At Business Insider, we sample a lot of cars, and many of them are black.

Black is a popular color for vehicles these days. In fact, according to Kelley Blue Book (citing SwapALease.com), it’s the most popular color, beating second-place white by a wide margin.

But every once in a while, a black car shows up that redefines what that commonplace color is all about.

This happened to us recently when a Volvo V60 Polestar wagon landed in our driveway at BI test HQ in suburban New Jersey.

There was just something about the “Onyx Black Metallic” tone that made it impossible – and I’m not kidding, literally impossible – to look away. This a deep, shimmering black. Hypnotic almost.

Volvo V60 2

Foto: Rich and deep. source Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

No hint of blue or gray or green. Just a deep, nearly bottomless black.

Having owned several Volvos (none black), I have to reveal that I think they've always done a great job with paint. But the Swedish car maker, now owned by China's Geely, outdid itself on our test car.

We also quite liked driving the car, so look forward to our review.

Anyway, we've had black Volvos before. But we've never had one that just grabbed us at the chromatic level and wouldn't let go.