S60 - Poor selection in 2009

I think we are lucky it's still available It should have gone with the V 70 really . The real T5 quietly slipped away replaced by the pseudo T5 in the S40/V50/C70/C30 Ford are holding our old 300 bhp R engine back for itself in the new RS Focus next year ... The "new" T6 is not much faster than a good old 265bhp T5 ...

On launch, they only release the models which will be big sellers right off so the 2 litre petrol and the diesels will always be first - it's common practice across most ranges. BMW don't kick off the 3 series with an M3 and Mercedes don't release AMG versions straight off. A T5/6 will come as will the R. It probably won't be until next year though. I hope it's a T6, the 6 cylinders are so much smoother.

Is this the new S60? If it is it looks great! I agree though that Volvo are way behind the other 'premium' manufacturers in engine choice. Just imagine what would happen if BM only offered 3 engines in the 3 series... It's not as though we Volvo drivers even have the choice of a high power 6 or eight cylinder diesel. Jon

Dynamically the current S60 is a bit of a whale, its had its time and just can't compete with A4, 3 series et al. Good for me as a D5 would be a natural upgrade for me from my 850. We can't be snobbish about the actual genetics of the brand, cross engineering is rife throughout the whole industry and that'll never go away. Besides for many a year Volvo used a variety of Renault engines and even today the 1.6d models are a hybrid Ford/PSA unit. The new Ford DNA is pretty decent, they handle and drive well and are reasonably reliable. Sure we know the C30 is a Focus in drag but then the Jag X-type was based on the old mondeo platform!! (the new Ford Ka has Italian and Indian blood, based on the Fiat 500 and Ratan Tata is on the board of directors at Fiat) Whatever the new car is it'll need engines to compete with the best that VAG and BMW offer, something which at present it can't do. It would be nice to see Volvo being used to promote hybrid drive.

Don't forget that picture is nothing to do with Volvo at all, it's a CGI image put together by Autocar magazine. So most likely they have taken the Mondeo, played with it to give it more clearly defined "Volvo" stying cues and published it as a "how it might look". They do it all the time with tons of cars and I wish they'd stop...... Cheers, John