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Each of these cars fills a different niche, and for many, the S60R will be an exciting car indeed....and these are probably people who might never otherwise buy one of the others.
The S60 will probably do pretty well as a fast street machine, but Volvo handling has never been such that it runs with other European touring cars. The jury is out on whether this one will close the gap; only time will tell. We'll know it's for real when we turn on Speedvision some Saturday afternoon and see this car able to run on the same track as the Nissans, Porsches, Audis, BMWs, Saleens, et al.
Ultimately, what I see is the Volvo brand people thrashing about trying to figure out who their customer is (and it's pretty clear from their sales curve they've completely lost contact with their market). So they've produced another compromise, a kind of C70 on steroids. One can only hope that the S60R is a transitional car on the way to a sporty vehicle we'll really want. My personal message to the morons at Volvo: get your nose out of last year's focus group results and give us a truly sporty vehicle. A two seater maybe, RWD probably for the 2 wheel drive option. A car where the money goes into handling and fun, instead of over-engineered, whizbang technical trinkets. Call it a Z50 or something. Look at all the S2000's, MR2's, Z3/4's, SC430's, 350Z's, SLK230's and their ilk coming out. There's a message here. (But alas, endless repackaging of an existing automotive product is....uh...well...the American way!)
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David \\ (98 S70 T5SE Black, misc mods (mostly lighting), red calipers) (92 940GLE)
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