Since there isn't a V60 forum, I'll hang out here to learn whatever I can. We just picked up a new Savile gray V60, with the platinum and climate packages, blind side warning with park pilot and xenon headlights.
Having had Caravans for the last 29 years, it's going to be a big adjustment in terms of carrying capability but what sold me on the car was the driving characteristics. The road manners are impeccable even with electric steering which seems to get a lot of bad press if it isn't done right. We also have a 2012 Camry Hybrid that is simply awful on the highway. There's no self-centering of the steering and the car just wanders all over the place. I'm concerned I may get picked up some time for impaired driving with as much as it wanders.
The park pilot is amazing. You just pull up next to the car in front of where you want to park, push a button, it tells you when you're positioned correctly, take your hands off the wheel and use the brakes and accelerator to control how fast you park.
I should also mention that we chose the FWD version rather than AWD because we always been able to get by with our Caravans even though we live in northern Illinois. The FWD version also has a limited slip differential so that was another factor in deciding not to go with AWD.

 

Hi! I was going to get a V60 for my wife but things came up and we postponed the purchase. Hopefully, by just a couple of months... As I understand you bought the T5 drive-E version? Did you have to special-order it? How long was the wait? Was the dealer willing to negotiate? How do you like the engine/transmission combo? Do you have real world gas mileage figures yet? Any other impressions or comments are appreciated, for instance your description of Park Pilot really helps as I was going to get the tech package too.

Thanks!

 

We didn't special order ours because we are summer/early fall residents in Maine and we bought it here. Special ordering it, which I would have like to do, would have taken too much time plus in this area, if you also owned a Subaru, Honda or Toyota, that qualified you for a $2,000 discount. Since we also own a Camry Hybrid, that was important to us to get the discount. Our car actually came from a dealer in New Jersey and we agreed to pay half of the cost to get the car here.
As far as dealing, I thought Portland Volvo was more than willing to deal. What really impressed us about them was that there was absolutely no pressure to buy and in fact, they let us have a V60 that was on their lot for a couple of days so that we could see if it was big enough to get us to and from Illinois.
With the so called conquest discount, we got about $4,500 off of MSRP.
We did a 200 mile trip a couple of days ago that was about a 60/40 mix of interstate and 2 lane roads and got just over 35mpg. I'm hoping it improves some as it breaks in although I'm quite happy with 35. Since it's new, I have yet to fully exercise the engine but the 8 speed really works well with the 2.0L and only occasionally is there some hesitation to downshift under load.
I will say that compared to our Camry, the start-stop feature is pretty crude.
The Camry's system is almost indetectable whereas you know when the Volvo starts and stops.
The Platinum package gets you an absolutely killer stereo. After we picked the car up, my wife drove the van home and I got to listen to Dark Side of the Moon at nearly full volume. The stereo is far and away the best one we've ever owned. The Platinum package also gets you power folding mirrors which I think are going to be very handy at times.
The Park Pilot is an impressive bit of technology but for us, we probably won't have to use it all that often. However, that in itself may be a good reason to have it since you do get out of practice parallel parking.
The car is very quiet and has a great ride. The handling is what sold me on the car although had we special ordered one, I would have gotten the Sport Package which comes with selectable ride.
One very pleasant surprise is that Volvo's navigation system is far more intuitive and easy to use than Toyota's.
To sum it up, we're very pleased with the car and will be even more so when we get all of the settings figured out.