Once a badge of outright fiery performance pedigree – Volvo in this instance reserves the T5 designation to signal a slow burner.

Base price: $82,900
Powertrain and economy: 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder, 192kW/400Nm, 8-speed automatic, AWD, combined economy 7.3L/100km, CO2 168g/km.
Vital statistics: 4761mm long, 2040mm wide, 1431mm high, 2872mm wheelbase, luggage capacity 390 litres, 19-inch alloy wheels.
We like: Lots of tech, smart look, smooth engine.
We don't like: Small boot, not like the old-school T5.

 HERE you go, another car that sets up a ding-dong battle between heart and mind.

Why should be obvious to see. The market has put the absolute boot into sedans. If there’s any commonality to the avalanche of marketing data every brand accrues, it’s the overwhelming evidence that no kind of passenger vehicle can succeed unless it has a semblance of something plainly absent from today’s tester. Let’s call it the crossover gene. 

So, with that in mind, the S60 should be basically invisible, because nobody’s supposed to be interested.

And, yet, on the day I used it as a retreat from the cold when, having decided not to race in a car club event at my local track, I volunteered for gate duty undertaking Covid compliance checks on the final day these were relevant under what transpired to be the first round of Level Two, I met a lot of ‘nobodies’. 

Who were all genuinely interested. Maybe not to the point of wanting to buy in, but certainly keen to sit in it, look at the powertrain and run up questions about what the car was about. 

The one thing it particularly did, too, was draw out owners of older Volvos. Even though this brand isn’t a huge performer in respect to NZ-new registrations, the Swedish enclave is surprisingly healthy, thanks to used imports. The guys I met seemed to be running ex-Singapore cars. Mainly a few V90s sitting up in the spectator area and the service park but also a 1980s’ S80 T5 R from the 1990s that was proudly reprising the famous international touring car racing works effort. 

The S60 here gave the old-school supporters a fair bit to think about. Volvo has changed hugely in the past few years, but rest assured in ownership with China’s Geely and despite production now expanding from Scandinavia to the United States and China, it’s still emphatically Swedish in spirit.

That exemplifies in how this car delivers in its styling, comfort, equipment level and under the bonnet. And with the badges?

Well, today’s T5 is no longer a five-cylinder, but a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol, and the T8 format this level of sedan and wagon can also equip with is also well off the traditional numerical mark, as it now represents the presence of a "twin engine" powertrain that combines another version of the 2.0-litre, but this time with a supercharger working with the turbo and backing from an electric motor.

The latter format delivers something quite remarkable - a PHEV system that is emphatically performance-minded yet can also be driven in quite frugal manner – and I’d readily admit that transferring to the S60 T5 after a week with a V60 T8 demanded attuning, quite literally, to a different, less frantic pace. 

At same token, of course, it’s only fair to acknowledge that the transition also took me into lower pricing altitude, exaggerated all the more through the V60 having come with enough options to almost double the $20,000 difference that divides the models in their purely factory formats.

Could you tell? Well, yes, in respect to their fitouts, the V60 clearly had more finery to justify its higher placement in the prestige zone. At same token, though, the S60 hardly felt like it was trading at pauper pack level. 

Volvo interiors these days are exemplars of modern Scandinavian design and, beyond that, this is a brand that accepts it has to provision fulsomely if it has a chance of being thought of as a true rival to other like-sized and powered Euros.

While sedans are falling out of favour, the competition is still pretty hot. The rivals for this models conceivably included all the stars; the BMW 3 Series, Audi A4, Mercedes C-Class, Jaguar XE and Alfa Romeo Giulia. None can be taken lightly.

The S60 pitches in with appealingly modern styling, a cabin fitout and comfort features that will be familiar in this sector, delivers well in cabin size and then throws in the additional possible allure of being all-wheel-drive, when most others are not.

While it is not an outright performance model, the engine also achieves an optimisation tweak from Polestar, which though now primarily involved in making electric cars still lends a hand to its original task of tweaking the fossil-fuelled engines to deliver a touch more pep.

