After my wife decided to go the minivan route last spring I found myself pointlessly living in a two FSP household. The V70 has been hauling primarily air since March and I'd be lying if I claimed that it has been problem-free. I'd also be lying if I said it was terrible. But from nearly the beginning it seemed like every single common nagging issue that can show up on these cars decided to conglomerate on mine, leading to chronic paranoia about every new noise or quirk. Otherwise I probably would have just kept on driving it.
Fast forward through months of shopping around, hand-wringing, and generally over-thinking every aspect of it (which I'm awesome at), I came to the realization that I just want a car that a) makes sense for what I actually do with it and b) puts a smile on my face every once in a while. I'm sure there are plenty of those, but one stood out. And thanks to a pretty tremendous year-end deal I decided to bring it home. Meet Ragnar:
It's a 2015.5 Volvo S60 T5 (yup, it's a sedan) with the new “Drive-E” 4-banger and an EPA rating of 25/37/29. Impressions after a couple hundred miles behind the wheel are good. Damn good. In some respects it's like an engineering team in Gothenburg has been reading my mind and taking notes. The 2.0L Turbo-DI engine has more low-end than the V70's big straight-six did, and the Aisin Warner 8-speed automatic tranny shifts cleanly to a tall final drive (in the range of 1750 RPM at 65mph). There's an “ECO+” button that tweaks a wide range of functions just a little farther in favor of economy. Climate control gets de-prioritized, the transmission upshifts earlier and holds gears better, the auto start/stop becomes more aggressive, and throttle mapping becomes more laid-back (and easier to control finely). It also activates “Eco Coast” which amounts to an automated and nearly seamless NICE-On every time you completely let off the accelerator above 40mph. (I wish that threshold were lower, but I'll take it.) So far I think the only down-side is that 240hp is a lot for something this size, and it comes on willingly. It's going to take a really light foot to get the most out of it.
That's probably enough for now. I'll post more details once I've had time to get familiar with it.
Fast forward through months of shopping around, hand-wringing, and generally over-thinking every aspect of it (which I'm awesome at), I came to the realization that I just want a car that a) makes sense for what I actually do with it and b) puts a smile on my face every once in a while. I'm sure there are plenty of those, but one stood out. And thanks to a pretty tremendous year-end deal I decided to bring it home. Meet Ragnar:
It's a 2015.5 Volvo S60 T5 (yup, it's a sedan) with the new “Drive-E” 4-banger and an EPA rating of 25/37/29. Impressions after a couple hundred miles behind the wheel are good. Damn good. In some respects it's like an engineering team in Gothenburg has been reading my mind and taking notes. The 2.0L Turbo-DI engine has more low-end than the V70's big straight-six did, and the Aisin Warner 8-speed automatic tranny shifts cleanly to a tall final drive (in the range of 1750 RPM at 65mph). There's an “ECO+” button that tweaks a wide range of functions just a little farther in favor of economy. Climate control gets de-prioritized, the transmission upshifts earlier and holds gears better, the auto start/stop becomes more aggressive, and throttle mapping becomes more laid-back (and easier to control finely). It also activates “Eco Coast” which amounts to an automated and nearly seamless NICE-On every time you completely let off the accelerator above 40mph. (I wish that threshold were lower, but I'll take it.) So far I think the only down-side is that 240hp is a lot for something this size, and it comes on willingly. It's going to take a really light foot to get the most out of it.
That's probably enough for now. I'll post more details once I've had time to get familiar with it.
Scratch One FSP
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