When you say family car, most people these days think SUV. However, I am a bit of a fan of sedans. They tend to be nicer to drive than SUVs, have good legroom and ample boot space. The Volvo S60 is a fantastic sedan to drive and we found it a great BabyDrive for our family of three. Provided you don't regularly need to remove and reinstall your child seats!
The media system in the Volvo S60 feels a little different to use than most because the screen is portrait rather than landscape. Once you are used to it, it feels pretty easy to navigate and use and you can swipe right to access all the features like auto engine cut out etc and turn on or off what you want…
…or swipe the screen downwards for the settings.
The S60 also has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
The reversing camera image is at the top of the screen and you can turn the parking sensor and sat-nav voice volume up and down with the buttons on the steering wheel, which is a great family-friendly feature.
Another fantastic family feature of the S60 is you can control the rear aircon from the media screen.
There are also vents in the rear side pillars as well as the usual position in the back of the central console box.
There is a child lock button in the driver's door panel that will lock the rear doors and windows.
Fitting child seats into a sedan is always a little tricky because of the low roofline, in the S60 we found the headrests both a help and a hinderance.
There are three top tether anchorages in the fixed parcel shelf behind the headrests, the headrests fold forward making them surprisingly easy to access and connect to.
Unfortunately, the same headrests make it almost impossible to put our forward-facing child seats into the two outer seats as they pushed the top of the child seats forward. We found we could only fit our daughter's forward-facing child seat in the central seating position.
We could fit booster seats into the outer seats only.
The Volvo S60 tested had a sunblind on the back window which is great for keeping the sun off the heads and faces of rear-facing passengers.
Storage is good throughout the S60, with ample cup holders, good size door bins and a storage net in the front footwell as well as map pockets in the back.
The boot of the Volvo S60 is a good size and we could fit thirteen shopping bags in there. Being a sedan there is the fact you have to bend down into the boot but I didn't find it difficult in the week we tested it.
All sizes of stroller fitted in the boot with good amounts of shopping but you can't put a dog in the boot of a sedan with fixed parcel shelf!
The Volvo S60 is a lovely car to drive. It is smooth and quiet and has a relaxed and confident feel.
Six airbags come as standard in the Volvo S60.
BabyDrive Indepth - Storage
How big is the boot of the Volvo S60?
The boot of the Volvo S60 is a really generous size as in most sedans. We found it would fit thirteen shopping bags, that is the same as the Kia Stinger, one less than the BMW 3 Series and one more than the Mazda6 GT Turbo.
The twin stroller fits with four shopping bags.
The tandem stroller fits with five shopping bags.
The boot space and its functionality are really important. I like to have a big boot space and little side wells or areas I can divide things into. So something I don’t want to move around while I’m driving such as Tulsi’s lunch bag or her wet swimming gear can be sectioned off in a little well where it’s not going to spill or get squashed by the rest of the things in the boot.
Hooks for securing shopping bags to are also favourites of mine, I like being able to secure the bag containing more fragile things like eggs so they don’t move around on the journey.
I measure the boot space in freezer shopping bags, prams and dogs. Not because I think all there is to a mum’s life is food shopping, prams and dogs. (Although it can feel like it sometimes!!) But because these are visually mesurable items we can all associate with. For me, the car company boot measurement of litres is not an amount I can easily visualise and 400L in one car may differ in usability to that in another due to the configuration or shape of the space.
The single stroller fits with five shopping bags beside it.
The compact stroller fits with ten shopping bags beside it.
You can't put a dog in the boot of the Volvo S60 because the parcel shelf is fixed. There are little hooks underneath the parcel shelf to secure bags.
The boot floor is nice and flat and carpeted, good for an emergency nappy change.
How good is storage inside the Volvo S60?
The storage inside the Volvo S60 is good. In the front, there are two cup holders in the central console that will hold a reusable and disposable coffee cup.
Behind them, the central console storage box is a usable size and the only place to store your phone.
The glove box will hold an iPad and wallet and there is net storage in the front passenger's footwell.
There is no glasses case in the ceiling but there are it vanity mirrors in both front visors. The door bins in the front are big enough for a large refillable water bottle.
In the back, the door bins are much smaller and will only hold a 600ml bottle.
