Volvo S80 epitomizes corporate focus on safety
The Volvo S80 proves it’s impossible to have too much of a good thing, at least if you believe that building cars with an uncompromising emphasis on safety is a good thing.
Overlooking safety is common in analyzing cars, because all car-makers are now striving to meet safety standards. Some companies build pretty good cars, then depend on such things as side and side-curtain airbags to reach proper safety levels. Volvo’s endless research into causes and effects of crashes has evolved to high standards for safety that range from structural innovations that are the standard of the industry to new methods for prompting drivers to stay more aware.
You can only do so much by computer, so Volvo runs the vehicles through exhaustive crash-tests at its safety facility in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo sends cars through frontal, front corner, side, and rear angle crashes, and a unique sled sends Volvo models down a long hallway and flings them to rude outdoor rollover tests.
The previous S80 was structurally among the safest vehicles ever built, with a platform strong enough to also work under the XC-90 SUV. Because Ford owns Volvo, it recalled the platform for use under the Ford Five Hundred (now renamed Taurus), and the Freestyle (now renamed Taurus X). The difference is that Volvo uses stronger “boron†steel, which is unbendable, in its pillars and at strategic occupant-protection areas.
The new S80 takes another step forward with even more advanced safety technology, while also continuing Volvo’s trend toward visually attractive lines and contours that make us realize the boxy and outdated Volvos from a decade ago were, well, boxy and outdated. Even then, they were very safe.
The interior of the new S80 is outstanding in its Scandinavian understatement. Excellent ergonomic controls include a little silhouette of a seated person, with push-button arrows toward the head, torso, or feet, for simple airflow selection. It also adopts the S40’s uniquely thin center control panel that has a small storage cubby behind it.
My wife, Joan, doesn’t like gadgets in cars, so she was skeptical of the flashing diode that blinks on the left front edge of the door whenever a car drives into the camera-detected side-mirror blind spot. But she soon changed her mind, appreciating the tip to recheck the mirror, and missing it after our week-long test ended. “I should have known,†said Joan, “that any gadget Volvo might put in would be beneficial for safety.Ââ€
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When the revised S80 was introduced, its all-wheel-drive models came with a 4.4-liter V8, specifically built by Yamaha in close contact with Volvo engineers to be narrow enough to fit sideways between the front wheels. Front-wheel-drive models came with a 3.2-liter, in-line 6-cylinder engine.
New for 2008 is a third model, with a turbocharged 3.0 inline-6 and all-wheel drive. Its 285 horsepower is 50 more than the FWD model, and 27 less than the V8.
The V8 AWD model has a three-button control on the console for setting the suspension firmness, and it works so well for optimum emergency-handling control that I was disappointed that the 3.0-turbo AWD model lacked that feature. It needs it, or else a simple alteration to the next firmer setting, because without it, the softer suspension lacks the same precision of agility.
In base form, the FWD S80 model is still expensive at about $35,000, while the loaded, top model with all-wheel-drive rises to over $45,000. That’s a lot of money.
Or is it?
When you consider how much we’ll spend for power or luxury, the perspective of expense breaks down quite directly. If we’ll spend unflinchingly for power or for luxury, then look at the S80. With good power, plenty of luxury, the best seats in the industry, and distinctively subtle style, how much are we willing to pay for that unswerving devotion to safety?
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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