Volvo S40

Bought a second hand S40, 2.0(A) car. After driving around this car for almost 1 year, my impression for this car has greatly improved.

After driving around this car for 2 more months aft my last review, the car now seems much better after getting the run in!

Fuel consumption has now improved to 10 plus km/L

and acceleration and power seems to come much easier.

Recently called back to SM for some software updates as well. Seems to help with the gearshifting. Less jerkiness now.

Overall: my impression of this car has improved greatly as time goes haha!

Bought the 2009 version. The 6 speed g-box is smooth and compensates for the lack of the turbo but acceleration is respectable but not outstanding. Love the seats and comfort. Drive is reassuring and steady. Very solid drive all the way to 180km/h. Good value for money. Whole family prefers this over the C class i still have.

Clunking noise of aircon is not present in this model.

Bought a second hand 2010 jun model. Aft 1 wk of use, air con started to blow hot air! just like wad the other reviewer mentioned and this is 2 yrs after he had posted. So kind of disappointed that SM motors did not rectify this problem. They could have updated all incoming cars.

Comfort-wise, pretty good, however i think for the price u pay, the least they could add in is auto headlights and rain wipers.

Fuel consumption is nowhere near the 12.8km/l but btwn 9-10km/l.

Overall a pretty decent car with a good design and of course a super safe car. Nothing exciting but least its a tad stylish and classy to be in.

Unlike the V50 (the S40's sister estate model) the S40 both looks and feels like a small car.

Most important, beware the latest 2008 model. Like the V50, the S40 has an audible and irritating clicking sound emanating from the dashboard. But not to worry. It's got something to do with the air-conditioning, so if you don't switch on the air-conditioning, you don't get the noise!

I bought the V50, but if I'd known about the clicking, I would have gone next door to VW.

The Volvo S40 is something of a bargain in its class. It doesn't have a lot of interior space, but it's good enough. Boot is quite big and well-shaped.

Road refinement is very good. At a steady 100km/h cruise, there's only a little rustling from the wing mirrors. Only thing letting down the road refinement is the tyres. The standard tyres Volvo gave for the Michelin Pilot Primacy. It's a good set of tyres that provide good grip in the wet and in the dry but gets noisy once it starts to harden after 2 years. I would recommend a quieter set of rubbers if road refinement is a must for you.

Fuel consumption remained at a steady 7km/l for my 2.4i. It is only to be expected from a 2.4-litre engine. I'm happy with 7km/l. Power is more than enough with 170bhp and 230Nm of torque. Taking off at traffic light is never a problem and it's always accompanied by the famous 5-cylinder warble.

The gearbox is fine. It adapts to my style and downshifts readily and smoothly. Upshifts are very smooth too as long as you are not doing full-throttle acceleration.

Handling wasn't Volvo's forte last time, but it is for this S40. It may not be top-notch handling like what a BMW 3-series would give you, but it is good enough. Steering is accurate enough with good weighting. And the suspension provides good body control, at the expense of ride comfort. The ride is a little on the harsh side. It has good damping, but the ride never settles.

The interior quality may not be up to Audi's standard, but it's good enough too. At least the aluminium trim is made of real aluminium. And the floating centre console is a beautiful thing, but space at the back of it is just a gimmick. The interior lighting gives the cabin a very nice ambience at night and the front seats are supremely comfortable.

Reliablility is something else. The central computer kept having problems and interfered with my radio and air-con. My air-con just kept blowing hot air. But after resetting the central computer, everything is alright after that.