Volvo S80 2.5T (A) Review

In this level playing field, Audi will market their head-on collision protection in the way of Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Citroen, and so on. And from a product-promotional standpoint, Volvo has somewhat stood down, shifting its focus from safety, safety and more safety to the ultimate construction and build. It's also emphasizing more on Scandinavian luxury, quality and, well you get the idea.

All this talk about comfort, power and safety has brought Volvo's priorities into a new light. A bright one. Talk about spanking-white paint on our test car. This Volvo has "grown" more youthful, pun intended. It is an exaggeration of the old one. Where its skin once sloped gently from the hood towards the front windscreen, and from the rear window to the boot-lid, it's even gentler in this version.

Those broad and high shoulder lines are more masculine in appearance, in the end taking on that now familiar, aggressive stance that resembles more of a Jaguar XF than a padded cell.

The front grille screams "I'm more just a safe-house for all you kids," and all of this really looks like they're not compromising on design anymore.

We'd like to draw your attention to chrome inserts along the side of the S80, below the doors, as well as a discreet front lip situated under the front bumper. These, and four reverse sensors placed on the trailing, bottom-most edge of the rear bumper - precisely the spot where most drivers are likely to ruin when reverse-parking their cars.
Interior, safety, equipment

Think Scandinavian. Think Sanpete Valley, an area in the United States of America that has been greatly influenced by Scandinavians who first arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. They were then assigned to colonize central Utah.

Of similar influence, Volvo has given the Germans a huge challenge in the department of bomb-proofness. Every single surface and materials chosen are top notch, nice to touch and are expensive to look at.

Certain minimalistic qualities have been incorporated into the execution of the Swede's various storage and working places. Case in point - the car's radio allows drivers and passengers easy and immediate access to all functions without the old model's ugly mess of buttons.

On the "new" list is a steering wheel that looks smaller. We used the word "look" because it really is just the same size. However, the interior designers at Volvo have done their research, and they're aware that drivers love the small, sporty appearance of the steering while preferring the handling comfort of the present size. So, they've gone in the way of chromed inserts and a sportier four-spoked design in order to create the illusion of "shrinkage."

The new leather seats are softer, with exaggerated stitching that echo today's changing trends. The door panels follow this new theme as well, and it's all good to the eye, except for the fact that one could have the S80 in a more futuristic looking, airy, cream-coloured interior very much like our XC60 test car

We're glad to report that every single storage compartment was able to accommodate our daily run of bulky items such as a digital SLR camera, a 1-litre water bottle as well as odds-and-ends of all manners. All of these were easily visible and accounted for at the end of my test drive, when I was forcibly extricated from the S80 by Volvo's product manager.

The S80's got everything that the traditional Volvo customer-to-be might expect from it - crumple zones, cushions and knee airbags (in addition to dual-stage airbags), whiplash protection, ABS, stability and traction control and finally, seatbelt pretensioners.

Volvo's trademark adaptive cruise control, collision warning with pre-panic brake charging and front parking radars will only be available as standard on the S80 T6 all-wheel-driven model, in addition to ventilated front seats, a premium sound system and 18-inch wheels.

Needless to say, you can stake your life on betting that this Volvo will again, crash into a wall and various other dummies with 5-stars on the European NCAP crash-testing scale when they actually get around to it.
Driving Impressions

The new S80 T5 has the same 2.5-litre, turbocharged 5-cylinder engine that you know of from the older model. The difference lies in the engine's computer - revised engine mapping has enabled an increase in output and hence, efficiency.

Where previously there was only 200 bhp available at 4,800 rpm, there is now a significant 31 bhp more at the same engine speed. More importantly is the increase in torque figures - it has increased in the way of 40 Nm, giving the driver a very flexible, very meaty 340 Nm from 1,700 rpm to 4,800 rpm.

But those numbers don't tell on the Volvo S80's "revived" driving experience. Coupled with an extremely comfortable but feedback-lacking ride, we were convinced that the pre-facelift S80 was as good as dull and dead in this area.

However, it appears that our test car has woken up from a deep slumber. Firstly, the amount of engine noise filtering into the cabin has increased when revved hard. We like this, simply because of the lovely, stirring sound of the 5-cylinder engine.

And you will be revving it hard because the engine pulls remarkably well all the way to about 6,000 rpm - that's nearly 1,200 rpm more than what its peak horsepower and torque figures suggest. It matches its time of 7.5 seconds from 0-100 km/h, and puts out a meagre 9.6 litres per 100 km on the combined cycle. Realistically, if you drive it hard enough, this figure will escalate to 14 litres per 100 km, but considering our pedal-to-the-metal tactics, it really isn't that bad.

The 6-speed automatic is as expected, very smooth. It shifts through the gears a little quicker than before. Combine with abovementioned, lusty engine, and you're going to find yourself in front of a policeman dressed in white a few hours after taking delivery of your S80.

Aside from that, it has loads of grip, and is very predictable, in a safe manner of course. But as much as it is sportier to drive through corners, don't expect it to be a BMW or Audi in terms of driver involvement.

The S80 is as usual, the last word in comfort. It dealt remarkably well with bumps and broken road surfaces that one might come across during the course of a B-road drive in Malaysia, and one can hardly sense any wind noise at extremely fast highway speeds.

S80 for you?

We won't deny that the S80 has improved by leaps and bounds in the marketing department - Volvo's making a huge effort to prove to the world that they are more than just plain-old safety, and we almost believe their sincere efforts. Not because it hasn't worked.

We do see a younger generation of buyers turning themselves onto the S80, but Volvo can take another step further into changing its image, and this is precisely what we hope to see in the next generation of Volvos, both entry-level and luxury.

We also don't see how one could go wrong with the Volvo S80 T5 - it comes uncomfortably close to the T6 in terms of equipment, comfort and power output. And it costs $154,000 - nearly $20,000 less than the comparatively underpowered BMW 520i and almost $10,000 less than an Audi A6.