Calling V60 T6 Polestar Owners

[EWAC]

Originally Posted by 51mes

After a few days with the Vredsteins - grip is good, wet handling is much better than the supersports which are good anyway, car feels a little different and road noise has changed - some surfaces were really noisy with the supersports.

S.

Ill interested to see how you get on with these as im looking at the same! I would be interested how they feels during a long run, other winters ive had tend to get warm and start to feel very soft....
How has the road noise changed? better/worse

The supersports you were running, were they a 95Y extra load?

[volvorocks]

You chaps that have the V60 Polestar version - what made you decide to go for it over something else?

Regards

[EWAC]

i had a very simple criteria, ideally a volvo had to be an estate car, automatic and have bags loads of torque or be chip-able...also had bluetooth and some creature comforts

i looked at these before they came out and wasn't comfortable with 50k price tag and not even driven one, so abandoned it to see how depreciation went.
i forgot about it for sometime as i was happy with my T5, 2yrs went by, then starting looking for something different. Starting looking at T6 V70, but couldnt find one that wasn't police owned and my cup of tea, this went on for a number of months and out of the blue (just out of interest of course), looked up the polestar.
I couldn't believe how many were for sale!!

thought it over for a few days, then thought to myself. Im 40 next year and have been spent the last 20+ years playing around with older cars, so sod it, lets get something newer....

next day, test drive was booked at local dealers

Anyway, drove the car and was hooked!!!
and with all the equipment it comes with , it is the perfect all-round Swiss army knife!

so far, every week I have had it, it surprises me, find some new little feature volvos come up with to make life easier.

if your thinking about it, do it!! i would never have thought that i would spend this level of cash, but i don't regret it at all...

[volvorocks]

Originally Posted by EWAC

i
thought it over for a few days, then thought to myself. Im 40 next year and have been spent the last 20+ years playing around with older cars, so sod it, lets get something newer....

40...??... Life begins eh....???....

When I changed the XC60 D5 I considered a V60 Polestar, although couldn't get my head round the road tax (which will only go up year on year) and the fact a BMW 3 series diesel estate was just as quick, cheaper to run and tax etc. Don't want a BMW though. Would also prefer a manual. The V60 Polestar is a bit too much 'standard' but tuned V60 T6 (yep I know there are differences) and for the cash reckon it should be more powerful and a tad quicker.

However as you say circa 35k is not too bad, although maybe in the next few years there will be a V60 replacement with a cleaner, lower road tax, quicker, more economical engine at a fair price? The few grand road tax saved can go toward that.....

Possibly though the current Polestar version of the V60 may become a bit of a rarity thus a collectors item in years hence, so could be a good purchase for you?

Regards

[Need For Tweed]

Originally Posted by volvorocks

You chaps that have the V60 Polestar version - what made you decide to go for it over something else?

Regards

In my case I was simply looking for a fast fun estate car, ideally with 4wd. Of all the cars I've owned my favourite has always been a 54 plate Subaru Legacy Spec B I had a few years ago. I ran it up to around 100k miles and loved every minute...apart from filling it with fuel. Did that quite a lot. Never learned to love that bit. In my opinion it was a genuinely great car though as it was (and still is) little known, handled beautifully on Bilstein suspension (hence the 'B' in Spec I believe) and had a great flat six howl through the (optional) Prodrive pipes when it was spanked. There was lots of spanking too. Loads of room, comfortable on a run from South Lincs to Scotland and great fun on a b-road. When it was time to change I bought one of the last S-Type R Jags. Stupidly I thought that I could live without the estate bit, and that 400 bhp had to be better than the 245 of the scooby, right? It wasn't. What I did was spend a daft amount of money appeasing the devil on my shoulder that insisted I needed a supercharged V8 in my life. That engine was fabulous, but rear wheel drive without a limited slip diff is just pointless when horses needed deploying on anything other than dry tarmac and in a straight line. Add in numerous trips to the dealer to fix minor electronic niggles (lots of them) and I have to conclude that it was a difficult car to love. What it taught me was that for an everyday tool on wet, muddy roads I really need a 4wd if I wanted to use the power to do such outrageous things like pull out of a T-junction, or overtake someone.

