S40 (New) General : New proud owner with Q's/ S40 inside

[Guru]

I'm delighted to have found this wonderful forum, i've been reading through this section for days now, and many of my question have already been answers, I'm also happy to have found "you" due to the vast distance between me and the nearest authorized Volvo service.

As an introduction, I live in Slovakia, I bought a used 04/2004 Volvo S40 with a 2.0D 136bph EURO3 engine D4204T with 51000km / 32000miles on the clock, the car seems and feels to be in mint condition, it has been imported from Italy to Slovakia by a local used car dealer, this is very common nowadays btw due to lower prices of imports and their better condition, coz slovakian winters in combination with road quality are guaranteed to put every car to it's knees in a matter of a couple of years.

It's a light silver metalic with 16" wheels, cruise control, trip computer and electric side mirrors ;-) no sunroof though :-(

I wanted to post my own pics but it hasn't stopped snowing here for 3days now, so here are the ones taken by the dealer while still in the garage put up for sale before i fell in love with it and picked it up for 11000€: http://iframe.autovia.sk/gallery.php...118&image_id=0

After reading so many threads about this engine, some other Q's came to mind... so if you can please help me sort some things out, i'd be very greatful.

1/ Do all authorized Volvo garages have access to a central database where all repairs of such volvo cars have been logged? meaning if i make a trip to my local Volvo service station here in Slovakia, and hand them the VIN, will they be able to show me the whole history of the car even though it was bought and driven in Italy since birth until 12/2008? i have a service booklet with two stamps showing that the car was serviced at 19K and 47K km but nothing of what was done/repaired.

2/ How do i find out which Volvo software version is installed? Or how do i find out if it has ever been updated? by myself of course..., and what is the latest compatible version?

3/ I've read about the problems the EGR valve causes, how do i find out if mine has already been changed/repaired? by myself again..

3/ What are the repairs that can be done selfservice style? can i, for example, change the oil, all filter types...ect. without the sensors protesting and generating error codes? /I know about reseting the servise interval reminder with the key, but would not like to get the car in limb mode just because of an innocent air filter change for example/
** just a coment about the pollen filter, you guys on the right are lucky, did you know that, among other things, i have to dismantle the accelerator pedal in order to get to my cabin filter with the steering on the left!

4/ With a 1.5 ton car with only a 52liter tank, i find it annoying to have a 7.5liter/100km fuel consumption "combined M way/urban". Is that figure Ok for a euro3?

5/ Why does the trip computer show me the highest instant fuel consumption
when in 6th gear? the best figure i get on the display is in 5th on 2000rpm, changing to 6th on a straight road with 1400rpm yields a 10-11 liter/100km instant consumption. Shifting back to 5th which increases the rpm again to 2000rpm yields, according to trip comp, a better fuel economy, i.e 5-6L/100km.

6/ Is there anyway i can stop the car from locking me in as soon as i start moving? i keep forgetting that the doors are locked and i know that one day i'll break the door handle.

Sorry for such a long post, i promise i'll improve and will not talk so much in the future, it's my first Volvo u c, and i'm loving it unconditionally, but trying to understand it more, that's all.
Thanks you in advance. ;-)