2011 Volvo S60

How Volvo Got Its Groove Back 2011 Volvo S60 – Click above for high-res image gallery During the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show keynote, Volvo CEO Stefan Jacoby discussed his plans to shift the Swedish automaker away from the rest of the premium segment. This doesn't mean that the quality of materials or craftsmanship is going to suffer, but instead of creating products that are specifically engineered to compete with the likes of Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, Volvo will be working to reaffirm its own unique Swedish brand identity. The 2011 Volvo S60 points the way forward for the brand's new groundwork. The 'naughty' new sedan is stylish, luxurious and has the guts of a true sporting sedan, but it just doesn't come close to the sort of precision we find in an Audi A4 or BMW 3 Series. Fine, then, that the Volvo has plenty of other impressive qualities to give it a unique edge over the competition. Consider it a premium sport sedan for people who don't want the stereotypical premium sport sedan. We recently welcomed a Blazing Copper S60 to the Autoblog Garage to see if Volvo's recipe for uniqueness has created a delicious dish of Swedish engineering. Continue reading... %Gallery-115012% Photos copyright ©2011 Steven J. Ewing / AOL Volvo's quest to create something unmistakably Swedish begins with the S60's exterior design. So many of the styling attributes found on the Volvo simply wouldn't work on a traditional German sedan – things like the seven-spoke turbine-inspired 18-inch wheels, chunky headlamp design with LED fangs (Volvo's new corporate face) and thin-topped eagle's head taillamps. Even that Blazing Copper paint color ("fluorescent brown," as a friend called it) would seem off on a BMW or Benz, and the end result is a luxury sedan that is sleek and stylish in its own unique way. And it's even better in motion. If this Volvo passes you on the highway, you certainly won't mistake it for anything hailing from Germany or Japan. Similar things can be said about the S60's interior, where a general theme of Swedish simplicity takes the Volvo in a different direction than most European sedans. There's no funky all-seeing, all-knowing control system like Comand, MMI or iDrive on tap, just a single screen with a vertical row of buttons on the "waterfall" center stack. The gauge cluster is a breath of minimalist fresh air, too, with two small display screens for vital information housed within the large speedometer and tachometer. We certainly wouldn't ask for more pushbuttons or information clusters, and the less-is-more approach to the S60's design is refreshing. As much as it makes us seem like hypocrites to praise the S60's interior layout and then immediately point out its shortcomings, the fact of the matter is that all of this work to minimize switches and knobs has made the car's technology somewhat difficult to use. Control settings for the audio and navigation functions take a moment to completely figure out, and while it's not nearly …
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