Fast forward to this year, and my current car hit 6 years old and 95k miles. It was one of the last 'proper' Subaru Forester turbos. Again, fast, fun, little known, and incredibly thirsty. (Anyone spot my buying criteria yet?). Anyhow, I'm lucky enough to get a company car allowance paid monthly, but one stipulation is that the car has to be no older than 6 years old. In fact, I think that's the only stipulation. All other stipulations come from SWMBO. There are usually quite a few of those.

So what this boils down to is what choices are available to someone looking for an ex-demo fast fun estate car that costs less than £40k? Right now? Not a lot, is the answer. I looked at the Audi RS4, the AMG C63 Mercedes and, er, that was it. I felt I had to look at the Merc for THAT engine, along with the incredible driving experience but ultimately the RWD bit did it for me. Absolutely fabulous for some of the time is not enough (and before anyone comments on my RWD opinions and suggests more hairs are needed on my chest, look at my profile. I'm very familiar with RWD handling. There's a time and a place)

So, it came to a fight between the RS4 and the Polestar. As ex-demo vehicles both offer fantastic value, although the Audi costs quite a bit more at 1 year old. What swung it in favour of the Polestar was the Q-car appeal coupled to the performance, as well as the price. Yes, the RS4 is a little bit quicker, but not much, and the Volvo has more torque so you're less likely to find yourself in the wrong gear. I also think it has a better ride quality too. Not so compromised for long distance stuff.

So, when I found ex-demo Polestars selling for £35k it really was quite a simple decision. After 2 weeks of ownership I don't think I'd change a thing either, even the auto box. That 'Sport' mode is addictive, and it was such a shame that I had to drive it over to Germany for work last week...on a lightly trafficked autobahn...

[volvorocks]

Originally Posted by Need For Tweed

.....(and before anyone comments on my RWD opinions and suggests more hairs are needed on my chest, look at my profile. I'm very familiar with RWD handling. There's a time and a place)

1966 and 2015? Chalk and cheese eh?

Good write up. Thanks.

Regards

[MisterTad]

I picked up the polecat yesterday and loving it so far.

What surprised me on the (long) drive home was just how amiable it is to drive slowly. Just pottering along you would never know it was anything other than a garden variety V60, which is just lovely. I've never experienced a car that could play Jekyll and Hyde quite so well.

I'll never get tired of the noise, but I feel sympathy for my neighbours: between the polecat, a Golf R and crotch rocket on one side of me and an Akrapovic equipped M4 two doors down on the other side, there's definitely plenty noise to go around!

In response to the previous question of why:
- My wife wanted a new car, larger than her previous 1-series coupe and relatively quick and not a Subaru or Focus RS
- I wanted something I'd want to play with at the weekend, and preferably petrol (I spend my week in a diesel land-yacht)
- We both wanted AWD, and a wagon.
- Neither of us wanted the obvious RS4 (just not fond of VAG cars for some reason)

That left the CLA45 wagon and the Polestar as the only remaining options that I could see, which in comparing the two the Volvo was superb value considering the near-new cost differences for starters, and then the fact the polestar has every possible option, where choosing the CLA would be a matter of this or that at any price point under £50k.

Furthermore, I was a little bit anxious about the relatively unproven 4-pot in the CLA, and what eking 380bhp about of 2l would mean for longevity.

[MisterTad]

Snapped a couple of photos on this most dreary afternoon...

[MCV60]

Originally Posted by MisterTad

Snapped a couple of photos on this most dreary afternoon...

Just out of interest does the 'T6R' badge come as standard under the V60 badge? Not seen that addition on the one in my local dealer.

[MisterTad]

Interesting - checking up an image search suggests it's not there as standard. I never thought twice about it.

But then it would be odd if the dealer thought of it "hey let's put this extra badge on, for funsies"