Classic Volvo 240 v modern Volvo V60: Celebrating the legend of the family estate car

I’ve been living with a Volvo V60 for the past few months, and to be honest I’ve fallen in love with it. It looks classy inside and out, has just enough tech to be useful without it getting in the way, and it’s a relaxing thing to motor around in.

However, it’s an estate car, and people just don’t buy estate cars anymore – the SUV is king. Because of this, Volvo actually culled the V60 and V90 estates from its range in 2023 before bowing to pressure and reinstating. Shouty people on the internet didn’t put their money where their mouths are, though, and the last V90 has now rolled off the production line, with the V60 surely not far behind.

I do like SUVs and can see why they make sense to families – have you ever tried to push a stubborn toddler into the back of a low-slung estate? It’s easier in an SUV – but for nostalgic reasons I am a bit sad to see the estate car slowly disappearing from our roads. When I was a boy, they were the go-to practical family runaround.

With this in mind I grabbed the keys to a retro Volvo 240 GL and drove it side-by-side with ‘my’ Volvo V60 to see how far we’ve come – and what we’re about to lose.

Introducing the cars

Representing the modern era is the Denim Blue Volvo V60 I call my daily driver. It’s a proper dad wagon, performing double duties as a head and heart purchase, with genuinely desirable styling wrapped around a practical cabin that comfortably meets the space requirements of a small family.

The hero of this story is the bright red Volvo 240 GL. Over 2.8 million 200 Series cars were built between 1974 and 1993, with the car here registered in the UK for the first time in 1989, meaning it’s almost as old as me – and in decidedly better nick.

Volvo V60 vs Volvo 240: design

I’ve had a few colleagues note that the dark blue paint job on my Volvo V60 is a bit boring. Perhaps it’s just further evidence that I am, in fact, boring, but I think it looks fantastic and works really well with the understated Scandi-cool exterior design.

The V60 sits low to the ground and has a sleek roofline with fairly narrow windows, a wide front grille and the classic Thor’s Hammer headlights, which should look old hat by now but continue to work brilliantly. Describe the design features individually and it sounds a bit sporty, but combine them together and the V60 looks anything but – like Adidas bringing out a range of slippers based on the iconic Predator football boots.

Speaking of iconic, it’s not hyperbole to describe the 240’s boxy appearance as such. Considering the design we see here – admittedly via a couple of mid-life refreshes – dates back to the seventies, it’s aged remarkably well.

Aside from all the right angles to the silhouette, the chunky square headlights with integrated wipers and the big black bumpers place it firmly in the olden days, even if the grille isn’t too visually detached from its modern counterpart.

The biggest change is at the rear, where the 240’s boxy backside looks like Volvo simply slapped some sheet metal and glass onto the back of a saloon car, the giveaway being the way the top of the rear door window slopes down, completely misaligned with the window to the load space.

It’s hard to argue that the V60 isn’t technically the better-looking of the two, but little this side of a supercar turns heads quite as much as the 240 did in my week behind the wheel.

Volvo V60 v Volvo 240: interior

If there are signs of these two cars being born from the same family tree on the outside, technology has moved on so much that the interiors are worlds apart.

I love the V60’s cabin. The screen is small by modern standards at just 9.0 inches, so it’s easy to call it outdated. However, after a week in the Mercedes CLA Electric, with its huge twin-screen setup that spans half the width of the car, I was delighted to get back in the Volvo with a display that’s big enough to show what you need but fades out of your peripheral vision when you’re focusing on the road. I love the Google software and the built-in Spotify app, too.

Material quality is good – perhaps not quite good enough in places to justify my car’s £60,000 price tag – but it all looks really classy and the seats are comfortable.

Unsurprisingly, the 240’s interior lacks anything in the way of infotainment – in fact your entertainment comes in the form of a tape deck. Similarly retro is the seatbelt warning, which is a loud buzzer and flashing red light on the dashboard that activates as soon as you turn the ignition. Intrusive safety tech is not a new fad, it seems.

Materials are anything but posh, but they all feel really sturdy and were clearly built to last. This car has only done 47,000 miles but I was still impressed with how scratch-free the cabin was.

The manually operated sunroof put a smile on my face – and baffled my three-year-old son – but I was pleasantly surprised by some of the creature comforts on offer, namely heated seats and power windows. The lack of ISOFIX points for the child seat was a touch nerve-wracking, though.

Volvo V60 v Volvo 240: driving

The Volvo V60 has a plug-in hybrid engine under the bonnet. That means you can drive about 40 miles on electric power and really sets it apart from the petrol-powered 240.

The driving experience is actually one of my favourite things about the V60. Sure, it’s not great at low speeds, where you really feel the car jittering about over rough surfaces, but the rest of the time it’s quiet and refined and so easy to drive.

It’s also incredibly fast – in a recent shoot with the video team it came second in a drag race, beating the sporty Audi S5 Avant and only losing out to the crazy-fast BMW M5 Touring. It’s so unnecessary, but so much fun when you fancy making the most of it.

Fast is not a word you can use to describe the 240. The 2.3-litre engine rattles to life when you turn the key in the barrel, shaking the whole car. The manual gearbox is light and easy to get to grips with, and the power steering meant the awkward reversing manoeuvre into my driveway wasn’t an impromptu bicep workout. But you really had to work the engine to get up to speed.

I’m spoilt by getting to drive the best modern cars as part of my job, and I must admit the novelty of driving the 240 wore off after a few days. It was great fun driving a car with a big steering wheel and having to switch gears manually, with no screens for distraction, but by the end of the week the rattly engine and unsettled ride over bumps had me excited to get back in the new V60…

Verdict: should we be sad the estate is on the way out?

As much as I understand the appeal of an SUV, it is a bit of a shame the estate car is slowly disappearing from our roads.

Yes, sitting higher gives you a clearer view of the road ahead, but in the V60 I never feel like I can’t see what I need to see. And because estates are generally lighter and lower to the ground, they tend to drive better, which admittedly won’t be important to everyone, but it’s important to me. The V60 is a lovely thing to cruise around in.

It’s also really practical. I think most people assume SUVs are more practical because they look bigger, but in many cases the opposite is true. Before taking delivery of the V60 I ran an XC60 for a few weeks, and while it’s easier to lift my son into his child seat in the SUV, I prefer the estate in every other way. It feels smaller and easier to drive, yet the cabin feels bigger and there’s more boot space.

Getting the V60 together with the iconic boxy 240 shows how far we’ve come – but in saying goodbye to estate cars are we taking one step back? I think we might be.

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*Savings are made up of the maximum dealer discount off RRP – subject to dealership, location and trim. Prices correct at the time of writing.