Category: Volvo

Volvos have always been known for fantastic reliability, industry-leading safety and excellent winter performance, but not necessarily for exciting design. Recently, the company has done a lot to shed its stodgy image, adding in major improvements in styling and performance while maintaining the qualities that drew buyers to the Swedish brand in the first place. The Volvo of today can go toe-to-toe with any major luxury brand, but it took a lot of  work from a trinity of three designers to “banish the box”: Peter Horbury, Steve Mattin and Thomas Ingenlath.

In the 1990’s, Horbury was hired to help Volvo think outside of the box, so to speak. His first creation, the Volvo ECC concept car, kept the traditional Volvo grill while cutting down on the straight lines. This new, rounded shape with wide shoulders would define Volvo design for the on-coming decades.

In the second round of redesigning for Volvo, Steve Mattin joined the company. After designing top-end luxury cars like the McLaren SLR and Maybach sedan, he transferred his dramatic styling to the C30, S60, XC60 and V60. With their pointed noses, bumper-intersecting grills and large headlights, any hint of the box was gone.

Lastly, in the final caveat, Thomas Ingenlath recently took over the reigns of Volvo’s design department. He sees his role as a continuation of Horbury’s work, moving the brand toward the design language and long, low profile of the “Concept You” prototype.

R-Design: Off-the-Shelf Performance

Founder Assar Gabrielsson once said, “Car rallies are as useful to the industry as dog racing.” However, owners thought differently. Thanks to stronger chassis and a range of powerful engines, Volvos have long been a popular platform for privateer teams. The company finally revised its stance the late 1950s, offering factory racing support. The company’s cars quickly dominated the European Rally Championship, and by the 1980s the new turbocharged cars were regularly taking the checkered flag in Australia’s Supercar Series. No matter how un-sporty the styling may have been, the engineering under those boxy shells was good enough to challenge any other manufacturer on the track.

Volvo finally started offering off-the-lot performance cars in 2003 with the introduction of the R-Design line. Initially a high performance version of the S60, the tuner trim spread to cover every model. Today’s R-Design models are powered by a turbocharged six cylinder producing 325 hp 354 lb-ft. of torque. The chassis and suspension is thoroughly reworked to provide more stiffness and less body roll, while heavily bolstered seats keep passengers in place.

The result arrives somewhere in the middle of the performance spectrum: The R-Design models offer fantastic performance, but they don’t have the terrible ride, poor fuel economy and limited usability normally associated with tuner models. Even as privateers successfully campaign the S60R in Touring Car races, buyers can still purchase and experience all the usefulness and comfort expected from a Volvo.

Still the Leader in Safety

Even as Volvos have shed their stodgy design, they’ve maintained the safety that made them famous. The cars continue to get top ratings in both NHTSA and IIHS crash tests, and the company continues to innovate, being the first to market with a range of safety features such as roll stability control, curtain air bags, water repellent glass and blind spot vehicle detection which were first introduced in the Volvo brand.

The latest of these innovations is Collision Warning Brake Support. CWBS detects oncoming obstruction. From there it can warn the driver, adjust the brakes for quicker response in a panic stop and even brake the car itself to prevent a collision. First released in 2006, Volvo has continually refined the system, adding City Safety and Pedestrian Detection. Between 2 and 30 mph, the City Safety system can detect obstructions in front of the vehicle and brake automatically to avoid an accident. Pedestrian Detection can identify people crossing the street at speeds below 22 mph and automatically stop the car, making it safer not only for the passengers, but those outside the car as well.

While other automakers may have adopted similar systems, they start with their top models, only gradually making technology available at more affordable prices. Volvo rolls out safety equipment across its line shortly after becoming available, letting buyers at any price get the safest possible vehicle.

Reliability: It lives on…(and always will)

In 2011, Volvo placed fourth in Consumer Reports’ reliability rankings, ahead of many other luxury automakers. The magazine has also praised the City Safety, both for making drivers safer and for decreasing the cost of insurance claims. In the latest JD Power Initial Quality study, the V70 was their pick for the Compact Premium Sporty Car segment.

See the entire line of beautifully designed, safe and sexy Volvo vehicles at Park Place Volvo Dallas.

