whatcar.com August 2020 85
Volvo S60
T5InscriptionPlus
Mileage 2672 Listprice
£39,935 Target Price £37,223
Price as tested £45,535
Test economy 26.9mpg
GETTING UP AT 6am on a Saturday
to take a child swimming isn’t
much fun at the best of times, but
my bleary-eyed hopes of zoning
outbythepoolwentrightoutthe
windowononesuchtripwhenmy
S60startedmakinga noiselike
anelectriccutterbeingground
againstmetal.Thiswasbefore
lockdown,soit wasn’tasif thecar
hadbeensittingunused.Andat
thattimein theday,therewasno
oneelseontheroadtoblame.
I leaptoutandlooked
underneaththeS60,heart
pounding;hadI unwittinglyrun
overa pieceofmetalthatwas
nowscrapingdowntheroad?
Seeminglynot,butthenoise
impliedthatsomethingwas
abouttoshearoffthecar.
I rangforrecovery,andI have
tosaytheservicewasasgood
asyoucouldhopefor.Yes,I had
towaitanhourformyknightin
shiningarmour,butwhenhe
arrived, I knew almost immediately
that I was in good hands.
“I knew it would be a Volvoor Saab; it always is,” he smiled,
enjoying my puzzlement. “It’ll be
a stone caught behind the brakecaliper. There’s something about
the way they are designed in
Sweden. Always a Volvo or Saab,nomatterwhatagetheyare.I’ll
haveyougoingin 15minutes.”
And,sureenough,hedid.Wheeloff,a quickwaggleofthesteering
wheelanda feelaboutaroundthemechanicalsandwewere
onourwayagain,swimminga
distantmemorybuta soothingcupofteanowonthehorizon.
Hotdrinkin hand,I pondered
thenegatives.Althoughit wasjustbadluckthatthestonegot
stuckwhereit did,I wassurprised
thatsucha problemcouldbecomewellknownamong
mobilemechanicswithoutbeingaddressedproperlybyVolvo.
Positives?VolvoAssistworked
reasonablysmoothlyandthehelptheysentwas rstrate.We’ll
callit a scoredraw,inconvenient
thoughit was.OUR CARS
Volkswagen
Passat Estate GTE Advance
when visiting vulnerable people,
and the fact that the tailgate
can be opened and closedelectrically from inside the car is
a huge bonus, as is the option ofoperating it hands-free by waving
your foot under the rear bumper –
particularly useful when yourhands are full. And the estate’s
boot is huge – plenty large
enough to swallow a couple oflarge insulated boxes full of meals.
Since we began hitting the
road, my in-laws have gone intoself-isolation, so the Passat is now
doing a weekly round trip of a
little over 30 miles to buy anddeliver their shopping, along with
a couple of neighbours who arein a similar situation. Pre-lockdown,
in cooler conditions and heavy
traf c, I was struggling to cover20 miles on battery power alone,
but as spring has sprung and the
roads have emptied, I’ve twicemanaged that 32-mile trip without
troubling the petrol engine.
And that’s without really trying.I haven’t moderated my driving
style or turned offpower-sapping
devices such as the
air conditioning.My new target is to
match the of cial
35-mile range for asingle charge, and
we should get plenty
of opportunities inthe coming weeks,
having signed up to
do deliveries for theSutton Foodbank.
AT CHALLENGING TIMES such as
these, you really come to realise
just how lucky you are – and alsohow little you’re doing to help.
So I’ve been volunteering myself –
and my Volkswagen Passat – asa delivery service.
When my wife Emma and I
heard that brilliant local chefRobbie Kurz had initiated a
‘meals on wheels’ scheme via the
kitchens of the nearby Churchof the Good Shepherd, that
seemed an ideal place to start.And we couldn’t have chosen a
better steed in which to do it; for
short local runs with lots of stops,the plug-in hybrid Passat GTE is
absolutely perfect. We can easily
do the whole trip (around 10-15drops) on a single charge.
In Advance trim, the Passat has
other hidden bene ts. Minimisingthe risk of transferring germs is key
Mileage 1302 Listprice
£41,460 Target Price £35,728
Price as tested £40,860Test economy 104.8mpg
‘I’ve twice managed the 32-mile trip
without troubling the petrol engine’
Some of chef’s meals have been delivered in our Passat
Roadside assistance was required after S60 began to make a worrying grinding noise
Alastair Clements
Jim Holder