BangShift Road Test: The 2015 Volvo V60 T5 (Or: Please Don’t Burn My House Down)


BangShift Road Test: The 2015 Volvo V60 T5 (Or: Please Don’t Burn My House Down)

(Photos by Dave Nutting) – Nutting kept asking me if this was a good idea. He kept nervously telling me that someone was probably going to try to set my house on fire if I wrote a review of a Volvo on BangShift but I couldn’t help myself. I have driven three Volvos this year and to be honest, I’ve loved all three of them and this one being of the long roof variety pushed me right over the edge. I’d by lying to myself if I didn’t write something about this car because I dig the way it looks and I really dig the way it drives. Of three 2015 models Volvo has shelled out keys to this year, the wagon’s mix of power, handling, and space made it the most BangShifty of the trifecta. Plus, how many wagons are on the market right now? Not many. In the land of the SUV, the wagon is a pretty rare bird these days and that’s shameful because you can have way more fun behind the wheel of this thing and others like it than you can have behind the wheel of a 6500lb monstrosity.

Volvo V60 T5 2015 station wagon029So this car was equipped with a 2.0L turbocharged four banger that made 240hp @ 5,600 RPM and peak torque of 258 lb-ft@ 1,500 RPM. The flat as Kansas turbocharged torque curve of the engine combined with the eight speed transmission gives the car plenty of scoot and ample power when you need it. I had one Volvo model equipped with the company’s “twin-charged” 300hp four banger and that rowdy little bastard of an engine would be riotous in this wagon. The 240hp is fun, but what BangShifter does not want 60 more? The eight speed transmission is a great piece that has a fun “manu-matic” mode with rev-matching and amazingly quick response times when you tell it to do something. Virtually every car that comes into the BS testing realm has been equipped with an automatic these days and most of them have a “manual” mode. The Volvo piece is among the best as it doesn’t tell you no very often when you want to find the right gear and make things a little more interesting. Nothing will ever take the place of a clutch and gated shifter for us, but you can have some fun knocking through the gears. The car will get to 60 in a shade over six seconds and it’ll run 14s at the strip.

As this wagon was equipped with the sport package ($1,500) , it received upgraded 19″ wheels (up from 17″), along with the wheel upgrade the package includes a slightly lower ride height, a stiffer spring rate, tuned shocks, bigger sway bars front and rear, quicker ratio steering, and bushing material that is stiffer than stock to prevent deflection, and my favorite part of the whole thing…the sport seats. Nutting can attest to the fact that these seats are some of the best you will ever jam your backside in regardless of make, model, creed, country of origin, or tukus size. They are super supportive and they are designed to keep you anchored in place when the going gets fun….and I made sure that the going got fun a couple times in the car. You can really stick this thing into corners and make the chassis work. Making sure the kids were belted in tight, we went to one of our favorite spots in the countryside to weave through some switchbacks and it was toothy grins all around. We’d have been off in the cabbage if we were driving a small SUV and somewhere in another state had we been in a full sized one.

The stereo and info-tainment center in the middle of the dash is super easy to use and one of the more intuitive on the market. Again, having seen it three times using it was old hat, but also seeing most everyone else’s version of this system I can say that this is one of the better ones. The 7″ LCD screen is good and the 160-watt stereo can jam the tunes to an acceptably loud level when the need arises.

On the safety side, this is a Volvo. I’m not really sure what else to say about that. The company has made its bones for decades now selling cars that are some of the safestVolvo V60 T5 2015 station wagon015 ever built a and have committed to trying to design a car that will have a ZERO fatality rate in the not-t00-distant future. No one buys a car with the intention of testing the crash test rating with your family inside, but there’s certainly some value in having confidence that the car will to its job if the stuff hits the fan. This car was equipped with the optional Blind Spot Information Package which was $900 and included the cross traffic alert system, the “lane change merge aid”, and both front and rear park assist.

Interior appointments were generous in this car as it was equipped with the Premier Plus package (a $2,550 option). The widgets included with that package were the leather seats, auto dimming rear view mirror, digital adaptive display, chrome appointments on the body, roof rack, keyless drive, rear backup camera, digital compass, retractable outside mirrors, and the Homelink system that allows garage door opening, etc. The heated front seats were an additional $500 and the blue metallic paint was another $550. I did really like the paint color but I am not sure I liked it $550 worth. Observed fuel economy was above 30 mpg over a week or highway and city driving and the factory rating is 29 combined with 37 being the highway number and 25 bring the city number. Again, these numbers largely throttle the SUV crowd. The base price of this car is $35,300 and with the optional equipment and destination charge our test-mobile was carrying a $42,225 sticker price. Pound for pound’we not sure why people would spend $40,000 on an SUV when this thing does everything it can do while looking better, performing, better, and also getting better fuel economy.

Hey, maybe I have been hit in the head one too many times or maybe I have just plain lost it, but I really liked this car. You may hate it simply because of the badge that is on the front or the fact that image-wise a Volvo wagon isn’t really something to aspire to, but if that’s as far as you are willing to look at one of those things, I don’t feel too bad about you bashing me on it. On the flip side, BangShift has always been about the wide ranging diversity in the automotive world and to me that even includes stuff like this.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish digging my moat.

SCROLL DOWN FOR SOME FANTASTIC DAVE NUTTING PHOTOS OF THE 2014 VOLVO V60 T5 WAGON –

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I really enjoyed looking at this car, especially from this perspective. With the wagon roofline sloping downward in the rear, I thought it gave the car a nice shape. This thing is far smaller than you initially think that it is, exterior-wise. The high belt line almost rising to meet the roof is another nice design element.

