Reviews and Road Tests
Swedespeed Short Drive: 2010 Volvo S40 2.4i
By by Stu Fowle, Photos by the Author
Mar 9, 2010, 07:32

If Volvo’s new-for-2011 cars, the S60, the C30, and the C70, are any indicator, an era is ending. There won’t be any more clean, simple, understated Volvo sedans, making the current S40 and the larger S80 the two last members of a beautiful but dying breed. We recently spent a few days with a 2010 S40 2.4i, knowing they could be our last.

A sign of the design theme’s longevity, the current S40 was actually the result of Peter Horbury’s 1998 S80 sedan being downsized into the S60 a few years later, then finally downsized again for the S40 in late 2003. It has soldiered on since then, albeit with a slight refresh two years ago to modernize the headlights and taillights. And it still looks contemporary, all these years later. Park it next to other small cars from 2003—Mazda’s S40 twin, the Mazda3, included—and the Volvo is one of the few of the bunch that looks ready to compete for a few years to come, which is good, because a replacement has yet to be announced and Volvo has more pressing updates, like the S60 and XC90, to deal with.



Inside, it’s much the same. There’s nothing outdated about the S40’s dash, which flows elegantly into a floating center stack that could be likened to a waterfall pouring down. Even with some early models we’ve seen, the interiors even hold up well to wear and tear, so long as you don’t have stain-prone light colored cloth. If one thing could be updated, it’d be the car’s gauges and lighting, which are boring when compared to some fresher vehicles on sale today. We’re happy to see in some of the company’s more recent products that there’s a move coming to get away from Volvo’s pea-soup backlighting color.

Just as market demands are pushing Volvo toward more flamboyant styling, they also aren’t helping a case for the company’s current range of five-cylinders. Somewhat in normally aspirated form, but more so with a turbocharger bolted on, Volvo’s inline-fives have built a loyal and enthusiastic following for their reliability, tune-ability, and the cool noises they make. But unless they find new life with technology like direct fuel injection, both of the S40’s available engines have fallen well behind the industry standard for fuel economy and horsepower per liter of displacement. Expect Volvo’s just-debuted turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four to take the reigns when the next S40 comes along. We won’t even start in on Volvo’s great European diesels, which might never come to the US at the rate we hear things are moving on that mission inside Volvo.



No, the 2.4-liter five-cylinder in our S40 test car isn’t fast, but it’s adequate, and 31 mpg on the highway isn’t bad. We love the way the engine revs, how smooth it is, and the bubbly sound waves it puts out. The car’s steering and suspension might be a bit too soft, but Volvos have never exactly been BMWs. For what the car is meant to be, it’s perfect. The relaxed nature of all of its controls actually meshes well with its easy-going styling.

Of course, maybe we’ll be wrong about all of this. Peter Horbury, who led Volvo design up until just a few years ago, has come back to reclaim his job from Steve Mattin, the man responsible for the curves and big faces of the XC60 and 2011 S60. And Volvo itself it teetering on the brink of being sold by Ford to Chinese car builder Geely. If the chips land in the right place, maybe we’ll see a simple, elegant new S40 on sale in the US with a five-cylinder diesel within the next few years. But it’s just as likely that we’ll start seeing vehicles that don’t resemble these Volvos we know an love at all.

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