One of first casualties of the Covid era, which dramatically changed all of our lives five years ago, was a total pause in travel — which meant that carmakers’ traditional vehicle launch events went dark. 

For those of us on the non-YouTube fringes of the automotive media business, that darkness became permanent, and I sadly grew totally disconnected from a number of carmakers I’d previously had close connections with, resulting in more than a few significant gaps in information.

Subsequently, we have another feature this week on a super-cool and one-of-a-kind automobile that I had no idea is actually headed for the dustbin of history, though if you ask me nice, I can send you the VIN number and you can probably scoop it up an auction for a steal.

The Polestar Engineered rendition of the plug-in hybrid 2025 Volvo V60 wagon is indeed no longer going to be sold in the U.S., just as the company itself is now apparently rethinking the whole wagon thing in general, and maybe no longer making them at all, in favor of SUVs. 

That’s the sort of head-scratcher that seems commensurate with March 2025 in general, sort of like Ford saying they’re not that interested in building F-150 pickups anymore, but, again, I’m out of the loop on all of this, so all I can do is offer some late advice on scooping up a cool but doomed vehicle as quick as you can. The more standard V60 and its off-roady Cross Country version will continue to be sold.

As previously discussed, the Polestar/Volvo connection has become a little strange in recent years as Polestar is now its own brand, focusing on EVs (the new Polestar3 is coming to me in a week or so). But Polestar’s long tradition as the high-performance upgrade facilitator of Volvo products is in fact the name of the game in this distinctive automobile, or was, until Volvo itself began doubling down on EVs, instead of high-performance wagons.

Base-priced at $71,000, the Polestar Engineered V60 is the company’s all-wheel-drive T8 plug-in setup, which means an impressive 455 combined horsepower from a 2.0-liter turbocharged engine and a 143-hp electric motor. An 18.8 kilowatt-hour battery is also robust enough for about 41 miles of all-electric range.

I’ve driven the more standard version of the car in the past but the Polestar treatment is indeed a special deal, and not just for the gold-colored seatbelts, the gold-colored Brembo brakes and the gold-colored valve stems in the wheels (which I hid so my neighbors would not pocket them).

Physically, the V60 has been stiffened and sharpened, with borderline uncomfortable sport seats and glossier details that help justify its Corvette-styled price. The center of gravity is also engineered to be lower, meaning car-like driving and less SUV-styled vagueness, and that was certainly the case when I set out to use every scrap of that 455-hp.

The car’s most significant bummer, however, is a full-blown limiter that kicked in at a surprisingly low 180 kilometers per hour (you do the conversion math), which suddenly takes the screaming forward motion at lower speeds and pauses it in the middle of an under-safe-conditions speed run. I understand the unlimited, global rendition of the V60 is good for 155 mph; perhaps my limitations were the result of user settings or U.S. standards, but the go did not go as far as I hoped.    

Andy Stonehouse’s column “Mountain Wheels” publishes Saturdays in the Summit Daily News. Stonehouse has worked as an editor and writer in Colorado since 1998, focusing on automotive coverage since 2004. He lives in Golden. Contact him at summitmountainwheels@gmail.com.