As a former salesman for Volvo, I'll say this. your looking at two very different cars and I'm sure I don't have to tell you that. Most people that buy these don't actually beat them that hard. The ones that we had go through our service department were almost always in for just routine maintenance.

The way I look at it is this. The volvo is more of an executive car and the GLI is more of a car you can toy with than the S60R depending on your budget. Like others have said parts and maintenance for Volvo aren't cheap but they aren't actually all that ridiculous either. If your looking for something that you can have a decent amount of fun in and still be comfortable in than the Volvo is what you want. Not to say that the GLI isn't comfortable by any means but when you look at over all fit, finish, and comfort the Volvo puts bus lengths on it. If your looking for something you wanna put a bunch of money in down the road than go with the GLI. But for my money S60R all day long.

My only gripe performance wise with the S60R is the AWD system. Since this is a volvo its still gonna be primarily economy focused then preformance focused therefore the AWD has a FWD bias to it.