2012 Volvo S80 - Excellent Condition Condition on 2040-cars

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2015 Volvo S60 T6 Drive-E

For those not paying attention, Volvo has updated its S60 sedan range for 2015 with a new range of engines under the Drive-E label. Wearing the same T5 and T6 badges to note the relative levels of power under the hood, both engines are 2.0-liter four-cylinders, with the lesser being turbocharged and the greater being both supercharged and turbocharged.
Both Drive-E variants are currently only available in front-wheel-drive flavor, though Volvo will still happily sell you an S60 T5 AWD with the older 2.5-liter turbo five-cylinder, or a top-of-the-line S60 T6 with a turbo'd 3.0-liter six-cylinder and all the wheels turning.
The car I drove for a week is perhaps the most balanced version of the S60 range, with that exotic sounding twin-charged 2.0-liter mill planted happily in the attractively sloping nose. Provided you're not hung up on front-drive dynamics, the T6 Drive-E might be a solid candidate for your next premium small sedan shopping list, as well.

Volvo building new AstaZero safety proving ground in Sweden

Volvo is an automaker committed to vehicle safety, setting an ambitious target for itself: by 2020, the Swedish automaker envisions that no one will be killed or seriously injured in one of its cars. In order to achieve that goal, Volvo has announced a new proving ground designed specifically to test safety solutions.
Called AstaZero, the new facility near the company's headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, is the result of a $70 million investment. It will cover some 500 acres, with over 60 acres of pavement, four city blocks and three and a half miles of highway. The Active Safety Test Area (the ASTA in AstaZero) will enable Volvo and its partners (including Scania trucks as well as government bodies and university development programs) to simulate city streets, highways, rural roads, roundabouts, T-junctions and more, combining traffic from cars, pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, buses, trucks and even animals in order to account for all manner of potential hazards.
The facility will enable Volvo to test active safety systems and autonomous vehicle operations, and even allow robots to test its prototypes in an adaptive environment that aims to be more flexible than existing proving grounds. Read more about Volvo's commitment to safety in the press release below.

Volvo EX90 will lack certain features on launch, to come later with OTA updates

Turns out there's an asterisk to the news of Volvo commencing production of the EX90 at its South Carolina plant this month. The automaker sent an e-mail to customers awaiting delivery that certain features won't be installed on some delivered units, and posted a notice on its customer help site listing the 10 features that could be missing. Four are safety and ADAS features, one of those related to the lidar system, one of Volvo's primary talking points concerning the EX90. The automaker says the "Lidar first safety scenario" will get an "update that increases the car's abilities, even in darkness — and emergency steering is primed if needed to avoid a collision." It sounds like this means there will be some lidar capability, just not the planned breadth.  Four more items deal with the battery and charging. The most unwelcome might be a battery drainage issue while parked, Volvo saying that for the first three days the EX90 is parked without charging it will lose around 3% of battery charge. This is because the core computing system needs to remain on to run the car's "highly advanced functions" — whatever that means — when the SUV isn't being used. After 72 hours, the EX90 "will go into a deep sleep mode to conserve battery power." Why can't the EX90 enter a deep sleep mode an hour after the car is parked? Because software is hard. Smart charging and Plug & Charge could also be lacking, those features making charging less costly or more convenient without extra steps needed from the driver. Bi-directional charging won't come at first, either, so EX90 buyers should hold on to those portable battery banks.  The two final software puzzle pieces are Apple CarPlay, out to lunch for now, and the one we consider most surprising item on the list, a light theme for the driver cluster and infotainment. On delivery, owners should expect a dark theme only on the digital displays. EX90 deliveries aren't slated to begin until later this year, though, so the OTA list could shrink (or grow) before then.