It is amazing how seeing a Volvo estate on the road can make you feel, a real spectrum of emotions. A glance in the rear view mirror that reveals a V70 estate brings a sense of calm. If the worst driver on earth t-boned a V70 at 167 mph flipping it upside down and causing a minor explosion, the middle classed gentleman and his perfect family would still be in their gilets, with the ubiquitous Labrador fast asleep albeit in the foot well.

On the other hand, when you see a Volvo 240 estate behind you there begins an intense feeling of dullish boredom. Looking like some Swedish Big Ben lying on its side, the 240 appears solid and it is, leaving the car with the agility of the clock it resembles.

Calm and boredom seems attractive compared to seeing a V70 estate with blue flashing lights however. The police have always liked the V70 for its unrivaled space and quality engineering, not to mention the 2.3 litre 250hp T5 Volvo engine providing more than enough power to send down tracksuit-wearing Astra drivers up and down the country.

These days, Volvo has been working to change its boring image by stepping up its design ethic. To be quite honest the box-on-wheels approach served them very well over the years but looking at their latest addition, the new S60, futuristic vision working for the Swedes very well indeed.

Right on cue, as the S60 is revealed, so too is an amazing new feature called ‘Pedestrian Detection.’ The Mercedes S-class has already showed us that it is possible for cars to brake themselves, but the new S60 will be able to recognise pedestrians as well as other traffic. I’ve ordered mine with the very reasonable ‘Jordan and Peter’ optional extra, disabling the pedestrian detector if it recognises either money-grabbing media-merchant crossing the road.

The pictures are an exciting insight into Volvo’s continuing efforts to change people’s opinions about their cars. They will always have brand loyalty from some, but tapping into the BMW and Audi lovers’ wallets might take a bit more than exciting design.