You see, I am besotted by Yamahas. The R1, R6 and MT01 are machines that – I am sure – you would kill your darling mommy-in-law for. Okay, you would kill your mother-in-law even without a reason, but you get the point! I’ve even had the pleasure of enjoying a Yamaha Waverunner once, and whatever little time I managed on the damn thing, I was screaming with pleasure. Why, you would ask, am I talking about Yamaha in Volvo S80’s review? Well, that’s because I have reasons. All 315 of them, in fact!
In the space between front wheels lives an animal, of the mechanical kind. And that animal was bred to its ferocity at Yamaha’s den in Japan. One Mr Hanibal Lector, as literature has it, enjoyed going about the business of slaughtering unsuspecting people. The 4.4-litre V8 powering the Volvo S80 is as brutally kind in its progress as Lector in the middle of his slaughtering act. I was enjoying the brutality of that huge power whenever the engine made the rev needle, within that relatively polite and classy looking instrument panel, move towards the boiling end of the rev counter.
Talking of the engine, please pardon me for sounding a little technical here, but due credit has to be given to the brilliant blokes from Japan. A 60-degree bank angle is more of a norm in engines of V6 format, but this Yamaha-developed V8 motor too sports 60-degree banking. This allows the engine to be transversely mounted. But mind you, it’s not as easy as just penning it on paper. Yamaha did some radical head scratching, came up with a complex (but groundbreaking) crankshaft design, and in conjunction with an arrangement of a pair of balancer shafts in the sump, ensured that the engine ran smoothly.
It’s not just about 315 bhp that the engine engenders; it is also about the colossal 440 Nm of torque wave. Coming together, these numbers thrust the S80 to a sensationally rapid 7-second sprint to hundred clicks on the speedo. Keep the throttle buried to the carpet and you will experience two things – one; the incredible sensation of speeds well in excess of 220 kmph and, two; the feeling of being pinned back in the seat and holding the steering as hard as you can, even trying to lift your bottom from the seat at times!
I’ve driven cars capable of doing similar speeds, but trust you me, the sheer appetite for speed of this engine is surreal. The motor’s apathy towards your jaw-dropping, fear-of-death expression is pure cruelty, but you somehow tend to enjoy it. Sounds uncanny? Drive the damn thing and you’ll know what I mean. The engine does rather well to live up to its high-revving status.
Oh, just to let you know, such sensational performance comes at a trade-off, and the trade-off, as you have guessed ever so correctly, is the car’s drinking habit. But you’d not really be worried about the overall fuel economy of 7.3kmpl if you were driving the Volvo S80 V8, would you?
Jack Brymer once said “The ability to play the clarinet is the ability to overcome the imperfections of the instrument. There's no such thing as a perfect clarinet, never was and never will be.” In Volvo S80’s case too, no matter how perfect the engine may be, the overall product, per se, is not without its share of insignificant yet irksome niggles, hence S80 does not score a perfect ten.
Volvo S80 was introduced in 1998 as a replacement for S90 and was one of the first Volvos to dump the boxy, middle-of-the-road look. So it’s been more than a decade now and, we think, things could have been a bit better than they are. No doubt, the S80 is quite a looker. When I say looker, I mean that it has a certain graceful character that makes heads turn, but in the company of Audi A6 and BMW 5-Series, the Volvo S80 does look a little, er, unadventurous.
Since we could not make available the Audi and BMW in time, we decided to drive around in the posh areas of Mumbai, hoping to find the two mentioned cars. And we prayed for them to be parked next to one another. Much to our surprise, we did indeed get an A6 and a 5-Series parked next to each other in Bandra. Don’t you just live it when God listens to you and acts upon your request? Then we just went up, spoke to a few youngsters and asked for their views on the Volvo. They were hardly interested in our talks. Instead, the hoi-polloi gathered, admired all the cars and gave each one a good look. They then went back with salivating mouths to BMW and Audi to ogle at their bold and sexy form. How’s that for a reality check!
My point is, this is what the Volvo fails to manage – to instantly attract eyeballs, that is. But don’t, not even for a moment, think that the Volvo S80 does not have any recall value. It does, and primarily because there are only so few adorning our roads. The S80 looks like a big S60 with a front end of an inflated S40. Nonetheless, I personally think the S80 looks quite appealing, albeit in a subtle way.
