View PhotosJim Caiozzo|Car and DriverFrom the January 1999 issue of Car and Driver.If Volvo built a four-door that looked nothing at all like a shipping crate, would it still be a Volvo? What if this sedan were unmistakably plush besides, cosseting its occupants in creamy-cushy seats, and what if this car went about its business with the hushed manners of the archduke’s manservant? Could that be a Volvo? More curious still, what if this four-door, while wearing the mantle of S-A-F-E-T-Y as only a Volvo can, also enjoyed dusting off all similarly priced competitors, including that famous three-letter German brand? Could such a sedan possibly be a Volvo?”No way,” you say? Then get ready to download a new Volvo file. We’re talking Volvo for the next millennium here, the first model on the company’s new big-car platform, and it ain’t your father’s Volvo. View PhotosJim Caiozzo|Car and DriverThe one thing the future according to Volvo doesn’t hold for us, apparently, is grins. Perhaps in keeping with the company’s safety image, the S80 comes across as a solemn, sober car. With the exception of what happens when you tip into the twin-turbo “T6” engine, as on this top-of-the-line test car, there’s not a lighthearted gesture to be found anywhere. Shades of charcoal cover the interior, interrupted only by a band of nicely finished woodgrain that circles most of the way around the passenger compartment. Except for the headliner, everything else is charcoal. Even the instruments are charcoal dials on a charcoal background, for heaven’s sake. So relentless is the seriousness that a Mercedes E-class seems like 3500 pounds of giggles by comparison. And yet the pleasures are here for those with discerning tastes. The leather-wrapped wheel has a reassuringly dry-to0-the-touch, never-slip texture; no more sweaty palms. The seat leather feels dry, too, unlikely to make your backside perspire on a sultry day, and the bucket itself has a superbly plush top layer of padding over a properly supportive (which is to say firm) foundation. For those of us yet to sit in the lap of luxury, this is as good as it gets. View PhotosJim Caiozzo|Car and DriverMachinery sounds are muted, too. The engine is barely audible at idle and purrs, not growls, under power. There’s little impact noise from road irregularities. Suspension motions over the road are deftly damped so that the body moves in response to the humps and bumps, but the abruptness of those motions is somehow missing. The feel is luxurious rather than athletic, yet always well-controlled. By comparison, a Mercedes E-class feels, and sounds, a bit rude. More Volvo Reviews From the Archive
- From The Archive: Five 1999 Euro Wagons Compared
- Tested: 2003 Volvo S60R AWD
The obvious competitors, beyond the E-class, are the BMW 5-series and the Lexus GS300 and GS400, sedans all tightly grouped within two inches of one another in overall length. In other dimensions, the S80 falls right into the range with two exceptions—it’s taller by a fraction and wider by a bit more than an inch. Width is surely an asset in this car, both for accommodating a long inline six in a transverse front-drive layout and for structural protection of occupants in side impacts. View PhotosJim Caiozzo|Car and DriverWhile we’re talking occupant protection, exercising such systems remains outside the scope of our road test—when our luck holds anyway, as it did in this case—yet Volvo has built its reputation on safety claims, so some discussion is appropriate. The S80 introduces two new safety features from Volvo: energy-absorbing front seats intended to reduce whiplash during rear impacts and an “inflatable curtain” system of airbags that drop down from just above the doors to protect the heads and upper bodies of both front and rear passengers in side impacts. Since head injuries constitute about half of all the harm from side crashes, any extra protection you can get is good news. However, we’re surprised to find that safety-minded Volvo includes lower side airbags for front passengers only, leaving the curtain alone for rear protection. A discreet “T6” badge on the tail serves to notify others what manner of Volvo this is that just blew past. The twin-turbo, 2783-cc six-cylinder engine connects to your foot through an all-electronic, drive-by-wire control system, which does a very good job of muting the usual turbo annoyances. At low speeds—say you’re pulling away from a stop into a close gap in traffic—the torque doesn’t come on with the tire-spinning lunge you’d expect of a naturally aspirated engine rated at 280 pound-feet at 2000 rpm. A Cadillac Seville Touring Sedan feels much more energetic when the foot goes down. But the T6 doesn’t exactly lag, either. It ramps up the torque curve just quickly enough that, if you didn’t know for sure, you wouldn’t guess it’s turbocharged (the turbos are quiet, too, so there’s no giveaway whine). View PhotosJim Caiozzo|Car and DriverWhat