Volvo S80 D-5 (Old)

Start the D5 diesel engine in the S80 and a surprising bit of noise enters the cabin. The growl from the engine becomes more audible when you give it the beans, but is surprisingly silent when cruising. What impress is the linear power delivery from the 2.4-litre diesel. It pulls strongly all the way up to its 5,000rpm redline.

Once you breeze past that lumbering truck and build speed, you find the S80 is very very stable; even on the wrong side of 150kph. The five-cylinder diesel catches with a small rocking motion. It is surprisingly smooth, but it’s not as quiet as expected. It is quite noisy even under hard acceleration, but it is practically vibration-free. There is a bit of turbo-lag till the engine reaches the 2000rpm mark, after which all of 40kgm is under your throttle foot. Performance is blunted somewhat by the lethargic six-speed auto. It is slow to kick down, crucial when you have to make a quick overtaking move. And quick overtaking moves are quite the norm on our roads. Still the auto box works well with D5 motor when compared to its petrol sibling. The linear power delivery and the well matched gear ratios work well to make overtaking on our roads a very simple exercise.