There are net map pockets on the back of both front seats and in the back of the central console box is a 150W three-prong plug socket, good for charging things as you drive along.
A fold-down in the central seat backrest has two cup holders and a phone tray and storage box.
BabyDrive Indepth - Noise
How noisy is the Volvo S60?
The Volvo S60 is a lovely quiet car to drive and I felt cocooned from a lot of the usual exterior sound you hear in other cars like road and engine noise.
The media screen in the S60 is portrait orientation rather than the landscape format found in most other cars, which I found took me a bit of getting used to. It's easy to use, though and like a tablet or smartphone you can swipe right or left to access features like the auto engine cut out and park assist, which makes them easy to turn on and off to suit who is driving.
You can also swipe down on the screen to bring up all the settings.
The Volvo S60 does have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto too.
The reversing camera only uses half the screen so it is not the biggest image but you can turn down the parking sensor noise and the sat-nav guidance volume on the steering wheel controls, which is great.
Becoming a parent I soon realised there are some noises and sounds I feel are unnecessary and I could happily live without if it meant my baby stayed asleep!!
That often the distraction of my screaming, distressed baby is more dangerous when driving than not having a lane departure warning for example.
If it is the lane departure warning beeping that creates distress with my baby then which is safest?
It’s where I think we need to be able to strike a balance and choose when we can mute the warnings or swap them to a vibration in the steering wheel or flashing light perhaps?
A lot of these noises come with the increase in technology and especially linked to safety features and alerts. For me these all have their place.
Another thing I have realised is I spend my time in a lot more places where small children roam, parks, beaches, play gyms, swimming lessons, daycare centre etc. I have become more aware that when I’m reversing or manouvering in the car parks I have to triple check for small children running around behind me or being in my blind spot when reversing. For this I LOVE reversing cameras, I just don’t like their beeping sounds!!
I have become so much more aware of safety and potential accidents or hazards since having a child and so I love the peace of mind that I get from the cameras and sensors combined with my own vision from windows and mirrors as I don’t trust cameras alone.
The cruise control in the Volvo S60 is quite accurate, the buttons are on the left side on the steering wheel and I found them pretty simple to use.
The indicator volume wasn't baby-waking in the Volvo S60.
The doors and windows of the S60 close gently, so they are not baby waking.
With baby asleep you can get in and out without worrying the doors will be too noisy. The same for the windows their mechanism is not too noisy and I didn’t notice them having a loud opening or closing sound.
With baby asleep you want to be able to get in and out without worrying the doors will be too noisy and wake Bub up!Â
There is a child lock button in the driver's door control panel that locks both the rear windows and doors.
There is also a separate lock for the door too.
The screen in front of the driver tells you your distance to empty in km too which is really handy.
As well as there being a great visual for which seats have occupants and no seatbelt fastened.
BabyDrive Indepth - Car Seats
How many child seats fit in the Volvo S60?
I found I could fit three child seats in the back of the Volvo S60 but there are some considerations due to the rear seat shaping, roof height and headrests.
There are top tether anchorages in the fixed parcel shelf behind all three headrests. The headrests do have a little nook cut out of the bottom of them that is handy to pass the top tether strap through and the headrests fold forward making it easier to access the top tether anchorages than in most sedans.
However, when the headrests are in their upright position, they are not removable and we found that most forward-facing child seats would not sit in the two outer seats without being pressed forward considerably by the headrests.
We had to fit our daughter's forward-facing child seat in the middle seat position because it would not fit in the outer seats due to the seat shaping and headrests.
I was then able to put a booster type seat into the outer seats.
I found you could put a rear-facing child seat into the outer seats but not with our daughter's forward-facing seat in the middle as that combination of three child seats would not fit across.
There are ISOFix points in the two outer rear seats, within plastic guides and easy to connect to.
With a rear-facing child seat installed in the second-row, we found space was tight for a 182cm driver in front of it.
I could sit in the back between two booster seats but not between two rear-facing child seats and I am 162cm.
The roofline of the Volvo S60 is low, making posting bub into their car seat a bit tricky from outside and the same from inside too.
