Faced with a wagon in a world ever so eager to pick an SUV– choose the wagon. Namely the Volvo V60 T8 Polestar Engineered.
Station wagons used to run this country. Well before the era of SUVs and vehicles getting bigger yet less practical, wagons carried our nation on their back. Now, modern ones are just a novel relic of what used to be. The Volvo V60 is a glaring anachronism and frankly a “F U” to the SUV world. Out of place? Maybe. But one thing is for sure, it’s sure as hell a lot of fun to drive.
Volvo has made a commitment to appease the niche wagon community in the United States. While ditching the full-size V90 in a rather anticlimactic and melancholic sendoff, the V60 remains in full force stateside. A bastion of its body style, the station wagon remains only in remnants of itself, relegated to Mercedes’ E-Class wagon, Audi’s RS6 Avant, and a hodgepodge of plastic cladding littered vehicles from different manufacturers attempting to mimic the look of an SUV.
While the end is nigh for the fabled wagon, the V60 Polestar does its best to reverse the action and does so with aplomb. Sitting at the highest trim level offered on the rather restrained V60, Volvo’s little known performance division– Polestar adds a roundhouse kick of sporty flair to incite a spark. The V60 is one of the few cars on the market to use Volvo’s iconic and unique powertrain, a twin charged four cylinder mated to a hybrid platform that yanks out 455 horsepower. Based purely off of cylinders within the engine, our math works out to 114 horsepower per. Impressive for a little known wagon.
Serious Power, Serious Guts
A far cry from the twin-turbo V8 of the Audi RS6 Avant, but that’s exactly what the V60 Polestar is attempting to glean over. The V60 Polestar will rocket you to 60 miles an hour in less than five seconds. Volvo claims their time at a tick over 4.4, yet we clocked in at 4.2 from a standstill. Pair that with the reserved family hauler we see on the exterior and it’s a whole different ball game. To get there, the V60 runs through a 8-speed automatic transmission that sends its power to the front wheels. Spin around to the back and we see the duality of the car truly come to life. As Polestar encroaches on more of an EV portfolio than just the föreställningsbutik of Volvo, the brand has made its imprint in the form of a hybrid motor that churns the rear two tires.
The living arrangement and synergy between the vastly two different formats ends up shipping the V60 to a 1/4 mile at 12.9 seconds. The T8 also hits 100 miles an hour at 10.9 seconds and 130 at 20.9.
The V60 however sees a decrease over the previous generation which enjoys a lower curb weight yet less horsepower. The newest generation tips the scale at 4,509 lbs, an uptick of over 500 lbs from the outgoing generation. The most recent refresh lengthened out the V60, by over 5 inches affecting critical pieces of the wagon’s aerodynamics. Still, if we’re hitting 60 miles an hour in a station wagon in the sub-5 second range, we don’t exactly care about the V60’s eagerness to get plump– instead we were more focused on Polestar’s contributions to the car.
The V60 Polestar Is A Handling Skönhet
At some point we must realize there’s more to the in-house tuning world than AMG and the M department. Nestled deep in the heart of Southern Sweden, this Nordic tuner has never been afraid to live in the shadows. From wagons like the V70 R to four-door sedans like the S60, Polestar has always added a uniquely Swedish spin on Volvo’s models– all with the backdrop of the beautiful fjords behind them.
Volvo’s project child handles better than any other wagon we’ve seen thus far, and that includes the RS6 Avant. While the RS6 Avant takes on more of a screaming muscle car persona, we’ve attributed the V60 to much more of a country club cruiser theme. That’s not to say the V60 Polestar is a snoozer, instead it’s quite the opposite.
A tight suspension setup (tuned by yours truly, Polestar) paired alongside the twin-charged plant make the V60 Polestar a true thrill to whip around windy corners. The supercharger and the hybrid motor help propel the wagon at low end speeds, delivering instant torque when speeding out of a turn. When the turbo has enough power to spool itself up, the supercharger kicks off and allows the snail to boost the vehicle. While not mainstream, it’s been Volvo’s distinct powertrain of choice lending itself in other T8 Polestar models such as the S60 sedan and the XC60 SUV.
Agile enough to make any tight turn seem like a breeze all while hauling a whole family in the back seems like the perfect car, and it is. We loved the wagon during our testing and our editor-in-chief even thought about buying one. The nimble attitude made the V60 apt to our inputs with not a lot of lag in between. Despite the hefty nature of the wagon, bogged down by the heavy EV equipment and just overall a larger car, it felt like a vehicle twice as small. Big gold-colored Brembos held down the fort while we heated up the 14.6 vented discs in the front around sharp turns like it was no one’s business.
An EV Powerplant That Seems Useless At Times
On one end, the performance of the V60 is one of the best out there. Minimizing its cons and somehow turning them into pros has been Volvo’s modus operandi for quite some time now. Even when they debuted the V70 R decades ago, it was one of the few high performance wagons on the market. Compare that to today’s sporty SUVs.
Yet, there still seems to be one thing that drags the V60 from echelon status. Its hybrid powertrain seems to be universally disliked amongst the car community. Despite it playing a major role in its power output and driving feel, it’s a plug-in hybrid that gets 21 miles of range on the highway. Not a lot for something you must charge up nearly every night.
However, the car is capable of recharging itself through its internal combustion engine, a cool feature we find rare amongst its competitors. Polestar for the better part of five years has been trying to swing their way into much more than the in-house performance arm of Volvo. Instead, they would like to be known for transforming the company into an EV-centric brand. The hybrid powertrain, is a proper segue into that world as the brand has finally spun off into its own.
Polestar has released the Polestar 1 and 2– and is set to release the 3 in the coming months. If Volvo is due to become all electric in the near future, then so be it. We presume their history of building high quality wagons will not see a fate.
For $71,845, the Polestar wagon is one of the better valued wagons you can buy stateside in today’s market. It’s six figures cheaper than both the RS6 Avant and the E63 AMG, leading us to immediately fall in love and etch its name in wagon history.
