Volvo sedan sparkles with perks, pop

Mark Glover’s AutoGlo car reviews also can be seen on the Business page of The Sacramento Bee’s website – via the “GALLERY: Reviews of new cars” link at www.sacbee.com/business

This review originally appeared in the July 2013 edition of the Northern & Central California Cruisin’ News published out of Folsom, California – mg

Sacramento, California – Having sampled the T5 version of the goods in the Volvo S60 luxury sedan, I wanted to step into a lofty T6.

Let me tell you, it’s quite a step up.

My tester was the 2013 Volvo S60 T6 AWD R-Design with “Platinum” extras.  If that's a bit too wordy for you, it’s probably better to simply think: loaded Volvo sedan going for nearly $50,000.

That’s a pretty steep price for a not-so-large sedan, but wait a minute.  It is absolutely packed with perks.  I’m talking about a ridiculous number of safety, security, performance, luxury and technology features.  Reading the owner’s manual is a must, because there are so many things going in this car that you’re going to miss out on a worthy one if you don’t methodically cover each one in the manual.

Oh, it looks good too.  My ride was done up “Rebel Blue,” but paint-color labels such as “Blue Explosion,” “Mega-Electric Blue,” or “Blue to the Max” would have worked as well.  You know your car is standing out when the neighbors say: “Hey, I saw you from a half-mile away.”

The bluer-than-blue exterior color on the tester probably stood out more than usual because the S60’s body styling is head-turning sporty.  In profile, it truly does resemble a weekend stock racer.

And it has the engine to back up the look.  A 3-liter, turbo, in-line 6 engine is rated at 325 horses, and it propels the S60 with barely-street-legal authority.  I really had to be careful with it as I continually ran it up to 80 miles per hour when I first got it.  That’s what happens when a hot engine is so sweetly mated to a sport-tuned chassis that it makes 80 mph feel like 40 mph.

Even at high speed, however, engine noise doesn’t come close to drowning out conversations in the cabin.  The ride was smooth and effortless, in all conditions.  The car seemed to casually blast through any humble challenge I had to offer.

Sure, fuel mileage is a somewhat ugly 18 miles per gallon in the city and 25 mpg on the highway, but it’s a fair trade-off if you appreciate the performance of the power plant.  And yes, I totally appreciated it.

This S60 is made for a certain customer … which is to say one with a six-figure income who loves both safety features and horsepower highs.  Nothing wrong with that.