• Large boot with rear seats in place
• Comfortable rear seats with plenty of space
• Rivals have larger boots with rear seats dropped

How much space is there?

The best things about the Volvo V60’s cabin are its supremely comfortable front seats. However, the rear seats offer more than adequate head and legroom for two adults. It’s reasonably sized for families, with wide-opening doors, plenty of glass (for a bright interior) and lots of storage areas and cubbyholes.

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The middle rear seat, however, isn’t ideal for taller passengers as the oversized central tunnel means there’s not much foot space. Plus, if front occupants lower the front seats as far as they’ll go, foot room for outer rear passengers become a little limited too. But this is more of a minor frustration rather than a deal-breaking obstacle.

Boot space and storage

The V60 has a larger boot (seats up) than its direct rivals and it has a handy underfloor storage compartment that’s surprisingly deep. With the seats down, though, capacity is 1,441 litres. That means it’s smaller than the BMW 3 Series Touring and Audi A4 Avant.

Happily, you don’t pay penalty in boot space for picking a PHEV (like you do with the BMW 330e Touring). Most of the plug-in tech being located in the transmission tunnel, which means capacity above the boot board remains the same. You do, however, lose the V60’s underfloor storage.

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There are lashing points, hangers for securing bag handles and levers to drop the rear seats, which make this space very usable indeed. There’s also a handy pop-up vertical divider for preventing luggage from flying around the boot. Plus, once folded, the rear seats sit reasonably flat, which we found made it easy to load large items.

Adding to this is a standard-fit electric tailgate, and Plus models include the option for hands-free opening and closing. That means its easy to get into the boot, even when your hands are full. Despite all these strengths, it’s worth pointing out there are many cheaper estates that offer far more rear space. Even a Volkswagen Golf estate has around 100 litres more room in its boot.

Is it easy to park?

The V60 is a relatively large car but, as stated above, it has a plenty of glass around its cabin. That means it’s easier to drive and manoeuvre than many cars of the same size.

Several automatic parking systems are also available – plus the option of a reversing camera – which, in our experience, really took the stress out of parking. We’re particularly fond of Volvo’s 360-degree camera system, and quickly found that using it became second nature.

Safety

• Impressive array of safety equipment fitted as standard
• Closely-related XC60 one of the safest cars ever tested
• Awarded a five-star Euro NCAP rating back in 2018

Volvo’s cars have long had an enviable reputation for safety, so it was no surprise that when the V60 was crash-tested by Euro NCAP back in 2018 it received a five-star score. Standard on all V60s are a host of sophisticated systems including Volvo’s City Safety automatic braking tech, which can slow itself to avoid pedestrians, cyclists and large animals.

Other standard-fit equipment includes Run-off Road Mitigation and Run-off Road Protection, which help to limit the severity of a crash, should the car leave the road. It’s also fitted with Oncoming Lane Mitigation, which works to prevent the car from veering out of its lane and into the path of oncoming traffic. Active speed limit assist is also available – this automatically adjusts the adaptive cruise control speed with the help of the car’s traffic sign recognition function

As of 2020, the V60 has a maximum speed limited to 112mph. It comes as part of Volvo’s Vision 2020 mission, in which the company set itself the goal of eradicating the risk of death or serious injury to the drivers of its cars in the event of an accident.

Watch: Volvo V60 Euro NCAP crash test video