Australia being a country of weather extremes; blazing sun and torrential rain, mean you may find it easier to put Bub into their seat from inside the car sometimes. If it’s hot you can get the air-con going, cool the car down and not stand out in the sun while you fasten them in or shelter from the rain and not get soaked yourself whilst you’re doing it. So it is important to test whether Bub can be easily installed from either direction!
There is plenty of room to feed bub in the back seats if you only have one child seat installed.
BabyDrive Indepth - Drive & Comfort
How comfortable is the Volvo S60? And How good is the Volvo S60 to drive?
The front seats of the Volvo S60 are lovely and comfortable, the headrests are not adjustable however so I could not wear a ponytail!
I had spent hours styling my hair this morning to get this ponytail just right too… said no new mum ever!!!
For a mum travelling in the back with bub, the seats are comfortable too. However, you do have to watch your head getting in! Legroom is good too in the back and I had plenty of legroom behind a 182cm driver and I'm 162cm.
For the first year of my daughters life when we would go out as a family, if I wasn’t driving, I would travel in the back with Tulsi so it’s important to check the back seat comfort as you may be spending a lot of time in them! They were never something I gave any thought to before but I definitely notice a good or bad back seat now!
The steering wheel is fully adjustable in/out and up/down.
The air-conditioning is the loudest thing about the Volvo S60! It is frustratingly noisy. There are four air vents across the front dashboard…
…two in the back of the central console box…
…and one in each of the rear side pillars!
Within the media screen, you can adjust the air-con and climate…
…for both the front and rear rows, which is excellent.
When maneuvering or parking, the visibility is surprisingly good and the camera really helped.
One thing I have noticed since being a mum is I hate it when I reach a destination or get home from being out and Tulsi has either done really well in the car or she is screaming her head off and I have done really well to keep it together for the entire journey (usually the latter!!) and it takes 10 minutes to park the car! It can be really stressful. Usually I dread parking new cars as they take longer in our tight apartment block carpark, but the Volvo S60, was pretty easy to park.
BabyDrive Indepth - Safety
How safe is the Volvo S60?
The Volvo S60 scored a five-star ANCAP safety rating in August 2019.
Scoring a total of 96% or 36.6Â out of 38 for adult occupancy. Broken down into 7.63Â out of 8Â for the full-width frontal crash test, 7.27Â out of 8Â for the frontal offset test. Full marks for the side impact test and the 7.78 out of 8 for the pole test.
For Child Occupancy protection the Volvo S60 scored 43.2 out of 49 which is 88%. Broken down into 16/16 for the dynamic front, 8/8 for dynamic side. Child restraint installation scored 11.24 out of 12 and onboard features score 8 out of 13.
ANCAP said of the testing:Â In the frontal offset and side impact tests, protection was GOOD for all critical body areas for the 6 year and 10 year child dummies. Maximum points were scored.
The Volvo S60 is fitted with lower ISOFix anchorages for rear outboard seats, and top tether anchorages for all rear seating positions.
Installation of typical child restraints available in Australia and New Zealand showed all child restraints could be accommodated in the rear outboard seating positions, however several could not be correctly installed in the centre rear seating position.
Six airbags come as standard; there are dual frontal airbags and front side airbags and side head curtain airbags for the front and the rear side passengers.
As standard, all models of the Volvo S60 come with seat belt pre-tensioners in all front seats and rear seats, adaptive cruise control (ACC), and adaptive headlights, anti-lock braking system (ABS), autonomous emergency braking (AEB) for the city, Interurban and VRU, automatic headlights, automatic high beam, blind spot monitoring (BSM), daytime running lights (DRL), electronic brake-force distribution (EBD), electronic data recorder (EDR), electronic stability control (ESC), emergency brake assist (EBA), emergency stop signal (ESS), fatigue reminder and fatigue detection, forward collision warning (FCW), hill launch assist, lane departure warning (LDW), lane keep assist (LKA), pre-crash systems, rear cross-traffic alert (RCTA), reversing collision avoidance camera and auto brake, roll stability system, secondary/multi-collision brake, speed assistance auto/intelligent/manual speed limiter, speed sign recognition and warning and trailer stability control and tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) all come as standard.
Some of these safety features are also features that drive me crazy as a mum! Like the lane departure and forward collision alert or the parking sensor beeping sound. I want all the safety technology AND to be able to mute the sound when Tulsi’s asleep!
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