Category: Large Family 
Price Range: £13,750 to £23,495
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.
The five-cylinder petrol S40s' fuel economy is fair given the pace available: the 170bhp 2.4 averages 33.6mpg on the official combined test cycle (the same - oddly - as with the 140bhp version, denied to UK buyers), while the T5 is little thirstier at 32.5mpg. The 2.0-litre diesel performs well with 50.4mpg. The 1.6-litre engines are naturally the most fuel efficient, with the petrol returning 39.2 mpg and the diesel and impressive 57.6mpg.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Volvo S40
wrote on 21 09 2006
wrote on 12 09 2006
wrote on 07 06 2006