T5 Platinum 4dr Front-Wheel Drive Sedan
2013 Volvo S60

2013 S60 Photos
Volvo's Best Seller Adds Four-Wheel Grip To Its Base Model Those beautiful mountaintop vistas? They come with a price tag. And we're not just talking about blue chip real estate values – high altitude can be hell on your body, even if you're a paragon of physical fitness. Low air pressure can really curb one's appetite for alpine hikes, moguls or mountain biking down single-track. If you're not used to living the high life and your red blood cells aren't up to snuff, you can easily find yourself short of breath, dizzy, nauseated, dealing with an unusually rapid heart rate or worse. The same goes for your car. It might be a finely tuned piece of machinery, but it feels the effects of high altitude, too. Thank goodness for forced induction. Despite existing for decades primarily in performance-minded cars, the auto industry is just now catching on to the virtues of turbocharged power in real volume – primarily for fuel economy and emissions gains. But the benefits of turbos and superchargers have never been lost on high-altitude motorists. Having a mechanical windsnail lashed to one's engine helps compensate greatly for thin air in places like Park City, Utah (elevation: 7,000 feet), which is helpful, because that's exactly where we went to test Volvo's 2013 S60 T5 with all-wheel drive. It's possible for a normally aspirated engine to lose well over 20 percent of its peak power at elevations like this, which can smother the sort of driving engagement that good mountain roads hold almost intrinsically dear. A proper turbo setup can cut that loss in half or even by two thirds. Swedes being no strangers to altitudes, it should come as no surprise that turbo power has long been a staple of Volvo's powertrain lineup. In fact, Volvo's current generation S60 is rolling into its third model year as the company's best-selling model, and it's had turbo power since birth. So why are we revisiting it now? Because Volvo has finally fitted its T5 volume model with all-wheel drive, tweaking the in-line five-cylinder to boot. Volvo is offering Haldex's fifth-generation AWD with the T5 engine for 2013 as a $2K option. While the S60's bodywork remains the same for 2013, Volvo has updated the turbocharged five-cylinder engine, which once again produces 250 horsepower and 266 pound-feet of torque in normal driving (a 10-second overboost function swells torque output to 295 pound-feet in gears two through six). Despite no change in the power figures, Volvo has added a new crankshaft and pistons, upped the compression ratio from 9.0:1 to 9.5:1 and reduced internal friction, all with the aim of improved drivability and performance. Also new is a modified engine management system that expands the engine's max torque range to 4,200 rpm, and there's a reprogrammed six-speed automatic transmission for quicker cog swaps in Sport mode. The S60 T5's 0-60 time thus tumbles from 6.8 seconds to 6.4 in front-drive guise, or 6.6 for all-wheel-drive models like ours. To handle the power, …
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Volvo's Best Seller Adds Four-Wheel Grip To Its Base Model Those beautiful mountaintop vistas? They come with a price tag. And we're not just talking about blue chip real estate values – high altitude can be hell on your body, even if you're a paragon of physical fitness. Low air pressure can really curb one's appetite for alpine hikes, moguls or mountain biking down single-track. If you're not used to living the high life and your red blood cells aren't up to snuff, you can easily find yourself short of breath, dizzy, nauseated, dealing with an unusually rapid heart rate or worse. The same goes for your car. It might be a finely tuned piece of machinery, but it feels the effects of high altitude, too. Thank goodness for forced induction. Despite existing for decades primarily in performance-minded cars, the auto industry is just now catching on to the virtues of turbocharged power in real volume – primarily for fuel economy and emissions gains. But the benefits of turbos and superchargers have never been lost on high-altitude motorists. Having a mechanical windsnail lashed to one's engine helps compensate greatly for thin air in places like Park City, Utah (elevation: 7,000 feet), which is helpful, because that's exactly where we went to test Volvo's 2013 S60 T5 with all-wheel drive. It's possible for a normally aspirated engine to lose well over 20 percent of its peak power at elevations like this, which can smother the sort of driving engagement that good mountain roads hold almost intrinsically dear. A proper turbo setup can cut that loss in half or even by two thirds. Swedes being no strangers to altitudes, it should come as no surprise that turbo power has long been a staple of Volvo's powertrain lineup. In fact, Volvo's current generation S60 is rolling into its third model year as the company's best-selling model, and it's had turbo power since birth. So why are we revisiting it now? Because Volvo has finally fitted its T5 volume model with all-wheel drive, tweaking the in-line five-cylinder to boot. Volvo is offering Haldex's fifth-generation AWD with the T5 engine for 2013 as a $2K option. While the S60's bodywork remains the same for 2013, Volvo has updated the turbocharged five-cylinder engine, which once again produces 250 horsepower and 266 pound-feet of torque in normal driving (a 10-second overboost function swells torque output to 295 pound-feet in gears two through six). Despite no change in the power figures, Volvo has added a new crankshaft and pistons, upped the compression ratio from 9.0:1 to 9.5:1 and reduced internal friction, all with the aim of improved drivability and performance. Also new is a modified engine management system that expands the engine's max torque range to 4,200 rpm, and there's a reprogrammed six-speed automatic transmission for quicker cog swaps in Sport mode. The S60 T5's 0-60 time thus tumbles from 6.8 seconds to 6.4 in front-drive guise, or 6.6 for all-wheel-drive models like ours. To handle the power, …
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Retail Price

$37,950 MSRP / Window Sticker Price
Engine 2.5L I-5
MPG 21 City / 30 Hwy
Seating 5 Passengers
Transmission 6-spd w/OD
Power 250 @ 5400 rpm
Drivetrain front-wheel
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