Volvo’s new V60 is proof the station wagon must never die

Enlarge (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

Forget the impending death of the sedan, as an automotive species the station wagon should be on life support. Which is a shame, because station wagons are great: the utility of an SUV without the high seating position, sure, but also without the high center of gravity and drag coefficient. In return, they are a much more elegantly proportioned vehicle, one that would be more popular but for the decades-old stigma of being a “mom car.” (The same fate is coming for you, SUV.) Almost no one sells a wagon any more, which makes some people cross enough to leave angry comments online about the stupidity of car companies. In their defense, the car companies tell me angry Internet comments aren’t really worth the same as an actual deposit, and they have too few of those to make it worthwhile. Not Volvo, though.

The Swedish automaker has been fascinating to watch these past few years as it has bloomed thanks to Geely’s investment. Little happened for the first few years, but Volvo used the investment to thoroughly modernize the way it designed and built cars. Platforms have given way to modular architectures that simplify production yet at the same time allow for great flexibility when it comes to designing different vehicles.

In 2015, the XC90 SUV marked the introduction of the first of these new architectures, called Scalable Product Architecture. SPA lets Volvo build large and midsized vehicles, and it was soon joined by an S90 sedan and V90 wagon. Three years later and the SPA line-up is complete. Last year the XC60 arrived, a more moderate take on the 21st century Swedish SUV. Yesterday we wrote about the new S60 sedan, which means we’ve saved the best one for last. The new V60 wagon.