Volvo V60 Polestar
Is the most powerful Volvo ever worth the best part of £40,000? We drive the V60 T6 Polestar to find out.
The most powerful Volvo ever. It’s a bit like those competitions to grow the biggest vegetable. Sort of entertaining, but is there any point?
The wacky wagon in question has 329bhp, which is a few more than a Porsche Cayman S. It should therefore be the spiritual successor to the 850R of the mid- to late-Nineties, a machine that was loved for the way it combined typical Volvo practicality with a slightly bananas character.
As our past experience of the latest V60 tells us, however, this isn’t a practical Volvo estate in the traditional sense, but more of a lifestyle vehicle. The upshot is that this is the most smartly styled car Volvo offers, all the while maintaining the brand’s solid build quality, good comfort and reasonable refinement. It handles competently and offers a choice of engines that range from reasonable (D3) to really rather good (D5).
The heart of the beast in question today is Volvo’s turbocharged 3.0-litre, 24-valve, six-cylinder petrol, which drives all four-wheels through a six-speed automatic gearbox. In normal trim this combination in a V60 will set you back £36,285, produce 300bhp and 324lb ft of torque, return 28.5mpg on the EU Combined cycle and emit 237g/km of CO2, placing it one VED band below a Lamborghini Gallardo. Or put another way, it makes very little sense.
This is where Polestar, Volvo’s official motorsport partner, steps in with its factory approved upgrade for the engine’s electronics. By adjusting parameters for things such as fuelling and the amount of boost delivered by the twin-scroll turbo, power jumps to that headline figure of 329bhp from 5,400-6,500rpm, while torque swells to 354lb ft, delivered between 3,000-3,600rpm. However, official fuel consumption and CO2 emissions figures remain unchanged because Polestar has carried out the upgrade with EU testing in mind (back in the real world you can expect to see economy plummet if you start using all of the car's performance). Other bonuses include the fact that the car’s warranty is unaffected, and that the upgrade can be carried out with a visit to your Volvo dealer.
The result is a machine of some performance. What is a swift and sure-footed car in standard T6 trim become something decidedly more exciting with that extra power and torque on board. It plays havoc with Volvo’s safety systems too, which seem to constantly think you are about to crash into the back of traffic due to the rate at which you catch it.
With no upgrades made to the chassis, the V60 Polestar is competent but not terribly exciting. Traction and grip are excellent thanks to a Haldex coupling that shuffles power to where it’s needed, the steering accurate if lacking in feel, and the suspension (MacPherson strut up front, multi-link rear) finds a sensible balance between being compliant without leaning too much in corners.
Let’s be honest though, this car is all about straight-line pace, and in that department it doesn’t disappoint, delivering long surges of acceleration in a completely effortless manner. The gearbox isn’t the quickest to kick down or react to changes initiated with the manual override, but there’s so much torque that you can usually rely on that to provide any overtaking grunt.
With that silky smooth petrol unit this V60 goes about its business with a quiet, likeable determination, but there’s a big question mark as to how sane or otherwise you’d need to be to spend the best part of £40,000 on this car. On the one hand it remains a very pleasant way to travel, but in T6 guise a new V60 will drop in value faster than you can say “I wish I’d bought the diesel”. Expect no more than a third of your money back after three years and 36,000 miles.
The good news is that Volvo also offers this upgrade, which costs £645 including VAT and fitting, for the D5 engine (as well as on the V60’s saloon equivalent, the S60). With 227bhp it’s not "the most powerful Volvo ever", but when it produces just 129g/km of CO2 and returns a claimed 57.6mpg you might find that you don’t care.
THE FACTS Volvo V60 T6 Polestar
Tested: 2,953cc turbocharged V6 petrol engine, six-speed automatic gearbox driving all four wheels
Price/on sale: £36,930/now
Power/torque: 329bhp @ 5,400-6,500rpm/354lb ft @ 3,000-3,600rpm
Top speed: 155mph
Acceleration: 0-60mph in 5.7sec (est)
Fuel economy: 28.5mpg (EU Combined)
CO2 emissions: 237g/km
VED band: L (£790 first year, £445 thereafter)
Verdict: Likeable and slightly bonkers, which probably sums up the type of person who would buy it, too.
Telegraph rating: Three out of five stars
