REVIEWS: 2010 Volvo XC60 T6 R-Design

Yowza! I was pleasantly surprised by this Volvo. Powerful and fun like a sports car with the storage of an SUV. Loved the interior trim and seats -- masculine and sporty. Seat heaters worked like a dream. Plenty of room for passengers and luggage, yet tight turning radius and compact size got me into some tight spaces.

From an art guru perspective: I love the taillights, which make for quite the abstract look at night. I'd park this in my stable before a Lincoln MKX or a Cadillac SRX. It'd be a tough call between an XC60 and an Audi Q5, but I think the Volvo might beat that as well.

- Kelly Murphy, Creative Director

The Volvo XC60 drives well, rides very comfortably, handles well, and has a well-balanced, nicely calibrated powertrain. It's also very stylish inside and out. The numerous R-Design touches (grille, seats, wheels, tailpipes, etc) are nice, but red certainly wouldn't be my choice for this car. Otherwise, I would gladly park an XC60 in my garage.

- Rusty Blackwell, Copy Editor

The in-car technology on the Volvo XC60 was pretty much outdated when the vehicle launched in 2009. One year later and it looks utterly archaic, compared not only to the luxury competition, but also cars costing tens of thousands of dollars less. Our long-term Hyundai Sonata costs less than $26,000 and has a much more attractive and functional navigation system. The Volvo's large screen is comically underutilized, only capable of displaying the navigation map. Audio, climate, and phone information are displayed on a smaller, pathetic single-color display.

Read More: http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews/editors_notebook/1012_2010_volvo_xc60_t6_r_design/index.html

Volvo Dealers

Volvo Future Engines to be Smaller, More Fuel-Efficient

Volvo recently announced it will be increasing the fuel-efficiency of its future vehicles by downsizing engine capacity.

Engine downsizing is a common way by which to decrease fuel consumption. Most manufacturers are also equipping their smaller engines with forced induction in order to maintain power outputs, a technique Volvo has been using for years. Volvo's engines with the new technology were just introduced on the new 2011 S60 and V60, only one of which we currently get here in the U.S. Volvo introduced a new 3.0-liter, turbocharged, direct-injected I-6 in the U.S.-spec S60 that puts out the same horsepower as the old 4.4-liter, Yamaha V-8.

Europeans also have more engines to choose from, including a 2.0-liter, turbocharged, direct-injected "volume" I-4 that could come to the U.S. tt's unclear whether or not Volvo's future diesel engines will make it across the Atlantic. "We are taking a deep look at whether we will introduce the diesels to the U.S.," Volvo CEO Stefan Jacoby told Autocar. "We haven't decided yet."

Read More: http://blogs.automotive.com/6734205/miscellaneous/volvo-future-engines-to-be-smaller-more-fuel-efficient/index.html

Volvo Dealers

2010 LA Auto Show: Volvo C30 DRIVe Electric First Drive Report

One of the great things about auto shows is the chance for journalists to drive prototype cars, especially at the Los Angeles Auto Show, known for its green-car test drives.

We got a chance to spend 20 minutes behind the wheel of the Volvo C30 DRIVe Electric car, with Volvo's Lennart Stegland in the passenger seat. He's the president and director of Volvo's special vehicles group.

Silent start and idle creep

The car we drove was fully fitted out, unlike one driven more than a year ago by Popular Mechanics editor Andrew English, which had only one of the two pieces of its battery pack installed--and a bad wheel bearing beside.

Starting the car, or booting it up, occurs in dead silence. There's no chime or tone to indicate that the vehicle is "awake" and ready to roll. Like the 2011 Nissan Leaf and 2011 Chevrolet Volt, the C30 DRIVe is fitted with simulated idle-creep, so lifting off the brake causes it to move forward.

That's a distinctly North American preference, Stegland agrees, and European drivers may prefer the car to behave as a manual-transmission car would, staying put until the accelerator is depressed.
Moving away from standstill, a whine from the electric motor increases in volume. It's barely audible at low speeds, but by 40 mph it's noticeable, though not intrusive. It signifies little more than that the car is a prototype. Chevy Volt engineers, for instance, eliminated audible motor whine entirely between pre-production prototype and salable car.

