| Long Term Test | Volvo S40 DRIVe |
| Arrival date: | | August 2009 |
| Price: | | £20,245 (including £900 of options) |
| Current mileage: | | 1,469-miles |
| Average economy: | | 50.7mpg |
| Relevant links: | |
Euro NCAP results for Volvo S40
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Been anywhere interesting?
Our Volvo (S40 1.6D DRIVe SE with Start/Stop, to use its full title) has only just arrived, so we've been nowhere other than the shops a couple of times and a little afternoon out accompanied by the car it's replacing, our
long term SEAT Leon TDI, which will be sorely missed.
As you can see from the resulting photos (and hopefully knew anyway), the Volvo and the SEAT are two very different... animals is probably the wrong word, but you get the idea. However, both are essentially tasked with the same thing: being small family cars that are relatively easy on the wallet. But both approach that remit in very different ways. The SEAT is a warm hatch with driver enjoyment and style as its main priorities, whereas the Volvo is safety-first premium motoring of the off-kilter Swedish kind, but which is also in this case extremely frugal.
The Volvo is going to be easy on the wallet, that's a given already, but I'm wondering whether we'll miss the Leon's dynamism? And its fifth door too, for that matter.
Anything stand out...?
The wheels. I've spoken of these particular rims before when we reviewed a
C30 DRIVe a couple of months ago, but I absolutely love them. They're real opinion dividers though; some of my pals reckon they're appalling, whereas others have said they're like something from Tron. I reckon if they were 22-inches in diameter Tim Westwood would have then on his Escalade, which is good enough for me. And they'll be a doddle to clean, which is another thing Westwood looks for in his rims, Jay-Z tells me.
We haven't even used a quarter of the S40's tank yet, but already certain things impress us. The little flap in the boot that you can lift then use to keep a solitary shopping bag steady is a neat idea, as is the fact I can plug my iPod into a socket in the centre console storage box, thus hiding it away - a surprising oversight on loads of iPod jack-equipped cars. There's a load of rear space for the kids' car seats too, which makes getting them in and out much easier, as well as giving the oldest room to swing his legs. Basically, the S40 is neither a spring chicken nor a marvellously innovative crossover thingy, we're already convinced it'll be a more than adequate chariot for us and our 2.4 children.
...and for the wrong reasons?
It's not that quick, and it's not that exciting either. I happen to think both the exterior and interior design of the S40 has aged really well, but parked alongside one of this week's test cars, a Vauxhall Insignia saloon, it all of a sudden looked a little, well, square.
In an odd way though, we're looking forward to seeing how close we can get to the DRIVe's official and almost ludicrous 72.4mpg figure, which puts it on par with a Toyota Prius. It's only 5g/km short of being London congestion charge exempt too, which is amazing for a conventional family saloon. We said it was slow, but it's not
that slow: 108bhp won't set anyone's world alight, but drive it and you'd never guess it was a proper eco car in a month of meat-free Sundays. And that's a good thing.
Where next?
Nursery, birthday parties, Ikea, the Metro Centre, the Sage, the Byker Grove Museum, Ant and Dec's house, doctors, dentists and airports. Regular places, basically. The S40 is with us for the next five months and during that time will transport the four members of the Nichol household - and various members of the
Car Enthusiast team - to any number of mundane activities, the same as any other family car does. We'll try to make it as exciting as possible, but we're not actually hoping for a riveting driving experience from the Volvo so much as some really cheap, really pleasant family transport. I'm sure we'll get that.