The interior too is rather classy and is loaded with all the electronic this and thats which is expected from a car of this segment. I like the no-fuss approach espoused, I like the fact that there are no one-hundred-and-some buttons to fiddle around with; which in effect means that one won’t be spending one-hundred-and-some years before understanding the function of each of them. The whole environment is not ostentatious, I like! The floating centre console makes for a must-have fashion item, and it adds to the airiness that the cabin exudes aplenty.
Pukka traditionalists are hard to please, but the S80 manages to sweep them off the floor with the polished wood that abounds the dashboard and does a splendid job on the steering wheel too. Super! However, with my six-feet frame in the driver’s seat and a six-foot-and-couple-inches-more Shantanu at the back, things were not so rosy. This nutty, technology-crazy bloke remarked that the Merc E feels more spacious. But that said, the seat comfort was up there with the best as was the overall fit and finish of the cabin.
Another thing that makes the S80 not-so-perfect a tool for spirited corner-hankering antics of the enthusiast inside you is the steering. It looks fantastic, no doubt, but is a little too large for our liking and the feedback is not what you’d call intuitive. I tried all three settings and to be honest, the lowest steering feedback actually felt the most sorted. Seeing that the steering came with a three-setting option, I was quite excited to check out what the deal was. But all fizz died down the moment I realised that it is not as sporty as the rivals.
In part, the 1800kg odd kerb weight can be blamed for being curmudgeon here. The S80, though not as competent as the BMW 5, is modestly good at shaking a leg at home, but show her the dance floor and she frissons. Around the intestine-like roads near Amby Valley, the 61 percent front weight bias made sure that we treat this AWD more like a front wheel driven car. Not that it will not go around the corners properly – it will, and very nicely at that – but the act is not as involving or entertaining as in the BMW 5 Series. The Bimmer allows you to carry more speed into a curve, and with more drama.
When you coerce the Bimmer around a flowing piece of blacktop, your entire skull automatically tilts in the direction of the turn, you clutch your gum-chewing-teeth harder against each other and a smile begins to settle in on your face. That’s what is called involving! While in the Volvo, you sit back with a straight face, have a stiff upper lip and dismiss the corner with as dead an expression as you had while entering it. The Volvo S80 is John Travolta of Saturday Night Fever – sorted and smart; the BMW 5 on the other hand is more like Patrick Swayze of Dirty Dancing – mad, adorable and enormous fun.
Volvo has however managed to marry the engine and gearbox in the best possible way. The transmission was spot on once past 2500 revs and one could literally sense the intimate chemistry between the engine and this 6-speed auto ‘box. The manumatic override that the cars of today are coming with does rob the fun off sometimes.
Yes, alright, so you did not expect this Swede to make such a fruity bawl, or go that fast. Neither were you desperately aroused after seeing one in flesh. Still, the Volvo S80 is quite a charmer. It is elegantly good-looking, more like Ashley Judd than Angelina Jolie. It has great comfort value and the interior alone is worth half of its over 50 lakh asking price. Oh, and it’s a Volvo, so safety is a given. These days, safety features sound sexy in acronyms and the S80 has them all, and then some. You also get comfort enhancing cruise control to play around with. You get everything that you could think of in a car belonging to this segment.
But you wonder still, what purpose does the Volvo S80 cater to? Is it a confused personality, a gobsmacked soul? I, for one, certainly don’t think so. Yes, it is hard to understand what purpose it lives for, but think hard and you can see some reason behind this car. The Volvo S80 is the mechanical equivalent of Swedish band ABBA. Smooth, relaxing, yet puissant. It is the emotionally fluid interaction of sense and sensibility.
In the space between front wheels lives an animal, of the mechanical kind. And that animal was bred to its ferocity at Yamaha’s den in Japan. One Mr Hanibal Lector, as literature has it, enjoyed going about the business of slaughtering unsuspecting people. The 4.4-litre V8 powering the Volvo S80 is as brutally kind in its progress as Lector in the middle of his slaughtering act. I was enjoying the brutality of that huge power whenever the engine made the rev needle, within that relatively polite and classy looking instrument panel, move towards the boiling end of the rev counter.
