So after about 4000 miles on a new to be '07 S60 I have observed a few things. Perhaps they are for the better, for the worst, or just indifferent.

Previously I have owned:
91 740
98 S70
92 240
98 V70XC
*current '07 s60

In both 70 series cars I noticed they both appeared to have stainless steel exhaust; s60 from the downpipe back seems to be rusting quite alarmingly. In addition the x70 cars (and IIRC the 240 and 740) had the red lights in the doors that "alert" others your door is open. The S60 does not.

**Others may disagree but….the stock...and I mean standard issue HU650 audio system in the S60 is of lesser fidelity than the stock no frills system in the V70XC. Although the s60 has two extra speakers, sits nicely in the dash, and has the OEM sat tuner I have found that the S60 speakers reach their mechanical limits when turned up much earlier than that of the 98 XC. I have noticed the speakers can reproduce quite a bit lower (est 25 Hz..and when low volume) but find that I am constantly fiddling with rolling the bass from "center notch" all the way to the max negative limit especially when playing newer top 40 at higher volume. I feel the XC may have had a high pass at maybe 45 Hz built right in to the deck which minimized the bottoming out. I also found the highs to be a bit crisper in the XC than with the S60. Again I get the fact that in both cars I had/have the entry level system and that the premium audio system avail for the S60 with the HU850 sounds very nice....but again just an area that I have noticed.

What is unfortunate about the HU650 is that I feel it looks nice with respect to the driver oriented center console. I considered upgrading the deck (gain hi pass functionality for the oem speaker) and adding a modest Infinity Basslink to help the lows out. I think the aftermarket dash kits are horrible, would loose the steering wheel controls (although Alpine...my favorite..has a steering wheel control kit I believe) and then have to also monkey around and get a new Sat tuner as I am sure the OEM tuner is proprietary and will not play well with others ;-).

So..I called IPD to get a feel on whether they heard rumor of a new Bluepower system...which would actually be incredibly awesome for the car but they had no comment. I suggested in the meantime seek to create sleek and elegant OEM dash kit that does not look like the crap ones I have seen. I do like the little side pocket in the factory setup as I put my cell phone in it; I have a nice case that keeps it from sliding out :) For the time being I will keep the stock setup, and maybe just add the Infinity basslink into the trunk. It seems to have speaker level inputs, nice gain controls, HPF, and a nifty wired remote to roll back the bass if needed. Thinking I will wire it off the rear speakers, roll back the bass on the deck to avoid mechanical bottoming out of the OEM speakers - while increasing the gain on the Infinity...test and retest and tweak it and call it a day for the time being.

Lastly, I am not a fan of the cheap plastic lenses for the headlights. Although they are nice and clear there are too many chances for scratches, hazing, etc. I guess I could replace the lens only if needed but I don't know...even the x70 platform had glass lenses and built in levels to adjust as necessary.

- End Rant -

Steve