Volvo S80 news - Small change - 2009

There’s a new Volvo S80 heading to Geneva next week. Well, not new exactly. But quite substantially different. OK, a little bit different.

The facelifted sort-of-5-Series-rival gets a more distinctive front end – which wasn’t a tough thing to achieve, what with the current S80 being as distinctive as a lentil in a great big pot of lentils – with a larger badge and some extra chrome. You’d spotted that already, obviously.

Inside, there’s a bit more leather and shiny metal, giving the S80’s cabin the ambience of a wealthy hip-hop cow.

More excitingly, you can now get your S80 with the new higher-powered version of Volvo’s ‘D5’ five-cylinder turbodiesel, which develops 205bhp and 310lb ft of torque while returning 46mpg and 164g/km of CO2 – near-identical to the BMW 525d and very respectable figures for a car of this size.

“The new S80 should not just be seen, it has to be experienced,” says Volvo CEO Stephen Odell. We’ll get all touchy and feely with it in Geneva. Just for you.