S80: Information My Review of the new S80

[akash]

Hi all,

I had written this in anticipation that I would post this when I got the car back in June... but, I forgot to post it!

My car has just gone in for it's first 18000 mile service so I thought I should post the review anyway, any maybe review the car on how it is at 18000.

I hope this helps!

So I've had my 2007 plate (new shape) Volvo S80 for just over a month now and thought, I really should review this.

The main reason to review is because though the model has been out for a while, it is still rare to see them on the road and as of yet, I've not seen a proper review!

My car:

Volvo S80
D5 SE Lux
+Ventilated Seats
+Heated seats
+bi-xenon lights
Black with beige interior (not sure what the volvo terms are)

I got the car with just over 4000 miles on the clock in May which was a little high as the car was registered in may too! But this was not a problem for me and after researching a bit into the servicing - this took place every 2 years or 18000 miles!

I got it from a Volvo Dealer and this is my 5th Volvo in 2 years from the dealership.

First Impressions Test Drive:

So I took the car out for a test drive as per usual with all my Volvos to see how it drove. Now I've just come from a volvo S60 D5 SE (55/2006 plate) car so I was really looking out for things like noise, comfort and consumption more than anything.

First impressions, it was a quiet drive. The car has a D5 Engine (185 bhp) where as I had a 163bhp D5 engine in the S60. The engine noise is pretty quiet. It picked up nicely too and consumption showed at around 36.3 MPG. Comfort-wise, the seats were very comfortable as Volvo seats generally are!

I liked the car and did'nt take long to say I'd take it! Now the only thing I disliked at this point in time was the seats though ventilated, had a design - holes/dots. This is in the back ones too and I'm not a fan of this. I would have prefered straight beige leather but this was a small price to pay.

Ok so I bought the car and have since done almost 4000 miles on it.

Noise:-
As mentioned before, compared to a D5 163bhp, the engine is quieter. It does not have the tractor-style noise the S60 had - not quite anyway. Having said this, initially I loved it because the tractor style noise used to irratate me in stationary traffic and most def in the cold mornings! But, there is still a noise - an annoying continous drone note throughout the journey. Sometimes its nice because when speeding up - it could easily sound like a sports car! But in stationary/slow traffic, the noise is a bit annoying.

The reason I mention this now is because I briefly drove a 2.6l S-type Jag for about a week. We had this as a loan car due to another car in the house having body work done to it. I could honestly say that I could not tell it was a diesel engine! I could not hear ANYTHING inside from the engine - though outside you could just about tell. I can only think that the S80 D5 is either louder than the Jag or the Jag has better sound-deadening materials.

Road Noise is less compared to both the S60 and the Jag. Apparently the dealership has found out the S80 has "double glazing" in their windows. Whether this is true or not who knows but it is quieter than many cars.

Opening the window at 60mph - I could hear some squeeking noise possible from the mirror though this I will need to find out.

Ride:

The ride itself is great. Very comfortable. Now I had also test driven another varient of this car - the Sport. This comes with a 3-tier chassis setting - Sport, Comfort and Advanced.
I found this car was more comfortable in that using the comfort mode on the motorway was less brutal in dips in the road and what not. The Sport mode was better on pot holes in local roads however.
Mine is SE Lux which does not have this setting. There are times that I feel the car can be uncomfortable when going over rough roads - something the Sport did not show. Generally however, its great. I got stuck in the M25 traffic last week for almost 3 hours where I was stop start (the stop being up to 10mins at a time before moving less than 1/2 a meter). I did not feel at all uncomfortable and at the end of my 40 mile journey, I was fine - not at all tired physically or mentally.

So the SE Lux basically is very comfortable and luxurious but avoid potholes and ramps with a SE Lux model because it hates it!

Interior:

Well Volvo since the new shape S40's have been using the new floating design and the s80 has the same design.
Seats are very comfortable and are chunky like the S60 (unlike the S40). Both drivers and passenger is electric with the ventilated option to cool your back in summer... heated to heat you up in the winter.
The heated seats and ventilated have 3 settings now - Low Medium High which is nice to know.

There is ample space inside the cabin even with the front seats all the way back (though I cant then reach the pedals when all the way back - and I'm 5'9)
I've had 3 adults in the back and two in the front for many hours at a time - no problems at all.