Read More: http://www.greencarreports.com/blog/1051992_2010-la-auto-show-volvo-c30-drive-electric-first-drive-report

Volvo Dealers

Volvo's Test Ground - a Torture for Cars, short version

VolvoCarsNews

The test facility at Hällered in Sweden is a veritable torture chamber for cars. Here, Volvo cars are made to suffer around the clock in extraordinarily tough conditions. (In just a few months cars are aged as much as during the entire anticipated lifetime of the vehicles in normal traffic.)

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Volvo Dealers

Volvo skins back plan for rival to S class

The new owner of Volvo Cars has had second thoughts about developing a large, high-priced sedan to compete with BMW's and Mercedes-Benz's most expensive sedans.

Last August, within hours of purchasing the company from Ford Motor Co., Li Shufu, founder and CEO of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group of China, said Volvo would develop a sedan to compete with the two flagship German models.

But no such sedan is planned.

“Mr. Shufu expressed a vision of where he would like Volvo to be in the future, and that vision includes a 7-Series and S-Class rival,” Volvo Cars CEO Stefan Jacoby said in an e-mail to Automotive News. “However, short- or mid-term, Volvo Cars does not have such a model in the product plan.”

In an interview after Geely's $1.5 billion purchase from Ford in August, Shufu said he wanted Volvo Cars to develop “more high-level cars that compete with the S class of Mercedes-Benz and the 7 series of BMW. … We need products to compete in that segment.”

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101102/OEM/101109952/1257#ixzz150t8u6SR

Volvo Dealers

Volvo EV converts Gasoline into Hydrogen to Power Battery

It's not news that Volvo has an electric vehicle. The battery-assisted C30 DRIVe Electric has been available to international customers since late September and Volvo has expanded its research to fuel cells.

However, rather than rely on a currently limited hydrogen fueling infrastructure, Volvo is forgoing the usual compressed hydrogen fuel tanks and utilizing a range extender that runs on conventional gasoline. A special fuel converter takes the gasoline and extracts hydrogen gas. The hydrogen is then turned into electricity within the fuel cell and used to drive the C30's 110-horsepower electric motor. The final yields from the chemical process is the electric energy, water, and a small amount of carbon dioxide.

"We have just taken the first steps and it is naturally too early to talk about market introduction of electric cars with Range Extenders," said Stefan Jacoby, Volvo CEO. "The industrial decision will come after we have learned more about fuel cells and the opportunities they offer."

The fuel cell range extender, after burning through an unspecified amount of gas, is expected to supply an extra 155 miles of driving range. The current C30 DRIVe Electric uses a 24-kilowatt-hour battery (22.7 kW-h employed for actual tractive efforts) and is rated for 93 miles through the New European Driving Cycle. With the range extender, these early developmental C30s will have a combined range of 248 miles, which is right in the neighborhood of the significantly more high-profile Tesla Roadster. The company responsible for the hydrogen generator and fuel cell stack is Powercell Sweden AB.

Read More: http://blogs.automotive.com/6723684/concept-cars/volvo-ev-converts-gasoline-into-hydrogen-to-power-battery/index.html

Volvo Dealers

Future Volvo Vehicles May Wear Batteries as Body Panels

Well, this is interesting.

According to Volvo, it has teamed up with the Imperial College London, Advanced Composites Group, Bundesanstalt Fur Material forschung undprufung, Chalmers,  ETC Battery, Fuel Cells Sweden, INASCO Hella, Nanocyl, and Swerea SICOMP, in developing a special composite material consisting of carbon fiber and polymer resin. This material is capable of storing and discharging great amounts of electrical energy and is supposed to recharge faster than the conventional vehicle batteries used today. When used to create body panels, the new carbon-fiber composite structures essentially serve as a hybrid or EV's battery stack, which also redistributes the vehicle's weight. Initial testing found the new, electrifying material could reduce a vehicle's weight by as much as 15 percent versus the use of steel body panels.

"Our role is to contribute expertise on how this technology can be integrated in the future and to input ideas about the advantages and disadvantages in terms of cost and user-friendliness," says Per-Ivar Sellergren, Volvo Cars Materials Center development engineer.

The first test phases concentrated on molding hoods, roofs, and door panels. During the driving process, the composite material is recharged like the hybrids and EVs of today through regenerative braking and tapping the electrical utilities grid. A composite hood, roof, and a full set of door panels on a normal sedan are expected to hold enough charge for 81 miles of electric driving. The range isn't phenomenal for the time being, but the project is on a three-year time frame and we can expect further developments as the engineers hunker down. The composite material is being adapted to the spare-wheel holder and, while there were few notes on the issue of safety, you can bet crash-worthy panels are a good concern as the carbon-fiber blend is still a ways away from a commercial release.

