Volvo

S80

Comfort and luxury are paramount in the Volvo S80 to such an extent that any journey seems too short! It also boasts great economy and low emissions figures along with an impressive range of features throughout. Of course, being a Volvo the safety spec is excellent too.

The good

True luxury

The bad

Stiff opposition out there

Tech Specs

Price from

£32,220

Combined Fuel up to

678.9mpg

0-62 from

8.4 seconds

max speed up to

140mph

co2 from

108g/km

Test Drive

Volvo S80 D5 SE LUX

Every once in a while I have a car to test out and I’m really sad to wave it off at the end of the week’s trial – the latest car to match that billing was the beautiful Volvo S80.

Now, a lot of people are still living in the dark ages and believe all Volvos look like big boxes on wheels – well, it’s time to move pretty swiftly into the 21st Century, because Volvos today are guaranteed to turn heads.

It’s true, they still boast incredible safety records and there’s no weird and whacky shapes on the design front, but for beautifully-crafted streamlining, state-of-the-art comfort and blistering pace, look no further than the new S80.

I was lucky enough to test this car out during a wintry cold snap and while other motorists were delaying every trip for as long as possible, I was eager to get behind the wheel of the S80 with its very rapid heating system complete with luxurious heated seats with three temperature settings.

And the list of creature comforts are endless on the S80 with air conditioning, a fabulous sound system with connectivity access for all today’s devices, a sat nav system, multi-function steering wheel and bags more.

The soft leather seats are very supportive and offer the same levels of comfort as your favourite armchair might and the central stack of controls, dials and buttons makes everything very neat and compact in appearance and very practical to use too.

The trim throughout is eye-catching without being garish and all passengers are treated to plenty of space with ample leg, head and elbow room in the back.

Storage is very good too with a generously-sized boot and there are plenty of useful compartments scattered throughout the cabin for all you nicknacks.

But for me, comfort aside, the real appeal of the S80 is its sheer ability to perform. Acceleration is smooth but very powerful through the six-speed automatic transmission and the power in this 2.4-litre, diesel-driven engine just keeps on coming.

Even at higher speeds, the S80 always has a little bit more to offer and the road-holding is exceptionally good even on icy roads.

Driver visibility is very good and squeezing into tight supermarket spaces is made all the easier thanks to parking sensors.

And as one would expect from Volvo, the safety features are very comprehensive.

Sometimes, it’s really hard to find fault with a test car and all I can really come up with on this occasion is the asking price of just under £35k, but believe me, it’s worth every penny.