Buyer Research

2024 Volvo S60 — Should You Buy One?

Typical asking price: $27,000–$40,000. There are 2 high-severity known issues you need to know before handing over a check.

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Kestrel Take

Twenty complaints is a small record, so treat it as a set of stories rather than a statistic — but the stories line up, and three of them are crashes. Three quarters of the file is one theme: the Android-based infotainment system dropping out, and taking the screen, the audio and in some filings the parking and cross-traffic warnings with it. Underneath that sit five brake complaints, including drivers who say the car lurched or accelerated as they came to a stop. This is a comfortable, handsome, genuinely safe-by-design car with a software problem, and software is the hardest thing to check in a ten-minute test drive. Spend an hour in it, work the screen hard, and brake repeatedly at low speed before you decide.

What we checked

Reconciled against public records, 2026-09-25

NHTSA holds 20 owner complaints for the 2024 Volvo S60, and 3 recall campaigns.

A big number here usually means a lot of these were sold, not that it is a bad vehicle — popular models collect more complaints for the same rate of trouble. So the total on its own says little. What is worth reading is the shape of it. 30% of them are about one thing — electrics and electronics. That much concentration is a genuine pattern rather than background noise, and it is the first thing to check on any example you look at.

3 recall campaigns cover this model year. Recalls are repaired free, for any owner, with no time limit on most safety campaigns — but only if someone books it in. Ask the seller to show it was done, or have any dealer check the VIN; it takes them a couple of minutes and costs nothing.

Counts come from the NHTSA complaint and recall database — free, public, and worth checking yourself.

Known Issues for the 2024 Volvo S60

Ranked by wallet impact. These are documented, recurring problems — not freak accidents. How we decide that.

Infotainment blanking out, taking every audio alert and warning chime with itHigh — wallet impact

Six filings, and this is the centre of the record. Owners describe the centre screen going blank while driving and rebooting itself, no instrument readings, and — worst of it — every audio output dying at once: turn signal ticks, hazard sound, seat belt and proximity chimes, reverse sensors. One owner traces the audio loss to a specific Android Automotive update. Another reports the car losing all electrical power at highway speed with the dashboard going dark. You cannot judge this on a short drive, so sit in the car with it running, cycle through the screen menus, select reverse, and listen for the indicator to tick when you signal.

Repair cost (estimate): $0–$400 for a dealer software update; $1,500–$3,000 if the infotainment module is replaced

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under electrics and electronics (6).

Braking that lurches or lets go at low speed, and two crash reports at parking paceHigh — wallet impact

Five brake filings, three of them reporting a crash. One driver says the car surged forward at a stoplight with their foot planted on the brake and hit the car ahead; another says the brakes did not stop the car as they pulled into a parking space. A third describes braking that is simply unpredictable — unsmooth coming to a halt, with a sudden release when braking downhill. The last of those is what a mild-hybrid system handing over between regenerative and friction braking feels like when it gets the blend wrong, and it is exactly what to test for: a dozen stops from 15 mph, and one long downhill, feeling for the pedal going soft or the car surging.

Repair cost: Not yet priced — a safety matter first, a repair bill second

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under the brakes (5).

Collision avoidance steering or braking when there is nothing to avoidMedium

Four owners report the safety systems intervening for no reason. One says the car steered itself into the left lane toward oncoming traffic on a gentle right-hand bend on a 30 mph road. Another had it brake on a freeway exit because of a car in the adjacent lane, across a solid white line. A parent who bought the car specifically for its safety equipment kept a log of how often it glitched. Drive this car on a curving two-lane road and on a highway exit before you buy, and find out from the seller whether the front camera has ever been recalibrated.

Repair cost (estimate): $0–$400 for a camera and radar recalibration; $1,000–$2,200 if the front camera module is replaced

Source: NHTSA complaints filed under the driver-assist and automatic braking systems (4).

Walk-Away Red Flags

✗Centre screen that goes blank or reboots itself during the test drive
✗Silence where the indicator tick, seat belt chime or reverse beep should be
✗Brake pedal that goes soft or the car surging as you come to a standstill
✗Sudden release of braking effort on a downhill stop
✗Collision system braking or tugging the wheel with nothing ahead of you

Good Signs

✓A centre screen that stays live through an hour of use and repeated reverse selections
✓Audible indicator, seat belt and parking chimes all present and working
✓A dozen consecutive stops from 15 mph with a consistent, predictable pedal
✓Software version confirmed as current by a Volvo dealer against the VIN
✓Volvo dealer service records with both early scheduled visits stamped