Read More: http://blogs.automotive.com/6691210/miscellaneous/future-volvo-vehicles-may-wear-batteries-as-body-panels/index.html

Volvo Dealers

ALL-NEW V60 JET STREAM

ALL-NEW V60 JET STREAM

Check out the All-New Naughty Volvo V60 having some fun in the wet. For more action visit www.naughty.volvocars.com

Volvo Illinois

THE MOST DYNAMIC VOLVO JUST GOT MORE DYNAMIC

THE MOST DYNAMIC VOLVO JUST GOT MORE DYNAMIC The R-Design versions of the Volvo S60 and V60 comes with an even more improved chassie: A strut brace gives the car more direct steering feel, it has monotube damping at the rear, shorter and stiffer springs, even firmer bushings and the new Corner Traction Control system provides even smoother progress in curves. This video is shot in northern Italy and Switzerland with a Red camera. Illinois Volvo

From: VolvoCarsNews Views: 25190 81 ratings

Time: 01:47

10Best Surprise: The S60 is a Red-Meat Volvo

We spent last week driving 60-plus new cars in order to decide our 2011 10Best list. When that many cars are gathered in one place, many of which we haven’t driven before, there are bound to be some unexpected discoveries. Be sure to check out more 10Best surprises, and look for our annual 10Best issue to hit newsstands on December 7.

The name Volvo brings a lot of things to mind: safety, Scandinavian design, and perhaps flat-pack furniture. But words like “excitement” or “performance” are probably filed somewhere behind “Hey, why does the logo look like Austin Powers’s necklace?”

Hot-rod Volvos of the recent past received power and suspension upgrades that looked good on paper, but the resulting cars were slower than the competition and delivered a stiffer ride that did little to enhance real-world sportiness. The new S60, however, is a different kind of Volvo. On a pre-10Best outing to our test track, the S60 T6 AWD (the only version coming to the U.S.) went from 0 to 60 mph in 5.5 seconds and cracked the quarter-mile in 14.1 seconds at 102 mph. That’s almost a second quicker to 60 mph than the last-generation S60R. And those numbers are right in line with other luxury cars in the $40,000 realm (the S60’s base price is $38,550).

The S60 is still a Volvo; you can’t completely turn off stability control, and the nanny-esque safety functions like lane-departure warning make themselves known with annoyingly shrill chimes. But the fact that the newest Volvo has some cojones is not only a surprise, but another reason why 10Best time is the best week of the year at Car and Driver.

Read More: http://blog.caranddriver.com/10best-surprise-the-s60-is-a-red-meat-volvo/

Volvo Illinois

Volvo to challenge BMW, Mercedes, Audi with V60 wagon

VERONA, Italy (Bloomberg) -- Volvo plans to challenge BMW AG, Audi and Mercedes-Benz with its new V60 station wagon in Europe.

Volvo forecasts annual sales of 50,000 of the V60, which goes on sale later this year, Tomas Ahlborg, the model's project chief, said in an interview in Verona, Italy, where the carmaker is holding test drives.

The V60 and recently introduced S60 sedan are key to Volvo's efforts to boost sales in its European market and reach profitability under China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., which four weeks ago bought the carmaker from Ford Motor Co.

Volvo is targeting sales of 400,000 cars worldwide this year, up from 334,800 in 2009.

“This will be one of our very most important cars for the European market,” Ahlborg said.

The V60, which started production today at the Torslanda plant near Volvo's Gothenburg, Sweden, headquarters, features a sloping rear windscreen that gives it a sportier look compared to the carmaker's V70 and V50 station wagons.

Volvo will use the model to challenge BMW's 3 Series Touring, the Audi A4 Avant and the Mercedes-Benz C class, Ahlborg said.

Volvo expects 90 percent of V60 sales to be in Europe, Ahlborg said. The car most likely won't be sold in the U.S. as “the market for sports wagons is pretty small” in North America, he said.

