bk said:
I've driven Volvos since they were 140's, but my daughter wants to
upgrade from her 850 to an s40 but I don't know much about them except
that some had Mitsubishi engines and at some point they started making
them with "stronger" steel.
Actually I would consider that a downgrade. The S40 is a smaller
vehicle, but it is highly advertised as being sporty and safe, hence the
popularity. In size, the S40 compares with the Subaru however it should
last much longer.
The most reliable S40 and V40 is the '01 and '02.
The ones with the most problems are the '00 V40 and '05 V50.
Here is the history of the S40. It all started when Volvo acquired a
75% stake in DAF's car division and named the DAF plant the Volvo BV
plant. Volvo had started negotiations with DAF as early as 1969, and
gained its controlling interest after a series of financial moves. In
1976, DAF's four-cylinder Variomatic-transmission 66 model became a
Volvo, heralding the introduction of the rather mundane 340 series. By
1981, the Dutch government had invested sufficient capital in the
company to reduce Volvo's stake to a 30% share.
The Volvo 480ES, introduced in 1986, was a front-drive hatchback which
was conceptually rather similar to the P1800 ES. The 480 used a 1.7
Renault engine, and was built in the Netherlands at the Volvo BV plant.
In 1988 Volvo introduced the Volvo 440 - an important new model in the
intermediate class and developed by Volvo Car B.V. in Holland. Its
roadholding and safety in particular were acclaimed by the press, as was
the generous amount of space inside the car.
In 1995 Volvo unveiled a completely new vehicle family while stepping up
development efforts on new products. The compact Volvo S40/V40 - the
first cars to emerge from the joint venture with Mitsubishi - were
presented during the year. The Volvo S40, a four-door sedan, was shown
for the first time at the Frankfurt Show in September, while the Volvo
V40, a versatile and practical five-door touring car, was put on display
in Bologna towards the end of the year. The Mitsubishi Carisma had
already been unveiled earlier in the year. Volvo and Mitsubishi were now
building completely different car models at the Born Plant, using the
same production equipment. With softer, more sweeping lines, the
front-wheel drive Volvo S40/V40 represented a departure from the styling
of Volvo models in recent years. They were available with a choice of
three engines: two four-cylinder petrol engines of 2.0 and 1.8 liters
and a turbocharged 1.9-liter diesel. These two cars set a completely new
standard of safety in the compact class - pioneering side-impact airbags
as standard equipment, for instance. In order to release capacity at the
Born Plant, production of the Volvo 480 was discontinued. The biggest
shock was a Volvo with curves. The S/V40 range was the result of a joint
venture with Mitsubishi. The styling of the car was much more up to date
than its predecessor, the 440. In fact, the V40 wagon was named most
beautiful estate car by an Italian magazine.
In 1996 production of the Volvo S40 and V40 got fully under way and the
car was soon very popular in Italy, Germany and the UK, among other
places. In November, the last car in the Volvo 400 Series was
manufactured, after production of almost 700,000 units since 1985.
The first small Volvos were introduced to the North America market were
the S40 and V40 in 2000. The S40 sedan and V40 wagon are appearing on
the US market after 4 years on the European market. These cars were
co-developed with Mitsubishi in the Netherlands. These vehicles are
built in the Netherlands and feature a 160-horsepower 1.9-liter
four-cylinder turbocharged engine. These are the smallest Volvos,
between the size of a Toyota Corolla and Nissan Altima.
Volvo's previous S40 continued to be built at Born, Holland until spring
2004, and its demise after that signaled the end of Volvo's Dutch
connection which began with DAF. The new S40 and its forthcoming V50
estate version, which share nothing at all with their predecessors, are
to be built in Ghent, Belgium. The new S40 is based on Ford's C1
platform, derived from the current Focus, which also underpins the next
Focus, the Focus C-MAX and the Mazda 3. Volvo calls it P1 (for Premium).
The main point of interest is the S40's interior and its 'floating'
center console, inspired variously by a famous bent-wood chair by Arne
Jacobsen, by Palm Pilots and by Bang & Olufsen remote controls. Thin,
like a flat-screen TV, the console has nothing but empty space behind it
and a so-called IDIS (Intelligent Driver Information System) within it.
The top model is the T5, which is less muscular than some other Volvo
T5s with 220bhp from its 2.5-liter engine. This, a 170bhp 2.4-litre
naturally-aspirated five-pot and a 2.0-liter turbo-diesel four, will all
be offered from the February UK on-sale date. A 1.8 gas engine follows
soon after, and two 1.6s - one gas, one diesel - complete the range at
the end of 2004. There will also be some bi-fuel engines.
The all new Volvo V50 replaced the current V40, which was launched in
the United States in 1999. It is bigger than the S40 but smaller than
the S60. Sales of the all new V50 sportswagon began in the U.S. in
summer, 2004 as a 2005 model.
