Funny abut the Service Manager and BMW comment. When I bought

my 988 S70 T5 my neighbor said the interior looks like a BMW

(must be the wood trim). Of course, a BMW is a bit spartan but

I suspect this is what he "thought" a BMW would look like. He

also probably thought it was a compliment. On the other hand,

he drives an Accord so what does he know ("Hey, nice, interior

looks like a Taurus" I should tell him).

A lot of these comparison tests assign a point value. I often

see something like 89.2 for last place and 93.2 for first.

There are lots of very good cars on the market (does anyone

really make a bad car in the S60s class?). From a consumers

perspective, you get a lot of nice choices these days.

On the S60 I did not care for the dash layout (I think there is

still some work to do here) and the toe of my foot would catch

on an under-dash body part when I let the clutch out. I had no

problems modulating the brakes, clutch pedal pressure was 1/4th

of my T5s and was very nice, engine felt very linear in power

delivery and seemed much smoother then my T5 (but did not have

that 2-stroke like "turbo hit" of my car which is probably a

good thing). It handled well but still under-steered and would

"plow" at the limit (like any FWD I suppose and good characteristics

for 99% of drivers). I would buy a V70

over an S60 due to the size requirements for my family. But I'd

also recommend anyone looking for a car in this class to go drive

an S60 and not just dismiss it based on a magazine review.