Scandinavian stunner. The new Volvo S80 is presented by (from left) Jack Zaal, Volvo Cars Asia-Pacific regional manager; Atty. Albert Arcilla, Viking Cars president and CEO; and Rose Dimalanta, Viking Cars executive vice president, customer service division and product planning and inventory control.

LAUNCHING a second-generation automobile can be quite a feat, especially if the previous model is a tough act to follow. And this was the base expectation during Volvo’s launch of its new S80. The first S80 received quite a “thumbs up” that following it up with the next model seemed a tough job.

But the recent launch put many a doubting Thomas at peace when the new S80 was unveiled at the Volvo Cars Makati showroom. This latest offering is one luxurious car with a design influenced by the art of the Scandinavian Highlands.

Minor changes to the body have made the new S80 a bit bigger and give it a more modern face and stature. It is still 4850mm long, but is 27mm broader and 34mm taller.

The wheelbase was lengthened and the track widened to give it a more stable stance and confident-looking in its visual expression. The car’s lines and contours have been rounded to add to its solid and compact image. The headlights, a car’s eyes, as this writer always says, are placed lower than in the previous model, creating the semblance of a smile when viewed from the front.

The new S80 3.2 variant packs a 3.2-liter, six-cylinder, normally aspirated engine with double-overhead cams, 24 valves and VVT. It has a six-speed automatic driver-adaptive transmission with geartronic. The 2.5T variant carries a 2.5-liter, five-cylinder engine with light pressure turbo and CVVT and a six-speed, automatic driver-adaptive transmission with geartronic.

Inside the new S80 is the impeccable luxury of the Volvo trademark, with power seats up-front and extremely soft and comfortable rear seats. The instrumentation is compact and gives only the necessary information, unlike some other luxury cars in the market that feed the driver with information overload. The dashboard design is consistent with the lines of the car, which connotes motion that is seamless even when viewed from the outside.

In its proclamation, Volvo says it has a holistic approach to safety. This, Volvo says, is both preventive and protective safety, which it pioneered with collision warning with brake support system; BLIS, or blind spot information system; and Idis, or the intelligent driver information system. Then there is the active bi-xenon light, where there is a moving headlight beam that follows the curvature of the road, helping increase visibility on twisty roads.

Its protective system is a marriage of interior and exterior safety systems that work together, to reduce, if not eliminate, injury to the automobile’s occupant in case of any emergency. What the system actually does is the exterior body absorbs and distributes the impact of any collision, ensuring that cabin space is not touched.

Even the design of the engine, transversely installed, provides more deformation inside the engine compartment, preventing intrusion of the engine into the passenger compartment in case of a frontal collision.

Inside the car are new forms of side-impact airbags, or SIPS, which are located at both hip and chest level. These airbags, in turn, interact with inflatable curtains within the cars beams, effectively covering the passenger in a cocoon of safety.

Even the system to protect against whiplash, WHIPS, is designed to protect not only the neck but the whole body from a rear-end impact, making it much like a catcher’s mitt taking in a baseball.

But the most appealing of all is that the new Volvo S80 gives one the feeling of the Scandinavian Highlands—soft but exhilarating and powerful adventurism, which this writer felt even if just by sitting inside the car.

SIMPLY observing the aggressive campaign and the resulting performance in the market of Hyundai, one would see the obvious: the brand is making waves and disrupting the traditional sales flow of the more established automotive manufacturers in the country like Toyota, Honda, Isuzu and Ford.

THERE are motor shows and there are other motor shows, but when mere participants decide to change their role into a much bigger one, the result can put to shame all the motor shows of the past.  And that is what the influential Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. or Campi wants—to surpass all the big motor shows that were ever staged in the country.

FOLLOWING 30 years of success in manufacturing tires for on and off road applications, BFGoodrich has released two 4x4 tires that have been developed from the company’s experience in the tough Baja and Dakar rallies.

WHEN Cats Motors formally announced its partnership with DaimlerChrysler in the summer of 2005, it immediately found itself facing up to the challenges of the local car industry.

WE would like to go back to an item in our past column regarding school buses after talking with various parents who are really concerned about their children.

LAUNCHING a second-generation automobile can be quite a feat, especially if the previous model is a tough act to follow. And this was the base expectation during Volvo’s launch of its new S80. The first S80 received quite a “thumbs up” that following it up with the next model seemed a tough job.