General advice appreciated.

[TonyS40R]

Hello everybody.


Been a member for a couple of days now and this forum seems to be nice and active with plenty of advice.
Me and my partner are looking to get an S40 in the very near future as we are expecting out first child.
Our car situation at the moment isn't ideal so out cars have to change and we both love the look of the S40 R design and it will fit our requirements perfectly.

Now..

The thing is my past handful of cars have been Audis so I have no idea when it comes to Volvo.

The only input from my partner is that she wants an R design as it looks nicer.

As for me I must admit I am tempted by the D5 version but these seem quite far and few between.?

My current car is a 3.0tdi Audi A6 which has 240bhp and is automatic... Hence why the D5 it tempting.

Like I say I'm not familiar with the S40 in anyway
So any advice will be very appreciated how ever small and trivial.

ie,
were the R designs highly Speced
Do all S40 have Bluetooth & USB
Is the D5 worth holding out for over the 2.0
Are the automatic gearboxes nice and smooth/quick/reliable
Can music be steamed via Bluetooth
How different are the stereo options
Any common faults/problems to look out for



Sorry for the ramble

Tony

[Welton]

Hi, I'm just thinking you might find the S40 a tad small? the boot is very 'long' but access is not great for pushchairs etc? I don't have pushchairs but very often find myself 'diving' into the long cave that is the boot to retrieve something at the back in fact I leave the shopping door up to limit that problem.

The S40 R-Design may well have the sport suspension and as such is a bit lower than standard, my T5 is low as standard and I could imagine lifting a baby seat in/out would get a bit wearing....which brings me to how poor the access is through the rear doors - they are small and offer very little space to actually get in.

If you have one, or can borrow one, try offering a baby seat in and out and see what you think?

Personally I would avoid the S40 for the reasons above but also because the design is now dating rapidly and residuals are falling fast, it could make for a very costly experience. I'd go for something like a Zafira-sized car, and easy to get in and out of, sure it won't do much for your street cred but neither does having baby sick on your shirt!

[TheFiend]

How about a V50 D5?

[TonyS40R]

Thank you for your comments weston, I can see where you are coming from but I should of said, although I drive an A6 my partner at the moment drives a Peugeot 206 so an S40 would be quite a bit bigger for her anyway, as for me I also have a company car and the Audi was just a boy toy really but time to get sensible.
So the Volvo would really be for the girlfriend and as for the V50... We've looked at a couple and she feels that it's just 'to big' or it gives the impression of being much bigger with the longer roof lining.

If a D5 isn't available at the is the would the next one down be a D3.?



Tony

[iainmd]

My current car is a 3.0tdi Audi A6 which has 240bhp and is automatic... Hence why the D5 it tempting.

> The D5 or the newer D3/D4 would be the only diesel I would consider. The others are too Ford/Peugeot/Citroen for my liking. We have a 1.6D V50 and although it suffices it is unrefined and thirsty when compared to newer and better engines.

were the R designs highly Speced

> Not really. Many had flashy exteriors and little on the inside. Just check out the spec on each one you find and see if it matches your expectations. Watch out for the 2 tone upholstery with the cream centre panels if you have kids. They look great initially but they will look dreadful in no time as a mate of mine has it on his C30 and it looks terrible. It stains very easily even with water alone but his stained blue with wet jeans and just looks grubby despite his efforts to keep it clean. If you can find single tone dark upholstery it will stand the test of time better.

Do all S40 have Bluetooth & USB

> Only the newer ones have bluetooth beyond about 2009 and the addition of Bluetooth often meant you lost USB. Again, check any model you're looking at closely before buying if this is important to you.

Is the D5 worth holding out for over the 2.0

> In my opinion, without a doubt. Not much less frugal, a good deal more fun and a proper Volvo 5 pot engine.

