2020 Volvo S60 T8 Review: Why Settle?
Auto123 reviews the 2020 Volvo S60 T8 Polestar Engineered.
Year in and year out, Volvo ranks near the bottom of various reliability studies for vehicle brands (see J.D. Power's 2020 dependabiliy ranking, for example). The methodologies of some of those studies are debatable, and it’s worth keeping in mind that in the case of premium brands like this Swedish carmaker, a larger percentage of owners are not actually owners at all but rather lessors, who return the vehicle for a newer model before long-term reliability becomes an issue.
In any event, those who swear by the Volvo name – and there are increasing numbers of them, the company having made significant gains over the past decade – value their car or SUV for their many other qualities. Which brings me to the 2020 Volvo S60 T8 I had opportunity to drive very early this spring, with snow still making its last stuttering appearances on the ground.
The S60 sedan is built, like its V60 wagon sibling and like the 90 Series car/wagon duo, on Volvo’s Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) modular platform. New for 2020 you’ll find in it a 12.3-inch touchscreen, previously an option but now standard across the range. Steering collision avoidance system is now included as well. In this T8 version, the plug-in hybrid variant of the sedan, the battery pack is now larger at 11.6 kWh.
Safety
Volvo, long the perceived standard-setter in the car industry for safety, has made much of its desire to reduce if not eliminate the injuries and deaths resulting from crashes involving its vehicles. Thus it’s no surprise that the 2020 S60 T8 comes standard with a host of safety systems, namely adaptive cruise control, pilot assist with navigation, collision mitigation support, lane keeping aid, blind spot information system with cross traffic alert, 360-degree camera, park assist pilot, and road sign information systems.