It’s not just about 315 bhp that the engine engenders; it is also about the colossal 440 Nm of torque wave. Coming together, these numbers thrust the S80 to a sensationally rapid 7-second sprint to hundred clicks on the speedo. Keep the throttle buried to the carpet and you will experience two things – one; the incredible sensation of speeds well in excess of 220 kmph and, two; the feeling of being pinned back in the seat and holding the steering as hard as you can, even trying to lift your bottom from the seat at times!
I’ve driven cars capable of doing similar speeds, but trust you me, the sheer appetite for speed of this engine is surreal. The motor’s apathy towards your jaw-dropping, fear-of-death expression is pure cruelty, but you somehow tend to enjoy it. Sounds uncanny? Drive the damn thing and you’ll know what I mean. The engine does rather well to live up to its high-revving status.Oh, just to let you know, such sensational performance comes at a trade-off, and the trade-off, as you have guessed ever so correctly, is the car’s drinking habit. But you’d not really be worried about the overall fuel economy of 7.3kmpl if you were driving the Volvo S80 V8, would you?
Jack Brymer once said “The ability to play the clarinet is the ability to overcome the imperfections of the instrument. There's no such thing as a perfect clarinet, never was and never will be.” In Volvo S80’s case too, no matter how perfect the engine may be, the overall product, per se, is not without its share of insignificant yet irksome niggles, hence S80 does not score a perfect ten.
Volvo S80 was introduced in 1998 as a replacement for S90 and was one of the first Volvos to dump the boxy, middle-of-the-road look. So it’s been more than a decade now and, we think, things could have been a bit better than they are. No doubt, the S80 is quite a looker. When I say looker, I mean that it has a certain graceful character that makes heads turn, but in the company of Audi A6 and BMW 5-Series, the Volvo S80 does look a little, er, unadventurous.
My point is, this is what the Volvo fails to manage – to instantly attract eyeballs, that is. But don’t, not even for a moment, think that the Volvo S80 does not have any recall value. It does, and primarily because there are only so few adorning our roads. The S80 looks like a big S60 with a front end of an inflated S40. Nonetheless, I personally think the S80 looks quite appealing, albeit in a subtle way.
The interior too is rather classy and is loaded with all the electronic this and thats which is expected from a car of this segment. I like the no-fuss approach espoused, I like the fact that there are no one-hundred-and-some buttons to fiddle around with; which in effect means that one won’t be spending one-hundred-and-some years before understanding the function of each of them. The whole environment is not ostentatious, I like! The floating centre console makes for a must-have fashion item, and it adds to the airiness that the cabin exudes aplenty.
Another thing that makes the S80 not-so-perfect a tool for spirited corner-hankering antics of the enthusiast inside you is the steering. It looks fantastic, no doubt, but is a little too large for our liking and the feedback is not what you’d call intuitive. I tried all three settings and to be honest, the lowest steering feedback actually felt the most sorted. Seeing that the steering came with a three-setting option, I was quite excited to check out what the deal was. But all fizz died down the moment I realised that it is not as sporty as the rivals.
When you coerce the Bimmer around a flowing piece of blacktop, your entire skull automatically tilts in the direction of the turn, you clutch your gum-chewing-teeth harder against each other and a smile begins to settle in on your face. That’s what is called involving! While in the Volvo, you sit back with a straight face, have a stiff upper lip and dismiss the corner with as dead an expression as you had while entering it. The Volvo S80 is John Travolta of Saturday Night Fever – sorted and smart; the BMW 5 on the other hand is more like Patrick Swayze of Dirty Dancing – mad, adorable and enormous fun.
Volvo has however managed to marry the engine and gearbox in the best possible way. The transmission was spot on once past 2500 revs and one could literally sense the intimate chemistry between the engine and this 6-speed auto ‘box. The manumatic override that the cars of today are coming with does rob the fun off sometimes.
Yes, alright, so you did not expect this Swede to make such a fruity bawl, or go that fast. Neither were you desperately aroused after seeing one in flesh. Still, the Volvo S80 is quite a charmer. It is elegantly good-looking, more like Ashley Judd than Angelina Jolie. It has great comfort value and the interior alone is worth half of its over 50 lakh asking price. Oh, and it’s a Volvo, so safety is a given. These days, safety features sound sexy in acronyms and the S80 has them all, and then some. You also get comfort enhancing cruise control to play around with. You get everything that you could think of in a car belonging to this segment.
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