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/article/20100830/COPY01/308309930/1131#ixzz0yDXQocyo

Volvo Dealers

Stefan Jacoby new CEO at Volvo Cars

Stefan Jacoby new CEO at Volvo Cars This video is a summary from today when Volvo Cars new CEO, Stefan Jacoby, meet with the press at Volvo Cars Head Quarter in Göteborg, Sweden. He wants to bring Volvo to where it belongs - in the top league of the premium automakers. German Stefan Jacoby started his career with Volkswagen in 1985 and became VW's top Executive in the US in September 2007. Volvo Chicago	From:VolvoCarsNews Views: 4 1 ratings
Time:03:37

International Autos Group

International Autos has been serving Wisconsin areas for numerous years and is now proud to offer service to Illinois as well. We have become a leader in sales, service and customer satisfaction. Our experienced sales staff specializes in New and Pre-driven Mercedes Benz, Audi, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Maserati, Mini, Porsche, Subaru and Volvo cars and trucks. We strive to provide the best customer satisfaction and assure you that if you allow us a chance to earn your business you will be satisfied with both the sale and the service we offer. Our business philosophy has always been putting our customers first and our track record of continued repeat business shows that philosophy works. Whether you choose a New or Pre-driven Mercedes Benz, Audi, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Maserati, Mini, Porsche, Subaru or Volvo vehicle you will enjoy the hassle free purchasing experience thousands of our customers have already benefited from.

International Autos Group

New Volvo S60 Naughty Experiment Video

New Volvo S60 Naughty Experiment Video www.naughty.volvocars.co.uk - Discover the full experiment and the car that inspired it. Find out what it's really like to get behind the wheel of the new Volvo S60 and experience the naughty side of life. Volvo Subject60 tour in 5 cities, 5 nights, 5 parties! Watch how Volvo discovers the naughtiest city in Europe. A behavioural experiment conducted and disguised as a launch party for the all-new naughty Volvo S60.

From:VolvoCarsNews Views: 20478 53 ratings

Time:02:45

Volvo Chicago

It's Official: Ford Sells Volvo to Geely

It's done.

"This is a historic day for Geely, which is extremely proud to have acquired Volvo Cars," said Li Shufu, chairman of Volvo and Geely. "This famous Swedish premium brand will remain true to its core values of safety, quality, environmental care, and modern Scandinavian design as it strengthens the existing European and North American markets and expands its presence in China and other emerging markets."

On March 28, this year, Geely and Ford signed a sales agreement that called for a $1.8 billion transaction price, but was dependent on Volvo's finances including working capital and pension obligations. With the new adjustments, the closing transaction price came to a total of $1.5 billion. Geely paid Ford $1.3 billion in cash and the remainder came from a $200 million credit note. Ford paid $6.45 billion for Volvo in 1999.

Although Ford took a significant loss in selling Volvo, Ford CEO Alan Mulally views the sale as positive for both Ford and Volvo. With the sale, Volvo will receive more attention from its new Chinese owners and Ford will be able to focus more closely on its two core brands now. Despite the sale, Ford and Volvo have said they will continue to cooperate in certain areas including powertrain and body stamping. As of now, Ford has sold off its interests in Aston Martin, Jaguar Land Rover, and Volvo, decreased its stake in Mazda, and announced that Mercury production ceases in October.
Read More: http://blogs.automotive.com/6674048/miscellaneous/its-official-ford-sells-volvo-to-geely/index.html

Volvo Illinois

2009 Volvo C70

2009 Volvo C70

VIN: YV1MC67249J070475
Stock Number: 9J070475
Selling Price: $29,791
Miles: 23,882
Doors: 2
Exterior Color: Ice White
Interior Color: Gray
Transmission: Automatic
Engine Displacement: 2.5L
Engine Cylinders: 5
Highway MPG: 26
City MPG: 18

Volvo C70 Chicago

2004 Volvo S60

2004 Volvo S60

VIN: YV1RH59H542390684
Stock Number: 42390684
Selling Price: $11,899
Miles: 66,160
Doors: 4
Exterior Color: Silver Metallic
Interior Color: Black
Transmission: Automatic
Engine Displacement: 2.5L
Engine Cylinders: 5
Highway MPG: 27
City MPG: 20

Chicago Volvo

Volvo C30 Electric - Crash Test

Volvo C30 Electric - Crash Test

Crash test to make sure the battery is in a safe position. The battery is marked with green to clearly show its location under the car. This crash test was performed at 30 mph (approximately 48 km/h). Highspeed material is filmed in 1000 fps.

Volvo Chicago