2011 Volvo S60: Up Close
Volvo’s styling has come a long way in recent years and the redesigned S60 is the latest model to distance the brand from its boxy designs of recent memory. The compact stance, flowing lines and low roofline make for a very stylish luxury car.
The interior is a study in design and materials. The S60 features Volvo’s floating center control panel that can be finished in aluminum or wood. The S60 is also offered with a rich brown leather — Beechwood Brown — that you don’t see every day.
Backseat space is snug, but the cutouts in the back of the front seats give passengers some extra space for their knees. Despite the low roofline, I didn’t bang my head against the headliner, although Cars.com editor-in-chief Patrick Olsen found it far easier to get in the back of the Mini Cooper Countryman than the S60.
Volvo calls the S60 a sport sedan, which is a big claim when your competitors include the BMW 3 Series and Infiniti G37. Past Volvos haven’t matched the level of driver involvement that those cars deliver, and we won’t know until we drive this one whether it changes that impression. On its other merits, though, it looks pretty solid.
