Road test: Volvo V60 D4 SE

Anyone who wants a Volvo with a five or six-cylinder engine should hurry. Within two years only four-cylinder examples will be sold.

The first of these newly designed motors (petrol and diesel 2.0s), go into British Volvo mid-sized S and V60s this autumn. After that, every Volvo will gradually get the same engines, in various states of tune.

Volvo insists they won’t lose any go or refinement, while beating their predecessors’ economy and emissions figures. The bigger-selling diesels have fuel injection systems that work at very high pressures and every injector has a computer, calculating the amount of fuel each of the engine’s cylinders needs. Volvo claims that in the V60 D4 SE estate the result is a car that gets to 62 in 7.6 seconds, reaches 139mph and produces 113g/CO2.

The V60 is sold with either a six-speed manual or a new, eight-speed automatic. Volvo should save a packet by having two rather than eight engines but don’t expect its often pricey cars to get cheaper as a result. This one costs about £315 more than its predecessor.

Volvo V60 D4 SE
Top speed: 139mph 0-62mph: 7.6 sec;
MPG: 67; Emissions: 113g/km;
Price: from £29,745