end of the stick.
The adaptive cruise control is easy to set and adjust. Pilot Assist – which does a bit of steering for you – is one of the better systems of this type, smooth and unintrusive. But Curve Speed Assist seems pointless. It slows down for you ahead of sharp bends if it thinks you’ve set the cruise control a bit too high, demonstrating considerably less faith in the S60’s cornering ability than I have.