But, according to Volvo’s press spiel at least, 'the lights create a silhouette of two miniature Viking longboats sailing side by side'.

It’s a silly concept, then, set to be unveiled at the Detroit show in January as a forerunner to the production S60, which will arrive in 2010 a full decade after the original, unchanged S60. That’s a long time in the world of cars, and should bring Volvo’s sedan up to fighting weight with the BMW 3-Series and Merc C-Class.

Not that we’d expect the production version to feature a ‘floating centre stack made out of handmade, solid Orrefors crystal’, or a ‘designed as a three-dimensional glass spiral’. And hopefully it won’t be quite so, er, brown.

But it should get some of the green tech featured on the S60 concept, which has a 1.6-litre direct-injection petrol engine with dual-clutch gearbox, a stop-start system and a clever self-adjusting grille shutter, which closes to reduce air drag when the engine is cool enough. Naturally there’s tons of Volvo-spec safety equipment, but – more importantly – it looks pretty decent, doesn’t it? OK, so the pillarless window line and slick door handles won’t survive, but we’ve got high hopes for the S60… Viking longboats and all.