Many publications publish retrospective “the year that was” lists every year to commemorate all the noteworthy events that made up the past 12 months. My personal year-end list is a shortlist of the vehicles that really caught my attention that year.
The first of these for the 2007 model year came my way in mid March: the new Volvo S80. As the company’s flagship, here’s a car that sticks to Volvo’s understated design language. It’s not much of a departure from the first-generation S80, which debuted in 1999, and so it may not be obvious to many bystanders that this car – in the case of my V8-powered tester – is indeed all new, and prices out at about $75,000 with options. In fact, that might be my biggest beef with this car: it looks a bit too much like its smaller, and cheaper, brother, the S60 – and lacks the more expensive visual oomph of competitors like the Audi A6 and BMW 5-series.
But at least the S80 – and by extension, the S60 – is attractive, even if it’s not that distinctive. The new-for-2007 exterior features smoother lines that makes the car look smaller than its forebear, while by the numbers, it’s actually longer and wider by about 25 mm in each direction, and about 38 mm taller.
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