That’s how is translates here. The S60 is not emphatic in expressing sporting intent, but the engine has more than sufficient power for most circumstances and, certainly, it has no issue with reaching, holding and exceeding our legal limit. The eight-speed gearbox works well with it to produce a rounded, pleasing performance envelope. It lacks the impressive oomph that the PHEV so effortlessly implements yet there’s enough of a torque swell, from quite low revs, to make it feel ‘larger’ than it really is.

That’s definitely a good thing. The S60 is in its fourth generation and each seems larger than the last; this time there’s a 100mm increase in length, mostly to improve rear seat leg room, which has previously been so tight as to be criticised.

That possibly won’t now happen, though perhaps as the dimensional increase doesn’t influence boot space, some might question what’s going on there. It’s a 392 litre cavity – long and wide but shallow in shape – and even though it has a 60/40 split folding seat, the amount of luggage room will be questioned. Volvo will, of course, say the answer is the V60.

If styling sense, too, the wagon has an edge though that’s not to say the chiselled, sculpted styling doesn’t look any less good on a sedan. Those abbreviated overhangs, the squared and hunkered stance and the detailing of those Thor’s hammer DRLs bisecting the headlamps. Everything about this car expresses that this is a maker in a confident frame of mind.

Volvo interior design is all heading to a commonality, so no surprise to see the S60 achieve the feature interior element of a big, upright 'Sensus' touchscreen in the middle that remains a model of clarity and simple menu layouts. Worried about fingermarks? Well, yes, it does suffer them – so Volvo includes a cloth cleaner for that. As you would expect, the R-Design seats are sumptuously comfortable.

The engine start and stop function might have newbies guessing, as this is by a rotating knob near the electronic park brake button. It requires a 45-degree turn clockwise, then release. Different? Sure, but it’s easy to locate and use.

All in all it imparts as being very executive in its ambience, and aside from the plastics being perhaps not quite up to German premium standard, there’s very little to quibble about.

The specification delivers four-zone climate air, full LED lighting with cornering lamps, powered and heated front seats and connectivity for both types of smartphone, though the USB ports are a little awkwardly placed. Also, there’s a three-pin (220V) outlet located in the rear of the centre console for recharging devices that don't have a USB lead. 

And no-one could claim Volvo is neglectful in respect to the well-being of its customers. The safety provisions are so impressive. City Safe’s recognition smarts keep improving and it also initiates autobraking if a head-on collision seems imminent. Adaptive cruise and lane keeping, a 360-degree camera, self-parking and extremely well-sorted traffic sign recognition. A little pop-up graphic in the speedo advises when the car is approaching a speed camera.

The S60 runs adaptive damping with three drive modes and also has decent 245/40R19 PremiumContact rubber, the chassis is quite well-sorted and likewise the all-wheel-drive. Yet as impressive as it is for its grip and flowing mannerisms, it stops short of delivering a fully engaging feel; there’s nothing here that suggests it’s going to deal to the top Germans. A lot of this is to do with the steering. The rack is accurate and nicely weighted, but devoid of feel.

Still, even if truly keen drivers won’t be captured, it feels pleasingly planted and secure and while the ride quality is firm, it soaks up surface imperfections well. So, while imagining it to be a modern equivalent of those classic 850 T5 BTCC racers is asking too much, it’s quietly quick when you need it to be. Plus, it’s also decently thrifty, too. At a steady 100kmh the engine is only revving at around 1600rpm; holding it there and running in Eco mode allows easy access to sub 10 L/100km outcomes.

So, yeah, there are pluses and minuses, pretty much in even quantity, really. Not that this really matter, because what the S60 really requires if it is to achieve volume is something that doesn’t appear likely to occur any time soon. A change to consumer tastes. If we go back to sedans, then obviously it has a chance. But, frankly, it’d have to do more to convince me.

Even so, step back and view it through a broader spectrum and there’s every reason to be impressed, if not about the car specifically then at least in respect to what it represents as a brand effort. 

Volvo’s really a make on the move, now. Annual output has doubled in less than a decade to stand at 700,000 units – a count the likes of Jaguar can only dream of achieving –and the entire model range is delivering all-new designs, architectures and technology. It's standing tall and that’s even before we’ve been given a chance to look at its opus, the Polestar electric cars.