Category: Large Family 
Price Range: £15,495 to £23,360
Attractive and innovative cabin, crisp, enjoyable steering and handling, smooth five-cylinder engines, sophisticated safety features.
Occasional transmission snatch, and that's about it.
Volvo's current style is sporty and sculptural. Now it's blended with a great interior, the expected safety virtues and the best handling a Volvo has ever had to make a very appealing package.
Volvos have often come tantalisingly close to the perceived quality levels of the top German brands, but sometimes a moulding here or a texture there let them down. The S40 is nicely made out of classy materials, but its key weapon here is that these materials and their treatments are not as in other cars, so there's less of a direct comparison.
The facia and door trims have a pleasing grain, the screen pillars are covered in a silky material, and everything fits together neatly. Outside, careful attention to panel joins gives a neater, more integrated appearance than in the S60.
As for reliability, the engine and suspension hardware are derived from well-known components and Volvos have a good reputation here.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Volvo S40
wrote on 21 09 2006
wrote on 12 09 2006
wrote on 07 06 2006