by James Hamel

Created on: February 14, 2011

In many circles the 2011 Volvo S60 T6 AWD is being hailed as the very first “naughty” Volvo. And while that may be true in terms of Volvos of the past, I wouldn’t say the S60 I tested for a week was naughty in any way. But perhaps that is just a testament to my obsession with verbiage and a history of owning some really “naughty” cars.

You see, I used to own a bright red Alfa Romeo Spider Convertible that was sexy, sensual and flowing much like the exterior appearance of the admittedly lust-worthy 2011 Volvo S60. But my Alfa was really “naughty” in the more traditional sense. While I think an S60 in the more flattering “Flamenco Red Metallic” (my tester was a little too extroverted for my taste in “Vibrant Copper Metallic”) can seriously pull off sexy like my old Alfa, this Volvo was different in that it never suffered a mechanical breakdown nor did the handling ever try to kill me when the roads got wet.

This sort of bad behavior is what true automotive naughtiness means to me but I suppose most people haven’t had the misfortune of Italian car ownership. It can be traumatizing to say the least. For example, whenever it would rain I had to cover the Alfa’s leaky convertible top with a tarp, if the outside temperature got over 85 degrees the engine would overheat and rolling stops were a requirement thanks to a first gear that very often refused to cooperate.

But if you take naughtiness and apply it to the S60’s deliciously detailed exterior styling, the prodigious performance from the 3.0 liter 300 horsepower/325 lb. feet of torque turbocharged in-line six cylinder engine and one of the most finely balanced ride/handling/steering feel calibrations I have ever experienced then I guess it is kind of a bad-ass luxury sport sedan.

A “bad-ass” Volvo? Well, that sounds like an even more radical notion than a “naughty” Volvo! But the 2011 Volvo S60 T6 AWD sedan that I recently tested proved to be fast, sexy, fun to steer and tremendously agile around corners to such a degree that I think it bested an A4 sedan that I drove a week later. It is also a technology lover’s Shangri-La—if you love gadgets, you will love what the 2011 Volvo S60 T-6 AWD can do for you.

In fact, some of the gadgets made me wonder if the car even needed me to be there are all. Yes, the worst complaint you could levy against the 2011 Volvo S60 T6 AWD is that it doesn’t

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