Safe and sporting

Volvo is claiming that the all-new S60 coupé is the sportiest Volvo ever. No small boast when you consider some of the exhilaratingly and startlingly high-performance machines in the company’s recent history. It’s no coincidence that the police themselves still choose Volvos as their do-it-all hot pursuit vehicles.

Note, though, that the manufacturer has chosen the adjective ‘sporty’ rather than ‘brutal’, ‘powerful’ or ‘aggressive’. That’s because this lovely coupé isn’t intended to compete with some of the similarly sized but far more potent Germans creations, such as the BMW M3 or Audi’s RS5, in terms of horsepower, but rather to make a more subtle and elegant statement.

It’s certainly a thing of beauty – sporting in a graceful and lithe way, and by no means slow, judging from the figures quoted for its forthcoming range of diesel or petrol engines.

As with the Aston Martin, it’s too soon to predict prices, but the first models will be delivered to customers early this summer.