Volvo V60 D4 Momentum Pro Review (2019): Volvo's 60 Series Estate tested

Volvo V60 D4 Momentum Pro Review

We have the new Volvo V60 Estate with Momentum Pro trim in for review and test, Volvo’s second 60 Series car and little brother to the big V90 estate.

We’ve always liked the last Volvo V60, offering as it did an ‘almost’ premium estate car with good looks and practicality, and without the German obsession with making even an estate car live with suspension more suited to a hot hatch.

But the V60 has been in need of replacement for some time, stuck as it was in ‘old’ Volvo land and sporting a button-fest interior and looks which had stated to date a lot in recent years.

So, just like the new Volvo XC60 we reviewed a few months ago, this is an all new Volvo V60, using the same underpinnings as the bigger V90 Estate and with a choice of D3 and D4 diesels and T5 petrol engines, and Momentum, R-Design and Inscription (plus Pro versions) trim.

We’ve got the 2019 Volvo V60 D4 Momentum Pro Estate in this week, so that means the most powerful diesel engine Volvo are currently offering in the V60, plus the base Momentum trim with Volvo’s ‘Pro’ bit added for extra goodies.

Volvo has gone to town on the optional extras on this car (more of that later) but in standard D4 Momentum Pro guise the V60 hits a sweet spot price of £36,610, a perfectly good price for a stylish premium estate.

Let’s find out what it has to offer.

Volvo V60 D4 Momentum Pro Inside and out

Volvo V60 D4 Momentum Pro Interior

Just like the new Volvo V90, the new Volvo V60 comes underpinned by Volvo’s SPA Platform and has looks which are inherited from its bigger sibling. But, if anything, it conspires to look even better than its big brother; not a ‘Russian Doll’ take on the V90, but a clever use of the V90’s design made even better in the smaller V60.

Inside is typically new Volvo good, with chic Scandi cool centred round the big Sensus screen (meaning no more button fest) and high quality materials. much more room front and back than the old V60 and a boot – despite the stylish body – which beats the German competition.

Every V60 comes with plenty of safety stuff including City Safe, Oncoming Lane Mitigation and Run-off Road Protection, as well as the big Sensus screen, Sensus connect, Nav, LED headlights, climate, 12.3″ active instruments and power tailgate.

But this Momentum Pro spec car adds stuff like electric driver seat with memory, active bending headlights and 17″ double spoke alloys. But Volvo has delved deep in to the V60’s options for this car.

The extras – which come to almost £10k – add Intellisafe Pro (£1,625), Xenium Pack (£1,800) and Bowers and Wilkins Sound (£2,500) as well as a plethora of other toys and titivations. It makes the V60 a more appealing car, but you don’t need any of it to make the V60 better.

V60 D4 Performance and on the road

Volvo want us to think of the 60 Series cars as a more dynamic take on their cars, but this isn’t dynamic in the way the competition does.

Instead, Volvo wants you to be comfortable, and have managed to make the V60 able and capable when you do push on, but it makes sure you don’t need a visitor to the chiropractor after a lengthy back road blat. It’s a compromise which suits the V60, just as it does the V90.

To that end, despite sportier modes, it’s best to leave the V60 in Comfort mode and let the auto ‘box do its bit, rather than playing with the gear shift to manually change. But if you do feel a blat mode coming on, then knock the gear shift to the side and pick the gears yourself.

Do that and the 188bhp diesel under the bonnet does a fine job of making progress, it has steering which makes you go exactly where you want (although a bit more ‘feel’ might be nice), handling which, although not cutting edge, is capable and refined – with little roll – and good brakes. What more do you want?

For the 95 per cent of the time you’re actually stuck in driving as a chore, the lack of any real noise intrusion, the ease and fluidity of the controls and the V60’s ability to absorb rotten roads without real complaint makes it a properly pleasing place to be.

2019 Volvo V60 D4 Review Verdict

We’ve always liked the V60, but this new version really does move things on, and Volvo has created an estate car which could be almost the pick of the range (well, if you’re not an SUV fan).

Volvo has managed to make the V60 still look like a V60 with its stylish looks, but now they’ve managed to do so with a whole new level of cool and appeal and, remarkably, more practicality.

The V60 looks a lot like its V90 sibling, but Volvo’s downsizing of the V90 has created a car which looks more purposeful, and is more wieldy, and the new Volvo interior is, just as it is in every other new Volvo, a model of how to do ‘Chic’ and ‘Expensive’ without cloning the Germans.

The new V60 is bigger, but not intimidatingly so, than the old V60, and that means you have plenty of room for passengers – front and back – and the old Volvo trick of being a cavernous shed on wheels is present and correct with a load area which bests the Audi A4 Avant, BMW 3-series Touring and the Mercedes-Benz C-class estate.

Add to all that a powertrain which will deliver decent performance and decent economy (40mpg plus in the real world), ride and handling which is, also in the real world, perfectly judged, a decent spec (without having to spend on big cost extras) and a world class interior, and you have the perfect family car if you don’t want to drive round in an SUV.