Have this ever happened to you? You’re going to a club, are ready to strut your stuff on the dance floor. You take a seat and are chatting with your friends when the ladies of the group want to go and powder their noses. You acquiesce and carry on discussing until their return makes you totally confused. Despite your expert eye, you perceive no changes and you still ask yourself the point of this female ritual.
What is the link with the refreshed Volvo S60? Well, the time required by girls for a discussion in front of the mirror is equivalent to the time taken by Volvo to refresh the Volvo S60 – and in both cases changes are impossible to discern.
Let’s be honest: we didn’t expect a revolution for a car that will disappear soon and is still a design success, but the ritual of restyling, when it is not, is irritating, especially since it has become popular among the carmakers. In the case of the S60, it has reached a peak. Indeed, the S60 gets a new grille with the new larger brand emblem, which appeared on the S80, and side indicators integrated in the door mirrors. However the sporty front spoiler is an option as is the new wing spoiler front spoiler, the sills and rear lower bumper, colour coordinated with the car body. Thus a discussion with your friends could run as follows: “Hey, I have the refreshed Volvo S60, but since I couldn’t afford the refreshed trims, it’s indistinguishable from the old model.” The three new exterior colours – Electric Silver, Orinoco Blue and Maple Red and the three new aluminium wheels – Nodus (16 inches), Tucana (17 inches) and Eudora (18 inches) won’t change the feeling of deception. Scrutinizing the interior with a magnifying glass is not better because once again only optional extras will enable you to enjoy the new aluminium metal decor panels, the new three-spoke steering wheel, the new Volvo S80’s inspired instrument panel and the new interior mirror with built-in compass.
This rejuvenation has some good features. The engineers have increased the car’s torsional rigidity by about 25 percent thanks to firmer shock absorbers and springs. They have also innovated and introduced an innovative a new indicator function: press lightly on the lever and the indicator flashes three times. Not a revolution, as you will conclude but Volvo is careful to call this a “refined S60” rather than a refreshed S60 in the hope that the public will confuse the two. To a degree, the fact that there is discussion about this at all is a success for the Swedish carmaker: keeping themselves in the public eye while we wait for the promised successor to the S60.
More photos:
Leave a Reply