Are the automatic gearboxes nice and smooth/quick/reliable

> Smooth, yes. Fun, not really. Other manufacturers give you a sport mode while Volvo give you a wet mode to make it less fun but behave better in wet and wintry conditions.

Can music be steamed via Bluetooth

> Can't say for sure as neither of our cars have Bluetooth.

How different are the stereo options

> Essentially there are 3 options:
Performance Audio - 6 speakers and OK. Better than the average car stereo but I found ours disappointing compared to the High Performance.
High Performance - 8 speakers and very good. Sound quality is lovely and separate, more powerful, amp in the boot. Front and rear equaliser and crisp lovely sound. I have that on the S40.
Premium Audio/Dynadio - 10 speakers and Dolby Pro-Logic. More powerful amp again and better speakers. The cream of the crop.
You'll know which one a car has by powering up the stereo and it will immediately flash up which system you have. If you just see a picture of a car on startup it is the base "Performance Audio" system.

Any common faults/problems to look out for

> My S40 T5 is 10 yrs old and with 103k miles. Until 2wks ago it had never cost me any more than £400 at service time and been very cost effective to service. At the recent one, unfortunately, a number of age-related things cropped up but nothing wildly unexpected.
Avoiding the 4 pot diesels keeps you away from the worst of the DPF issues as the D5's DPF is expected to last the lifetime of the vehicle and probably will unless you only do short journeys and town driving (in which case diesel is a bad choice nowadays).

Sorry for the ramble

> No problem. No ramble, just sensible questions ;-)

[mpt]

Agree with most of the comments on here.

If it must be a diesel I would do a D4/5, I think the D4 is a few lower tax brackets as well but I would get a manual as that at least would allow a little fun and it's a more modern engine design.

With kids and all the gumpf you will need, a saloon is a pain in the backside and i would really suggest avoiding it, the boots may be quite large but as others have said access into them is poor, our S60 has a huge boot but small opening so if we tend are going far we take the V50 despite the smaller size.

When we had our first kid 2 years ago, a V50 was ideal now with our second just around the corner we're looking at getting something a bit bigger like a V70.

The V50 is very easy to drive and park as the back windscreen is effectively the end of the car, the wife is really happy with it.

Common problems we've had are the alternator (seems to be quite a common problem with Volvo) and a sticking EGR valve otherwise it's been great.

Stereo wise if you can get the premium get that we have the Dolby in the S60 and it's superb better than one I had in a BMW coupe (H&K), the High performance in the 50 is a bit lacking in comparison

[iainmd]

the High performance in the 50 is a bit lacking in comparison

You should try the basic (performance) then ;-)

The performance system can be improved by adding rear door tweeters which I did to our V50 but it's still a good distance away from the high performance and, obviously as mpt states, the premium is the finest.

I would also echo the comments about V50 over S40. Since we have both and 2 children we're reasonably placed to pass comment. The S40 is fine for a weekend away now that we don't need a pushchair but not for any longer than that. The V50 can fit a pram, luggage for 4 for a week and doesn't actually seem that big to drive. It is, in essence, a posh Focus estate (duck for cover) and isn't a "big Volvo". My wife went from an Audi A2 to the V50 and has no problems with the length of the car and parking etc. Plus, it's a lot more convenient to fit a roofbox or bikes to an estate given that the rails exist already, you just need crossbars.

[SonyVaio]

Get the D5 in manual and you will be happy. Geartronic is okay but not really that good when compared to now modern equivalents.

Depending on how new you are going, if I were you I would narrow your search to D5, D4 & D3. High performance sound is good (more than adequate) but the Premium is a music lovers dream (as a standard fit anyway).

:star-wars-smiley-01

[TonyS40R]

This information is great guys.

Been looking again at the V50... Seems to be a couple more D5 ones available for some reason.

Should I be put off by high mileage (with a good service history of course) say 100k.?

[SonyVaio]

100k for a D5 is nothing at all, as long as there is service history to back it up.

:star-wars-smiley-01