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Volvo S60 Polestar concept plays in the snow with Mercedes C63 AMG

Chris Harris took to a snowy stretch of tarmac to get a fingertips-on-the-wheel feel of the Volvo S60 Polestar concept. Harris says the turbocharged sedan with 508 horsepower and 424 pound-feet of torque - and a manual transmission - is "a study to see if Volvo can get back into the fast-car market." The Polestar S60 concept, one of which was already purchased for $300,000 by a private buyer, is still making the publicity rounds because even Volvo's Chinese owners realize that, as Harris says, "Volvo sold more cars because it made fast cars" like the old 850 T5 Wagon that stormed the British Touring Car Championship in the 1990s.
For reference, Harris compares the blue wonder to the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG and its 487 hp and 442 lb-ft. The question is, were Volvo to get the price of a production version of the S60 Polestar to climb way down from its 200,000-pound sticker, could it be worthy competition to the established giants?
You can watch Harris divine the answer via a lot of drifting through the snow and a drag race in the video below.

Test drive the Mercedes SLS AMG Electric Drive with Chris Harris

It's hard to not like the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT. The all-aluminum coupe is fitted with a wonderful naturally aspirated 6.2-liter V8 delivering 583 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque. Not only does the burly combustion engine launch the two-seater to 60 miles per hour in less than four seconds, but it does so with one of the world's greatest exhaust soundtracks as it roars, burbles and cackles down the road.
But what happens when Mercedes-Benz takes away the V8 and its accompanying fire-burning song? Stripped of one of its most appealing assets, does the SLS lose its soul?
Chris Harris recently had the opportunity to take the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive for a track spin in Europe. Sans gasoline, but with four electric motors providing a combined 740 horsepower (737 pound-feet of torque), all-electric all-wheel drive coupe uses sophisticated torque vectoring and a multi-mode operating system to put oversteer - drifting! - back into the equation. Fun? You bet. See for yourself, below.

2015 Mercedes-Benz GLA priced from $31,300*

Mercedes-Benz has kindly let loose the price of the 2015 GLA-Class, telling Autoblog.com that the base 208-horsepower GLA250 in two-wheel drive will go for $31,300 *not including a destination charge of $925. That makes for $32,225 in total to get one off the lot, a price predicted as early as last year and in our recent First Drive. The other two available models can push power to all four wheels, and after the destination fee is applied the GLA240 4Matic (pictured) will be $34,225 while the 355-horsepower GLA45 AMG will change lives and wallets to the tune of $49,225.
On the base scale, that puts the GLA250 just a few hundred dollar bills above the more powerful, rear-wheel drive BMW X1 and a stack of hundreds below the less powerful, front-wheel drive Audi Q3. If you're keeping in-house score, the GLA250 comes in at $1,400 above its sedan platform-mate with the same engine, the CLA250. At the high end, however, the competition doesn't have anything that can touch the AMG trim. Not that it should matter all that much - Mercedes needed something to keep these buyers in the family, and now they have it. If any of them should need even more power and more money spent, then there's always that 394-hp Brabus flavor. We'll have more info and details on each trim when Mercedes unleashes the shebang in the not-too-distant future.