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The 19″ sport wheels shod in the good all-season rubber are part of the sport chassis package and they look great. The car is a blast to drive, especially equipped with the sport components I spoke about above.

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Perhaps the simplest and cleanest dash layout on the market today. I have driven many cars this year and really like this setup.

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Center stack is tightly designed and easy to use. While it looks like a lot of buttons there, the layout means that you are not spending a lot of time fumbling around adjusting things.

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Volvos have never been known as daring stylistically and this one isn’t but that doesn’t mean it is boring, either. There are some nice lines here.

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Station wagon = lotsa room.

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This strut tower brace was part of the sport chassis package. The “R Design” logo denotes that it is from the company’s performance wing that has the famed “Polestar” models and is responsible for developing the sport components on this car.

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With the engine cover removed, there’s the 240hp turbocharged 2.0L four banger putting the power to the 8-speed transmission.

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Looks like something out of the terminator but it runs great. Turbo lag is virtually non-existent and it pulls hard through all the gears.

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See those? A pair of the best seats your backside will hit. Not just in a Volvo…in any car! These things are fantastic and as you can see, they have plenty of side bolstering to keep you in place when the going gets fun.

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The fun and excitement here centers around the driving experience, not a lot of crap glued to the car.

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With the sport chassis, the ride height is knocked down some 10mm and the larger wheels really fill the wheel openings nicely.

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Dual outlet exhaust keeps the rear symmetry up nicely.

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The price “as tested” on this 2015 Volvo V60 T5 wagon was $42,225 which is not cheap but when compared to an SUV with the same equipment, it is.

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So there you have it. Throw rocks at me if you want, but I can’t bring myself to lie about a good car. This baby was a riot to drive, a riot to throw into the corners, and it is as practical as a van, suv, or whatever else you can think of. Long live the wagon!

 

 

 

 

 


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16 thoughts on “BangShift Road Test: The 2015 Volvo V60 T5 (Or: Please Don’t Burn My House Down)

  1. Nick D.

    I love how all of a sudden, Volvo’s started getting super nice styling. It’s good to see that they have a wagon back in the lineup too.

    1. Mooseface

      Me too, I like the fact that Volvo is kind of marching to their own beat these days. Now that their slowpoke Volvo crowd has largely migrated over to the Honda CRV and Subaru Forester, these things seem to move pretty fast.

  2. Jim

    Another in a series of reviews that have nothing to do with hot rods or street rods or race cars or hot rodding of any kind. Some one has certainly lost their way.

    1. Mooseface

      I always thought this blog was about just anything car in general.
      Good fun and gasoline. What’s not to like?

  3. tigeraid

    Cool cars are cool cars, bigotry aside. And this is a cool car.

    I wish American manufacturers made some cool wagons. The Magnum barely counts. 🙁

  4. TheSilverBuick

    Nothing about a pale orange light accenting the need to check the engine? Or interior color selection? And just what the heck is a 10mm?

    What is your postal address to mail said fire too? Thanks.

    (Good review though! I may push my Mom in this direction as she’s been looking at new SUV’s, though I think she is looking for AWD)

    1. Ed

      Metric … how the civilized world measures things!! LOL

      Even the U.S.A. is “officially” a metric country, but you guys are just too dang stubborn. 😉

  5. Whelk

    I think Lohnes is rehearsing his arguments to the wife for trading the Pacifica on a bit better wagon.

  6. Tom Slater

    I used to work on Volvos as a pro wrench. Didn’t much care for it and always thought the cars were overpriced for the build quality but then, when they are in once piece, they do drive pretty damn nicely.
    I don’t think I could bring myself to own one at the current prices but yes, I believe you when you say the T5 wagon is good stuff.
    I’ll probably find myself in the turbo-awd-wagon market sooner or later but I’ll be looking West into the rising sun for mine, not to the fridgid-yet-prosperous Swedes, thankyouverymuch.

  7. 38P

    Wow . . . First TEN replaced SuperBuickGuy’s “Rod and Custom” subscription with “Motor Trend” . . . and now somebody’s replaced Bangshift’s own BRUAB with Jean Jennings . . . .

    Maybe there is something to that whole zombie apocalypse/alien-body-snatcher business . . . .

    If even a sliver of the real BRUAB still exists . . . At least tell us how that Indian-Swedish “safety car” runs on a quickie nitrous-in-a-bag shot, okay?

  8. 38P

    BTW, Inhabitant of BRUAB’s body, if some misguided soul does torch Lohnes’ humble Taxachusetts abode, Jeremy Clarkson proved for all time that one can sleep well in a Volvo wagon . . . .

    (Oh wait. May had the Volvo R-model and Clarkson had a BMW estate car . . . Never mind, zombies)

  9. greenjunk

    Brian told me about this write up a month ago, i’m glad he does these. Most of us are hard pressed to get our wives to drive 40 year old cars. Hell I don’t even like regularly driving classics on my morning commute. I may be soft, but sitting in a car for 50min a day I prefer sat radio, a soft ride, and the tuned perfection of modern fuel injection. No cam surge, no turbo lag, no bucking or jerking from a dual disc clutch. So for me, keep them coming, as a young maturing website that provides the most variety of all thing engine powered, its just part of the process. Last Volvo wagons are just awesome, expensive as hell to maintain, but awesome.

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