For nearly a century, Volvo has been producing automobiles, and almost for the entire existence of the manufacturer Volvo cars have been known for being the safest on the market. This tradition of excellence continues into modern day with the introduction of the Volvo City Safety technology: the newest in groundbreaking technologies helping to preserve not just your car, but also the health of you and your family.
The core of City Safety is a laser, attached to the back of the rear view mirror and invisible to the naked eye, that scans the area one car length in front of the Volvo automobile. If the sensor notices that the car in front of the driver is stopped or slowing, it has the power to apply the brakes on its own in an attempt to avoid an accident. With a speed difference between the two automobiles of 9 miles per hour or less, City Safety will avoid an accident outright. At speeds of up to 19 miles per hour, it is unable to avoid an accident, but the perfect response time of the system will result in far less damage than sustained with the system keeping watch.

There are some limitations on the system: at speeds of 20 MPH or above, City Safety will not automatically apply the brakes, due to the dangers of braking without driver expectation at that speed as well as the risk of false positives when scanning at an increased distance. It will also not notice a pedestrian or other small object in front of the car, limiting only to what it is sure is an automobile.

Nevertheless, the data about City Safety’s effect on the accident rates is in, and it is extremely positive. The Highway Loss Data Institute, the information-gathering arm of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, found that automobiles equipped with Volvo City Safety suffer 27% fewer property damage claims than those without, compared with comparable midsize SUVs from other manufacturers as well as Volvo cars without the feature. Even more impressively, bodily injury liability claims were reduced by a staggering 51% thanks to accidents greatly reduced in severity by the earlier automatic braking.

City Safety was introduced in 2010, appearing on Volvo XC60 midsize SUVs with S60 sedans joining in 2011 and XC70 wagons and S80 sedans being equipped for 2012. For the kinds of low-speed impacts that City Safety prevents, human reaction time is one of the greatest challenges; the automatic braking is activated with the instant reaction time of a computer, the driver is not aware it is happening until the accident has already been avoided. The braking power is strong at 50% of maximum in which the driver will receive a jerk forward, but it will never be so violent as to cause him/her to impact the steering wheel or dashboard under normal circumstances. A light on the dashboard will alert the driver after City Safety activates.

Since the laser used is infrared, it is invisible to both the driver and all oncoming motorists – no one will be distracted by a red light flashing in their eyes as you approach. It works equally well in both day and night conditions. Since it only has to read eighteen feet in front of the car, most inclement weather will not affect it, but very heavy rain or snow may impede its performance. It is specially configured to avoid activating when attempting to park or weaving through parked cars, and can be temporarily overridden by pressing on the accelerator – but there is no way to deactivate it for good, as it will turn on again the next time the car is started.

The effects on insurance claims are clear: drivers of Volvos with City Safety file fewer claims and recover less insurance money than those without the feature. Interestingly, even though the total amount claimed for insurance is lower, the amount of the average claim is about 10% higher than other vehicles, which means the system is working. City Safety avoids the small claims for fender benders by avoiding those accidents entirely the claims that do get filed tend to be for more serious damage.

For now, the effect on insurance rates is negligible as the IIHS examines the data, but there is reason to believe you may end up saving on insurance payments in the long run. The National Highway Traffic Safety Institute recently released their own report stating that the system reduces low-speed collision severity and eliminates many collisions entirely, strengthening the argument for reduced insurance payments in the near future.

Regardless of the immediate savings on insurance payments, the time and headaches saved from avoiding fender benders and the additional safety afforded to you and your family make the City Safety technology an invaluable asset in your new Volvo.

 

DALLAS, TX (Aug. 23, 2012) — The 2012 Volvo S60 earned a top rating of “good” in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) new small overlap frontal crash test, making it the highest-rated European luxury vehicle among those tested. The Volvo S60 was rated higher than the Infiniti G, BMW 3 Series, Acura TSX, and the Audi A4. The Acura TL was the only other vehicle to earn a “good” rating.

“When we decided to build a world-class sports sedan we made sure it was a great Volvo first and foremost,” said John Maloney, president and CEO of Volvo Cars of North America. “We set the benchmark on safety, and we continue to lead the crowd.”

To learn more about the award-winning Volvo S60 sports sedan visit Park Place Volvo located in Dallas, TX or visit us at dallasvolvo.parkplace.com.