this gradualism costs you in lunge, you gain in steering feel. The torque still tugs at the steering a bit during low-speed, wide-open-throttle operation. But it’s barely objectionable, much less so than in the STS.When the boost is up, this is a quick car—0 to 60 mph in 6.5 seconds, through the quarter-mile in 14.9 seconds at 95 mph. With a base price of $41,258, the S80 T6 is priced slightly above many of its six-cylinder competitors and well below the V-8s, yet it’s closer to the V-8s in acceleration.The S80 scores at the sporty end of the range in other performance measures, too. Skidpad grip is 0.81 g; stops from 70 mph happen in 181 feet. But the mood of the car says luxury, not sport. One example: The driver’s space is roomy; it’s not a tight “cockpit” as in BMWs and Jaguars. View PhotosJim Caiozzo|Car and DriverThe transmission includes a manumatic gate. Pulling the lever back beyond D lets you notch into a Tiptronic-like mode. The gear you’ve selected then appears in a digital display carved into the tach dial. Both the tach and the speedometer have these windows packed with green digits for odometers, outside temperature, time, cruise, etc. Fine, but could they dim a bit more for night driving, please? The S80 continues Volvo’s practical approach. In addition to three-point belts for five occupants, the split rear bench folds forward to increase cargo space, or you can seat two passengers back there and haul long objects (eight-foot linguini?) poked through the smaller passage between them. Secret stowage opportunities abound: in the fold-down rear armrest, in the gathered pockets at the bases of the front seats. All that’s missing is the good cheer. At this price, why shouldn’t a traveling companion be amusing, too? CounterpointsWith its responsive steering and eager engine, Volvo’s roomy new S80 will whisk your entire family through the suburban freeway throngs with elemental ease. But accelerate smartly around a tight corner, and the wheel refuses to self-center until you ease the throttle. Even in a straight line, the steering wheel tugs to and fro on uneven pavement if your right foot is down in the lower gears. With 268 vigorous horsepower on tap, the S80’s front tires are simply tasked with too many duties. No wonder many builders of powerful luxury sedans are rediscovering the virtues of rear-wheel drive. —Csaba CsereI can’t quite see why someone would want to buy an S80 instead of a Lexus GS, a BMW 5-series, or a Mercedes E-class. Maybe this is because the S80’s funky taillights make me think the car’s designers were trying way too hard to conjure up something, um, different. Maybe it’s because the front-wheel-drive S80 doesn’t feel as balanced, or as planted under hard acceleration, as its rear-drive competitors. Or maybe it’s because the S80’s seats feel softer than you would expect in a high-end sedan. If I had to guess what cars the S80 competes with price-wise, I wouldn’t have been anywhere close to its current list of adversaries. —Bradley NevinIf you happened to awake behind the wheel of this car, you’d have to rely on the badging to tell you what you were sitting in—all that leather and wood does not suggest Volvo. In fact, I’m not sure what it suggests. I kept going back to the S80, figuring that with one more drive I’d be able to pinpoint the car’s personality. I never did. It is undeniably competent and has an attractive profile and commendable performance, but I’ve always respected Volvo’s willingness to take some chances. Not much chance taken here—the S80 is sage, if slightly uninspired, bet. —Steven Cole SmithSpecificationsSpecifications
1999 Volvo S80 T6
Vehicle Type: front-engine, front-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan
PRICE
Base/As Tested: $41,258/$44,221
Options: leather seats, $1595; power sunroof, $12 00; luxury tax on options, $168
ENGINE
twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 24-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, port fuel injection
Displacement: 170 in3, 2783 cm3
Power: 268 hp @ 5400 rpm
Torque: 280 lb-ft @ 2000 rpm
TRANSMISSION
4-speed automatic
CHASSIS
Suspension, F/R: struts/multilink
Brakes, F/R: 12.0-in vented disc/11.4-in disc
Tires: Michelin Pilot HX MXM4
225/55HR-16
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 109.9 in
Length: 189.8 in
Width: 72.1 in
Height: 57.2 in
Passenger Volume, F/R: 53/44 ft3
Trunk Volume: 14 ft3
Curb Weight: 3690 lb
C/D TEST RESULTS
60 mph: 6.5 sec
100 mph: 16.7 sec
1/4-Mile: 14.9 sec @ 95 mph
130 mph: 31.2 sec
Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 7.1 sec
Top Gear, 30–50 mph: 3.3 sec
Top Gear, 50–70 mph: 4.1 sec
Top Speed (gov ltd): 133 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 181 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.81 g
C/D FUEL ECONOMY
Observed: 18 mpg
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
City/Highway: 18/27 mpg
C/D TESTING EXPLAINED
Source: caranddriver.com
