Volvo ran a Super Bowl promotion earlier this year, promising to give away $1 million worth of free cars if a member of either team scored a safety. You could pick from any Volvo, you just had to do so ahead of time I made the “car guy” choice: the V60 T8 Polestar Engineered wagon.
Like the rest of America, I didn’t win a new Swedish speed machine — the 49ers and Chiefs stuck with traditional touchdowns and field goals. But a few months later, Volvo wound up loaning me the exact same car I’d been lusting of. Sometimes, things just work out.
On paper, the V60 Polestar sounds like nirvana for moms and dads who love to drive. Its hybrid powertrain puts out 415 hp and 494 lb-ft of torque. It can accelerate from 0-60 mph in 4.4 seconds. It doesn’t blind anyone with chrome trim, and it doesn’t feign being a crossover with that body cladding seen on Volvo’s Cross Country models. It’s also safe, reasonably spacious, has all-wheel-drive — and earns a not-especially-guilt-inducing 30 mpg or so combined.
That sounds perfect, in principle. And in practice, the V60 Polestar lived up to my hopes. Driving one was love at first drive.
The V60 Polestar transitions from goofing off to adulting more seamlessly than I do
It looks like your standard sensible Volvo wagon, but it’s a legit performance car. The V60 T8 E-AWD Polestar can scoot in a straight line; the Polestar Engineered performance mode is a great deal of fun, even if some nagging part of your brain tells you that you probably should have been saving fuel instead of burning it so recklessly.
It’s not just a straight-line rocket; it’s agile, too, and stays planted in the corners. It comes with a tight suspension (firm to the point my two-year-old son commented about the bumps), but beyond that, it’s a comfortable, serene luxury car that calms right down under normal driving.
