Probably a good decision here if in fact it was not making them money. Why invest in products that don’t sell??

This just cements my agrument that Volvos are boring. Anyone who chooses a Volvo over a BMW is a retard, or at least boring.

Life is too short for boring cars.

Bunch of lazy sorry asses. That’s the only “excitement” that ever came from Volvo. Dropping the performance variants does nothing but solidify their brand image as undesirable grandpa cars. Thay might as well drop all colors except beige while they’re at it.

Bad call…………..

I didn’t even care that they had an “R” version in the first place. If you want a performance car, Volvo is not the place to look anyway. Until they go RWD, there is nothing performance about it.

Homeboy234,

What exactly makes a Volvo boring looking? The shape? The S60 and S80’s shape is heads and shoulders over the Bangled 5 series’ Dame Edna front end, stunning WRX tail lights and generic side profile.

Golf4me,

You’re quick to judge Volvos as boring and not performance oriented just because that’s what the common uninformed consensus tells them. Volvo has a long history of winning on the racetrack – even with their station wagons. You’ve driven a 300hp S60R with a 6 speed on the track, right? I’m sure you have otherwise you would not be wasting our time with such babbling about Volvos not being rear wheel drive, therefore not really qualifying as a performance car. The S60R is an AWD model, just like Audi’s all-conquering Quattros from the 80s – not performance oriented at all, right?

What a shame! – this program had enourmous potential it was very unique and great for the industry. Volvo had a real image booster here

Don Speck should be fired! Overpaid speadsheet boy will never understand true ROI of having performance vehicles. Another case of bad management.

This has been old news to the Volvo enthusiast community for quite some time. It’s a shame, but I expect the R model will return. One of the most active Volvo forums on the web is the R forum on SwedeSpeed.

For those of you who want to see the passion some of us owners have for these vehicles, check out my article at http://www.swedespeed.com/news/publish/Features/article_862.html. Still think these vehicles are boring?

I also know a guy on the forum who’s making over 450 whp with his.

way to go ford

Whoops, previous link fixed (period was causing a problem): http://www.swedespeed.com/news/publish/Features/article_862.html

good idea because obviously these dont sell because ive seen about 5 on the road EVER

The R models have always been sweet. Their relative rarity on the road was a good thing. I don’t think that most people felt they were better drivers than BMW’s… just sportier, faster Volvo’s.
Volvo wagons have more cargo space than a 5-series touring or an E-class wagon… and a manual tranny to boot!
And what’s wrong with being AWD? It’s the right answer for the sporty family ski-mobile.

The problem with the R models was its price versus the competition. The MSRP for the S60R is $95 more than the BMW 335i, which out-performs it in every category. Then you have the Infiniti G35 which provides better performance for $5000 less. If they would have priced it at around $30K, they would have sold many more.

Unfortunately, this means that there will be no C30R, which would have been a real sales leader (if priced right), given that car’s target of young, affluent urbanites (read: yuppies with lots of testosterone and cash)

if you make it and forget to market it you cant expect to be successful

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat????

The S80 V8 is hardly a performance car, yes it has V8 power, but it drives like a brick, and the C30 T5 shouldn’t be considered performance either. But everyone knows that

Dumb, dumb, dumb…

The S80 V8 and C30 T5 are “performance models” in Fredrick Arp’s mind, because they offer strong performance for a Volvo. Volvo’s position is always that safety is more important than sportiness and their intention is not to compete with the Germans in such an arena.

However, I bought my S60 R on its merit – safe, quick, comfortable, adjustable chassis, and reliable. The fact that it will blow by V8 Audi A6’s is just a bonus.

hey, where’s s60-driver? i have an s60r too…it’s sad the r line is now dead. it’s more sad that now the price will go abruptly down (i was hoping to trade it for an alfa 159 GTA

i always liked the 850 turbo myself, the r was just poorly marketed, sweet ride just nobody other than internet auto junkies knew about it.

Another dumb Ford move.. Volvo has had a high-performance R model in their lineup since the mid 1990s.. I see plenty of them here in Southern California, and their owners are devoted. Way to burn yet another bridge!

Wow, not very good if any headway is going to be made in dispelling the preconception that anything under the eye of Ford goes to crap.

Volvoman: I don’t care whose “mind” the S80 V8 is a sporty model in, for the rest of us, it’s not sporty, simply having a V8 doesn’t automatically make a vehicle sporty, just ask the Lincoln Town Car.

Syrax, when they discontinue performance models, the existing versions retain their value better.

Now some boring person that wants an S60R can only get one on the used market, you are better off this way. Plus when you get your Alfa, you have a less boring car.

Remember when Chevy disc’d the Impala SS? The price did not go down on that puppy. In fact they still get decent change for an old car.

Now, do you live in the US, b/c as much as I want Alfa here, the reality is several years away at best. You can get them in Mexico though.

So does this mean that “S-60 driver” will never post on this site again??

Good business decision… bad marketing move.

“R” Volvos were never racecars in the first place but for me personally, they were the only models that separated their pedestrian model range from every other car in similar classes.

Volvo makes great station wagons–a class of vehicle I’ve always loved–but without any “R” wagon in the range I’d be hard pressed to “ooh” and “aah” over a Volvo.

A car is just a car no matter who sells it. Unless it’s a real specialty model.

It’s a volvo, who cares, they should keep to what they do best, build old man cars that are safe and boxy and boring…I’d never buy one.

yah this is lame. the R models made volvos able to compete against mainstream vehicles like bmw 3 series, G35, TL, IS, A4, C class. without it, theres no way it can compete.

I applaud Volvo for this move. They are mature enough to know that it is a waste of time to compete against The BMW.

No if they just priced their cars realistically.

Well, Evolve have to do more work, but at least the money you’d put into an Evolve-tuned Volvo would be worth it!

They make some lovely Volvos

I didn’t think the V70R ever made much sense, but the S60R did. Well, if they just up the power, they don’t need R anyway.

no renton, i’m in brazil…and here is not like what you said. a car that’s discontinued drops immediatelly the price…and alfa is pretty big here, but it’s a pain in the ass to get an 159 GTA (i don’t think i’ve seen one in here)

Renton: That is only the case w/ some models, take the Mercury Marauder for example, that was a “performance car”, and now that it has been discontinued, the price has plummeted, just because a car is performance oriented and is discontinued doesn’t necessarily mean it has good depreciation. Though in some cases it does as you say

LamboZ– Marauder’s problem was its lack of performance. Sounded good, looked good, ran like a regualr Merc/Crown Vic.

I think the dropping of the “R” line will help the resale value of those Volvos compared to other regualr Volvos.

“This just cements my agrument that Volvos are boring. Anyone who chooses a Volvo over a BMW is a retard, or at least boring. Life is too short for boring cars.”

Then why did you choose a vanilla Bimmer that almost every college kid I know drives? Renton you talk biased as usual but the S40’s superior braking gives it a major advantage in real world outside track racing over the 3 series. But you wouldn’t know that… cause you’ll never own anything outside Audi, BMW, or MB. In any case, those who buy a 3 series or anything Bimmer coupe and don’t use it as a racing tool is a poor fool. In fact, it has been a stigma here that BMW owners are those who simply can’t afford more and just want to show off that German badge. And since you see them in every parking lot, it didn’t make you feel boring owning one? And why spend so much on an ugly car with crap interior only to pamper it like a poodle?

Renton: That’s true about the Marauder, bad example I admit