[Volvo-in-my-blood]

I had a 1999 1.8xs (which was a Phase 1.5). It was the the last of the S40/V40s to have headlamp wipers and the older style diffused glass headlamps. At all costs avoid the 1.8 GDi variant as there were serious issues with carbon build up in the engine as the owners are higly unlikely to have run it on super unleaded throughout their lifetime (it was a Mitsubishi direct petrol injection engine offered briefly in the car). The later Phase 2 cars have the clear headlamps and are mostly colour coordinated trim on the outside. The later versions has leather fitted as standard (which is a bonus in terms of keeping the interior clean). The diesel variants were rarer and the 1.8 and 2.0 petrols were the most commonly sold.
I owned mine for seven years (bought at 18 months old) and it was trouble free motoring. Nothing major ever failed and there were no reliability issues. The only issues were the ventilation recirculation gubbins (disconnected rather than replacing the motor/plastic gears for £400) and I lost a headlamp wiper motor to a suicidal pheasant.