Polestar is to Volvo what AMG is to Mercedes and Alpina is to BMW. Well, except Volvo owns Polestar and Mercedes owns AMG, but BMW does not own Alpina. And Mercedes and BMW’s are German and Volvos are….Chinese. Regardless, Polestar is the performance arm of Volvo – or was, until lately when Polestar began producing electric vehicles (EV’s) under its own name. Anyway, Volvo Polestars are unicorns from both a performance angle for Volvo, and that only 265 were imported in 2016 – about 159 of which were the V60 wagons (the others were S60 sedans).
* Thanks to Hans for taking time off from birthing his second son to point out this car to me!
** Update on the 2011 C30 T5 R I wrote about here in November at the bottom.
The V60 Polestar sports a beefy inline six cylinder, a 3.0 liter twin-turbo with 345 hp. Mated to a six speed automatic the sub-4,000 lb wagon will rip 4.8 second 0-60 mph runs and an electronically limited 155 mph top end. The vanilla Volvo V60 comes with a 2.0 liter turbo four and only 240 hp. The Polestar also gets Öhlins shock absorbers and 6-piston ventilated Brembo brakes for the 20-inch Polestar-only wheels. And the car only comes in Rebel Blue and Black Sapphire paint.
The interior comes with carbo fiber trim (of course) and sporting seats that reviewers loved. Reviewers also loved the spittin’ snortin’ engine and performance, but one complained that at highway speeds the engine and frame produced some **technical talk technical talk** harmonic echo dissonance buzz drone that drove them crazy. If I were looking for a long distance cruiser that might be a turnoff. Or I would spend more time learning what that criticism meant and drive it for myself and see? Have a special place in my heart for Volvos. In 1983 while studying with the University of Maryland in Germany (in the Army there at the time) I got to take a management course that included a field trip to study the traditional assembly line at the Volvo factory in Göteborg, Sweden, and the modern employee-run plant in Malmö. Eventually, the Malmö plant with self-directed work teams shut down since it was less efficient.
The 2016 Volvo V60 Polestar sold for over $62,000 new. This is a two-owner, accident free California and Texas car with 44,000 miles in its five year life. It’s pretty loaded with features and accessories but at $41k not sure how much of a bargain it is anymore. It’s an exclusive car for sure and not a bad performer. I’d be springing for MaxCare and driving it hard. Find it here in Fort Worth, Texas.
Stock # 21399033 VIN # YV1A92SW0G1305570
And while I have your attention on all things Volvo, the 2011 C30 T5 R with the 6-speed manual transmission I wrote about here in November has dropped $1,000 to $18,998 and relocated from Oxnard to Los Angeles, California. Here’s the link.
