Think Volvo and you think utilitarian automobiles that shuttle you from point A to point B safely, reliably and indefinitely.

For all their virtues — pathological obsession with safety comes to mind, as does anvil-like durability – Volvos aren’t exciting. They’re cars only soccer moms, Vermonters and tweed-jacketed professors can love.

It’s a stereotype, of course. One that overlooks the company’s hot rod “R” models, among other things. But it is sufficiently pervasive that the Swedes have had enough. They’re billing the all-new S60 as “the naughty Volvo,” a technological marvel equally adept at...