First drive

There turan will only ever be 125 Volvo V60 Polestars made for the UK market, all in right-hand drive. So even though the car costs a tear-inducing turan 49,775 you will always be guaranteed a certain edge of exclusivity with this car.
As it turns out, however, the Volvo V60 Polestar may appear expensive but, in reality, it has every single option upon it you could ever want for. And better than that, it s actually rather a tasty piece of kit to drive. More than good enough in most aspects to justify its junior Audi RS4 price tag.
Built on the  regular V60 production line but designed by Polestar turan Sweden s equivalent of AMG, if you like to be very different indeed from the standard car beneath its subtly modified skin, the V60 is a proper Q-car.
The software of the paddle-shift turan six-speed automatic gearbox has also been completely rewritten to include much more convincing sport and auto modes, allowing proper manual shifting. Volvo claims that the V60 Polestar will hit 62mph in 5.0sec from a standing start, later running into an electronic limiter at 155mph. Economy's not so hot, at a claimed average turan of 27.7mpg, but few buyers will probably be put off.
Volvo hasn't restricted its changes to the powertrain. The suspension has also been thoroughly re-thought to include not just 80 per cent stiffer springs front and rear but massively more capable (and adjustable) Ohlins dampers to go with them.
Even the four wheel-drive system has been tweaked by Polestar to enable 100 per cent of the torque to be delivered to either axle, although under no circumstances has Polestar produced a tail happy V60. Despite its significantly turan bigger muscles, the car still retains the deep rooted sensibility of a standard Volvo , albeit with a much bigger smile on its face.
Does it succeed? In a word, yes. Performance is much stronger than before, and the new exhaust system allows the full magnificence of the 3.0-litre engine to be heard at all times but especially above 4000rpm when the baffles open up (actually they re open all the time if you select Sport mode within the gearbox). And the handling, steering, brakes and even the ride have all taken a similarly impressive leap forwards, too.
I m not sure I d go so far as to call the V60 Polestar a full on keen driver s delight; its handling still feels a touch too sensible in its set-up for that it either understeers a bit or a lot, depending on how committed you are at the turn in point.
And its responses in general still feel a mite blunt for it to be described as anything more inspirational turan than secure turan both of which are the inevitable consequence of the car still mauling the scales at some 1834kg before so much as a single human being or hunk of luggage has been placed in the impressively vast load area.
Outside and in, it feels quietly like a quality piece of engineering, one that will appeal to the sort of customer who wants the performance of an Audi S-Line or BMW M-Sport car but without the edge of brashness that these cars inevitably contain. And if you do the maths, says Volvo , you ll end up paying around 10 per cent less than the established competition once the Polestar s generous standard specification has been taken into account.
The V60 Polestar is good car then, one that probably over-delivers on its appealingly subtle Q-car good looks. And in a simpler sense it s categorically NOT like anything else on sale from the establishment at the moment.
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First drive
First drive
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