Volvo S60

One plant for the whole world, and it is American. The entire third generation, from 2019 until production ended in 2024, comes out of Ridgeville in South Carolina. So the European S60 of those years was also built in the United States — the mirror image of the Renegade, an Italian car sold in America. Only the configuration differs, not the factory.

There is no diesel anywhere. The S60 was the first Volvo to abandon diesel entirely — from 2019 neither Europe nor America gets a diesel version. If you see a diesel S60, it is from the second generation before 2019, built in Sweden on the P3 platform, and an entirely different car.

The drivetrain is the large difference. In America the T5, later the B5 mild hybrid with around 250 hp, is the standard, and a very large share of American S60s are front-drive only — buyers there take the saloon for town and motorway in a warm climate. In Europe the S60 was sold against the BMW 3 Series and the Audi A4, so the B5 was almost always ordered with all-wheel drive. The more powerful T6 and B6 with 310 hp are common in America and always all-wheel drive, and rare in Europe.

The top is the T8 Polestar Engineered — a plug-in hybrid with Öhlins suspension and Brembo brakes. In America the Polestar Optimization software pack for the T5 and T6 is popular and turns up readily at auction; in Europe it is rare. Volvo limits every car from 2020 onwards to 180 km/h, whatever the version or market.

The trims say different things. Until 2022 they are Momentum, R-Design and Inscription, then Core, Plus and Ultimate. The American base comes with a panoramic roof, leather and dual-zone climate; the European base is often a company or lease car on cloth and without the roof. Europe sold mostly R-Design for its aggressive look, while American saloon buyers preferred the luxury of Inscription.