Hey all. My name is Tom and I live in southern Maryland. The entirety of my Volvo experience was my family having an ancient Volvo station wagon back in the mid-late 80s, I don't remember it well. I currently drive an '03 Subaru WRX with some light performance mods (about 280awhp), but I need something bigger. I don't want to give up performance cars, but my 10month old Irish Wolfhound needs more room and my Subaru doesn't have enough space. That said, I've been looking for the last few months at my options. I've looked at E39 M5s, Chargers, Subaru STi, Mitsubishi EVO, Audi wagons....the list goes on and on. My requirements for a car are the following:

-manual tranny
-4 doors
-hopefully turbocharged
-25K or less
-AWD

With those in mind, I now turn my attention to the '07 S60R. Stock to stock the S60R is quicker than my WRX, but MUCH heavier. How are the S60Rs in terms of reliability and cost of upgradability? Given my proclivities towards light, fast, and go kart-like handling, is this a good choice for me? If it weren't for my dog and steep driveway, I would be picking up a C5Z06 if that's any indication of my interests. Ideally, I'd do intake/exhaust maybe a light flash tune but heavy mods are not happening. The S60R seems to need some liposuction and maybe new shoes as well.

Thoughts? Yes, I read the thread in the S60 section regarding reliability and that was encouraging, though it didn't mention the S60R.

 

Welcome to the forum. You wont go wrong with the R. You can make it a bit more powerful, http://www.ipdusa.com/ although 300 hp stock isn't bad. Making it lighter would be difficult. It's not a Vette but handling is pretty good, with a good set of tires.