posted by
someone claiming to be dave
on
Wed May 28 20:31 CST 2003 [ RELATED]
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Hey Jarrod, the Volvo car I drove yesterday was a 2004 model, but brickboard's drop-box only goes up to 2003!
I took my car to the dealer for its emission test on Wednesday. While there, I bumped into my sales contact there, with whom I'd been speaking on and off for over a year about the S60R. To my great surprise, he offered to show me one!
It was med-dark gray, very close to the color of the vestigial plastic bumper inserts that seem to be finding their way back into the bumper covers, after having disappeared completely in the change-over from 850 to _70. At least loading the trunk won't necessarily eventually result in scratched paint now...
The digital LCD readouts among the instruments are now readable while wearing polarized sunglasses (a problem that began when S80s were introduced, and had persisted for some time), though the radio display is not (unless one tilts one's head sideways, at which point the readouts among the instruments darken/fade...). With the dark dashboard top, polarized sunglasses are not needed as much as in my car (with its very light colored dashboard), but the A/C will be needed more.
Idling, it was as if I could feel slightly larger pistons going up and down, unopposed; the now-familiar 5-cylinder "tingle". The car had 18" wheels (17" is std on this model) and 4-CD-in-dash-changer (which results in loss of cassette player). It also had a window warning sticker about tires having been chosen for maximum performance being susceptible to road damage...
The car had a 6 fwd gears and 3 pedals (I tend to prefer 2, especially in a turbocharged street car). "space ball" shifter. It felt a bit better than I was expecting. Not quite a BMW, but much closer than expected. Not knowing the car/shifter, one pushes (or pulls) the shifter handle until it stops. Only against that stop (which I noticed after pushing the handle forward all the way to reach 3rd gear) could I tell that the shifter was working through a cable linkage with some "give" (and a bit of a slight odd pulsation/vibration) to it.
There is an interesting strut brace underhood. It can rock slightly forward and back, but is solidly mounted side-to-side. It is this lateral member to which the engine's upper torque arm bushing is attached (instead of to the firewall as in my car). The intercooler pipe that goes over the engine is oval in cross-section, and "styled". Obviously, resources were spent making the engine look snazzy in its home. No distributor cap/rotor on this engine.
The interior was leather, light-colored. I guess that unique orangish baseball-glove-like leather is an extra-cost option. The driver's seat back has slightly larger side bolsters than my car's, but they're not snug-fitting (for me at least) nor are they adjustable. The new car has side curtain airbags for occupants' heads. It needs them: the distance between my head and the line formed where the ceiling and side windows intersect is only about half what it is in my 850! This distance in the S60R is comparable to an M5's. The power seat controls/memories are identical to my car's.
The steering wheel seems significantly improved. Lighter, with 3 spokes instead of 4, it contains radio and cruise controls.
After a while (which included noticing that the car already had 225 mi on it), I asked if we could go for a drive. The sales guy got a plate and got in the passenger seat and away we went. (This was nice, especially considering I'd shown up in a collarless T-shirt, shorts, and sandals.) It was not a totally sedate drive, but I did not want to stress the young/rare car either; I got the feel for the clutch engagement and drove as smoothly as I could -- no heel/toeing was attempted. The sales guy assured me I could stall it if I tried hard enough, but it seemed as if the ECU was trying to help make it harder to stall the engine while engaging first gear from a stop. I did not notice any [other] throttle-by-wire anomalies, and the engine's transitions on-/off-boost seemed well-mannered. I found 5th once when seeking 3rd.
I like the suspension. Not as "magic" as I'd hoped/dreamed, but nice. The ride is improved over my car's. The difference between settings wasn't as great as I'd hoped/dreamed, but not bad. Comfort is definitely more comfortable than Sport (closest to my car), and Advanced (I think that's what it was labeled) was definitely just a bit much (kinda like my car can be) on some surfaces.
Anyone who's gone from an 855T to a V70R will have a sense of what it felt like going from my 854T to the S60R. The increased mass inherent in the AWD system makes the car seem a bit more stately. It was hard to tell if the S60R is faster/quicker than my car or not. (Much of the S60R's stopwatch/track acceleration advantage would presumably come from a potentially quicker if more abusive launch from rest.) Since excess torque will be very unlikely to merely cause one or more tires to go up in smoke in an AWD car, as it more readily can in a 2WD car, loss of traction cannot act as a "fuse" to protect the powertrain from huge torque loads. So it's important to make sure the powertrain can handle the torque loads. Apparently the 5-speed automatic transmission is a potential weak link, thus the engines in S60Rs with automatic transmissions come with engines that are detuned. I expect my car to prove quicker than an S60R so equipped...
My old beast (4-spd automatic transmission) was EPA rated at 19/25 mpg. The S60R 6-spd manual has an 18/25 rating.
My car's transplanted SC815 radio (from an old "R") has excessive loudness compensation (ie, too much bass). The 'upgraded' stereo in the S60R seemed bassless by comparison.
The car had HID headlights. They work (by changing how they're aimed) as both low- and high-beams. There is a more common halogen light next to it that works as a DRL. Presumably the DRLs can be turned off via software (on my car a pocket screwdriver is required).
At least, unlike most new cars now being offered, the instrument panel and steering wheel were not slathered with shiny brushed metal pieces. Just the shifter 'boot' and chrome-like rings around the blue gauges.
And I still haven't verified that my bike -- on which I believe in pedaling harder to go faster -- fits in the narrower trunk.
Lots of pros/cons to the new car WRT my old one. Decisions, decisions. Before I knew it the test drive was over (good thing; I should have brought my Valentine 1; speeding was almost mandatory in this car, into which the Valentine might be made to be "built-in", but not without some destructive dashboard cutting). Then I saw the emissions test results in/from my car, and realized that, at 143K mi, it's barely broken in!
- Dave; '95 854T, 143K mi; K+N, DurAlt, Mobil1, Bosch Platinums
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posted by
someone claiming to be dave
on
Sun Jun 1 13:05 CST 2003 [ RELATED]
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Oh yeah; the battery is in the trunk. All the way at the very rear of the trunk (by the rear bumper).
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posted by
someone claiming to be dave
on
Wed May 28 21:29 CST 2003 [ RELATED]
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One more tidbit:
The wheels were rimless! Nothing from which to hang a balancing weight. Sure, stick-on weights can be used for balancing, but how, I wonder, will an alignment shop hook the alignment machine's "heads" to the wheels? To the outside of the wheel's edge? Maybe, but the sides of many new tires now extend outward beyond the wheel's edge as a form of curb protection...
- Dave; '95 854T, 143K mi; K+N, DurAlt, Mobil1, Bosch Platinums
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