Volvo S60 D5 SE

DOESN'T time fly quickly when you're enjoying yourself. It hardly seems five minutes since our long-term Volvo S60 joined us at Fleet Towers, but in that time it has racked up a lot of miles - mainly due to the fact that it is the car of choice for long distance work thanks to its high level of comfort and refinement.

So many in fact, that it has reached the time for its first service, having covered 12,000 miles.This milestone being reached, the car was duly booked into local dealer, TMS in Peterborough.

And our first experience of a Volvo dealership has been a pleasing one.

Our car was picked up from the office and delivered back the same day and, aside from the essential work carried out by the TMS servicing department, it had taken the trouble to give the car a 'good-as-new' clean, inside and out.

This included removing the accumulating brake dust on the alloys and shining the door sills.

Top marks for customer service. Anyone who has made their living at the front end of the car market will know this is hard to come by.

TMS has been Volvo's best dealer group for many years, it proudly informed me, and it is easy to see why.

The work done was nothing over the standard requirements: replacement of the oil filter and the brakes were stripped down, checked and cleaned.

The pads won't need replacing until they have slowed you down for more than 30,000 miles.

The TMS servicing department also told me that since this is the first time a new Volvo is called in, it also goes over the vehicle to ensure that everything is 'screwed down' correctly.

This is a great level of service if this is your company car. The same too for the fleet manager, but for the fact that it took me three calls to the garage to find out what work had been done and the cost. The servicing department was, I understand, extremely busy the day I called.

The total cost, including VAT, was £221.90. This feels a tad steep for a first service when little work was done on the car.

Over a three-year/60,000- mile contract period the total pence per mile cost, including fuel and depreciation, is 32.63ppm, according to the running costs database featured in Fleet News every month.

This is the lowest of the D5s in the range, and the lowest for an S60, but for the S spec which costs 30.15ppm. Its key competitors, the BMW 320d and Audi A4 2.5 TDI will cost you 31.69ppm and 33.88ppm respectively.