The layout in the front as mentioned is the like the S40. The panel is floating - a 6 cd changer that plays MP3s (at last) in the panel followed by 4 large turning knobs that standout to the rest of the buttons.
Volume, Tuning, and the heating for both sides of the car.

Very easy to use and they have changed the backlight of the stereo to a nice blue. For a £30,000 + car, I wish I knew why they still only offer a dotmatrix screen and not a LCD screen but thats Volvo/Ford for you

Other than this, there are 10 buttons for radio stations, and a menu system to control the radio, cd, and car settings (such as autolocking, unlocking, lights on alarm and so on). This was something I really missed in the S60 coming from a S40 intially so it was nice to get the options back!

The standard "person" is labelled with 3 buttons to direct the blower to head/face, body, feet and an auto button that automaticlaly controls the temp based on what is selected (climate control).

then you have the seat heat and ventilaed buttons.

Initially, it does look cluttered but everything is very easy to memorise and you can see the sense volvo used in its arrangement of the floating panel.
Theres some space behind the panel for secret storage I guess.

In the armrest, you have a aux input for an ipod or any other music device. This is ok but obviously only an input so you need the ipod to control - not the safest!
I've just enquired about the wired in ipod solution so that you can change tracks via your wheel controls and so on - £400!

The armrest storage space itself is "ok". The problem here is that I keep some standard things in the car when driving :
TomTom (no inbuilt sat nav), the holder, charger. My mobile phone charger, ipod + charger + aux cable. Some aftershave spray and deoderant (you never know )
With this, some packs of tissue and handwipes and handbook for the car.

A lot some of you might think but in the S60- this arranged nicely in the car in conjunction with the glovebox storage.
Unfortuntly, as big as the s80 is, the glovebox is compromised. So most of my "bits" is in the armrest which is too deep to organise properly.
Mostly its ok, but when you want something, you tend to mess up the arrangement.

This is minor for most but for me, annoying!

The steering wheel is solid and comfortable with audio + cruise control buttons on either end.

Lastly, the new speedo area!
gone are the needles! Almost anyway!
The petrol guage is now a bar with a light. When full, the bar is filled with a blue light, and gradually reduces when fuel is used.
There is no temperature gauge which is very annoying. I generally used this gauge to know when the engine was warmed up enough to push it but now, I dont know visually.
There is then the speed and rev meter which is a needle but it looks like a floating needle where you cannot see it attached to anything!
The entire area is in blue lighting.

Finally, unlike the S60 but like the S40, the automatic wiper "sign" is displayed in the same area where the S60 only displays a light on the stalk.

Lastly with the interior, the sound of the music system.
Wow!
The sound is just excellent as do most of the Volvo fleet. I dont have the premium edition which boasts dynaudio but I do have the high performance. The sound is crisp and very bassy when you want it. There is no reason for a sub though I think it is an optional addon. I would however recommend you to set up the equaliser manually as you will have a great improvement to the standard settings.

Moving outside

Looks:
Well most of you may have seen some pictures and you can not really tell its an S80! Gone are those old looks!

Now I'm 23 years old and I would never have got the old S80 shape but here I am with the new one because I feel the car just looks great!

From the front, it CAN look like an Audi. The lights are almost the same anyway!
The back, still has the shoulders but not as dropped - maybe a cross of a saab or S40.
Its a BIG car though and cleaning it takes a lot of time! The boot in the back is big enough though like most of the saloons, not high enough which is a shame in some way. I dont need it to be big or high but some people/families might feel they cannot get get a suitcase in unless its smaller. Its deep though so storage is good.

Now one thing I will mention after having a flat tyre on the motorway is these cars do NOT come with a spare tyre or spacesaver wheel unless you BUY it!
They do come with a can of foam/air but if a nail is stuck in the side wall... you should not use this as its dangerous! In this case, you will have to be towed. I ended up driving home on teh same flat tyre and risked it as it was that or stay on the motorway with traffic travelling at 70+ mph for about 2hours until recovery came.

The spacesaver is around £200!

You get the standard toolkit inthe boot for changing a wheel.

Also in the boot in the middle is two handles toknock the rear seats down. You will have to go into the back to manually push them down.


Mines black with 17" alloys. The chroming really makes heads turn and I really do like the looks of this car!


Im not the best reviewer nor have I dont any before (bar a S60 briefly) but I hope this helps some of you answer any questions.