Drove the Volvo S40T5

[Ed328Ci]

I had some time to kill today, and decided to check out the S40. First, the interior is very attractive. It looks like Ikea took at Mazda 3, and redesigned the interior. Ok, maybe that's exactly what happened. The key looks like an Ikea product as well, but from the "kids' room" section of the store. I sat on the leather seats, and on the standard cloth / funky material seats. I like both, and if I was in the market, I would go with the non-leather seats, especially if I like in a sunny climate. The demo car was an auto T5. One thing that bugged me immediately is the positioning of the door handle. It's too high, either gets in the way when I make turns, or hangs my left elbow up a little too high. I do like the thick steering wheel, with telescoping and up/down adjustments. Oh, the AC is adequate, without feeling like it steals significant power from the engine. The car handled well. Unfortunately, there was traffic, and the salesman came with me on the test drive, so I cannot really test the car's handling limits. I would say that it handles similar to the new Legacy, with about the same understeer, but without the Subaru's ability to be induced into oversteer via throttle input. Of course, this is an inherent disadvantage of FWD. On the hand, I went WOT in both 1st and 2nd gears, and need not notice any torque steer. I also took a moderately hard and fast right, and did not notice torque steer during the maneuver. The engine has nice torque. Unlike the Legacy, there was not lag. Torque is always there. However, I think the Legacy has more noticeable torque, once its turbo spins up. The Volvo's engine is also a bit less smooth than the Subaru's, and there was a bit more vibration felt through the steering wheel. This is minor, however. Overall, the S40 is nice car. I think a Legacy GT with BETTER non-stock tires, would be faster on the road, and handle better at 8/10 or higher. Comments?

[racerdave]

Never drove one... but I'm not interested either, as the car is too small and a FWD or Haldex AWD car does not appeal to me. That said, Volvo does do a good job with their turbo motors... they seem to spool up pretty quickly, usually around 1900 or so. The looks are also vastly better than the previous S40. And Volvo seats are almost always very, very good. But it ain't enough to get me outta a Leg GT wagon. :)

[eamiller]

Drove a S40 T5 the same day as the Leg GT manual and here's what I observed.. S40 (even in auto trim) has way more torque off the line than the Legacy. It doesn't have the rush that the Legacy does. S40 seemed to have more body lean in the turns, more kickback in the steering while handling mid-corner bumps (almost too much) but was damped very similarly. Torque steer was non-existant when getting on the gas. S40 is sooo much more expensive (even with my X-Plan discount) than the Legacy. Although Volvo offers more options. Will definately be using my VIP discount to get a Legacy here in a few months.

[GBY]

My mother-in-law is buting one of these, fully loaded V50 = $34k :roll: