Volvo S60 2.5T AWD

I've had the '03 Volvo S60 2.5 turbo All Wheel Drive for three-quarters of a year now, and so far I'm very happy with it.

I think the style of the car has just the right touch of sport, class and luxury.


The shade of black with maybe a touch of blue is perfect for this car.

Handling is good. I really like the suspension setup, which thankfully sits more to the sport rather than the luxury end of the spectrum. Coupled with a rigid chassis and an anti-roll bar, there's fairly little lean-in for turns.

Throwing the car through the twisties of route 129 on the Tennessee / North Carolina border otherwise known as the tail of the dragon was amazingly fun.

(click on the map to get a full-size view)

I drove it twice in my Volvo S60. I think I did fairly well for the most part, but seeing how there's either rock, steep drop off or trees at the side of the road I really wasn't trying to push the car to 9/10th of what it can do. The one time I misjudged a turn and came in way too quickly for my comfort, I was blown away by how I was simply able to pull the steering wheel around more sharply and the car just turned with no oversteer or understeer, not even tire noise.

To see what I mean about route 129 being one of the best driving roads in North America, watch this youtube clip of someone following a Ferrari through the twisties.


Then there's the All Wheel Drive. While the All Wheel Drive system is biased towards the front wheels, up to 70% of power can be sent to the rear wheels when the front wheels slip by as little as 1/15 of a rotation. This means its really easy to have fun in this car when there's snow on the ground. Not to mention being able to get out of snow filled parking spots downtown.