Our new long-termer has quite a few creature comforts up its sleeve, reports Martyn Collins.

There’s creature comforts aplenty on our V60

Heated steering wheel? It is something I’ve never ever needed, but after living with our new Volvo V60 D3 R- Design for a month, it’s something I’ve come to miss when driving other cars. This is just one of many of this Volvo’s many features that I’ve really appreciated in the recent cold snap. The others, being the heated front seats, the heated front screen, heated aqua blade wipers and the headlight cleaning system. All part of the V60’s optional Winter Pack, I think £525 is a small price to pay for the peace of mind, in my opinion.

That’s not the end of the clever kit fitted to our stun- ning-looking Denim Blue V60, which includes the Intellisafe Pro and Xenium Packs, but I’ll go into these in more detail in future reports.

Going back to the interior, the part Nappa leather-trimmed contour sports seats,fitted as part of the R-Design specification, are some of the most comfortable and supportive I’ve been lucky enough to sit in for a long period of time and after some initial frus- trations, I’m getting along fine with the Sensus infotain- ment system. This car arrived just before Christmas and despite thinking I wouldn’t cover many miles, over 600 were easily dispatched over the festive period with me and my family aboard.

So far, the only niggles I have are with the ride on the 18-inch wheels, which feels firm and makes performance promises, that so far the 2.0-litre D3 diesel engine can’t answer.