How The Volvo S60 R-Design Polestar Turned Me Into An Idiot

I was fortunate enough this week to spend some quality time with the Volvo S60 T6 AWD Polestar. It's a great car - fast, good looking, superbly comfortable and the ultimate motorway troll-mobile (people see it and immediately assume it's an undercover cop car). Here are the specs:

Price: from £40,655, as tested: £48,555; Engine: 3.0-litre, straight-six, turbocharged, petrol; Power: 329bhp (including Polestar upgrade); Torque: 355lb ft; 0-62mph: 5.9sec; Top speed: 155mph (limited); Gearbox: 6-speed automatic; Weight: 1716kg; Undercover cop car lvl: Expert

Yes, it's expensive and yes, you can get an equivalent BMW for the same sort of money, but how many of these things do you see on the road? Exclusivity rules. Interestingly too, women love the look and comfort of the S60, which is never a bad thing...

Okay, so the stats establish that the S60 Polestar's rapid and this translates onto the tarmac. The T6's turbocharged power surge is effortlessly smooth and linear, the six-speed gearbox incredibly slick (despite what people say) and grip levels utterly astonishing - during our day of filming last week (video coming soon), the traction control light didn't even jump into life once. The straight-six makes a lovely noise too, but the exhaust note could do with a tune up.

And Volvo being Volvo, the interior's screwed together properly. Understated dashboard (some might call it bland), great quality of materials and seats to die for; supportive, comfortable, Volvo.

So how, you ask, did the seemingly flawless S60 turn me into a bit of an idiot? I didn't race it like a Ricer, so that can't be it...The reason was simple: this car - specced up with the £1900 Driver Support Pack - is simply too damn clever.

No, it doesn't park itself and no it didn't come to find me in Gatwick Airport's long stay car park when I neglected to recall in which section (A-Z) I'd parked in on the same day at 5am. Bummer...

What the sports saloon did was make me lose focus while driving, especially on longer journeys. To give you an example, I travelled to Coventry (a delightfully unpleasant city in the Midlands) from London. During the 90-minute journey up the motorway, I let the S60 - thanks to its radar-guided cruise control - do all the braking and accelerating for me.

Because I placed my trust in the car, I unwittingly allowed myself an extra second or two to glance at the rather small dashboard screen, while scrolling through radio stations. The reason? I was confident that if the car in front of me slowed, the Volvo would follow suit without even asking me. Idiot.

My newfound laziness while driving also meant that I didn't pay as much attention to lane changes as I would have normally. Volvo's Driver Support Pack not only includes radar-guided cruise control and Collision Warning with Auto Brake, it also features BLIS (Blind Spot Information Service). BLIS is incredibly useful, but when you neglect to turn your head to look behind you when making a lane change (or even fully neglect to look in the rear-view), you quickly realise that again, you're being a bit of a moron. After all, technology has a habit of failing when it's needed most:

Obviously, Volvo's not alone in this tech-fest phenomenon: Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Lexus et al all use similar technologies on their high-spec models. And while I think it's great to have such intuitive safety features, I really do wonder (and worry) how reliant other motorists are on them.

On a happier note, however, the S60 Polestar as a machine proper is sublime. I'm just not sure I'd spec it will all the fancy safety gizmos...