Volvo S40 T5 Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: Volvo S40 T5
Prices: £22,335-£23,635 – on the road
Insurance Group: 15
Emissions: 208g/km
Performance: Max Speed 149mph / 0-60mph 6.3s
Fuel Consumption: (combined) 32.5mpg
Safety: Twin front and curtain airbags, WHIPS seats, side impact protection system
Dimensions: Length/Width/Height, 4468/1770/1452mm

SAFE CRACKER?

Our Rating: 6.9 / 10

Volvo’s latest S40 T5 offers a swift, stylish and safe alternative to mainstream Compact Executive saloons. By Andy Enright

The Volvo S40 T5 sounds like a surefire winner. Marry Swedish build quality and subtle design with the promise of serious performance and market it at a price well below the mainstream luxury marques and you have a certain recipe for success. Small Volvos have long been popular in the UK from the Dutch built 340 models through to the uninspiring but popular previous generation S40. The latest model is a good deal slicker thanks to recent revisions and the T5 variant we look at here is the performance flagship.

It hasn’t set an easy task for itself. Although its bigger brother the S60 goes head to head with cars like the BMW 3 Series, the Audi A4, the Jaguar X-TYPE and the Mercedes C-Class, the S40 T5 sits in a sub-niche that’s a whole lot more difficult to classify. Whilst the ‘cooking’ versions of the S40 compete with cars like the Volkswagen Jetta and the SEAT Toledo, this £22,335 sporting version competes pricewise against mid-range models of the premium marques. Although this section of the market has been proved time and again to be a dead end, Volvo are gamely trying again.

The T5 certainly has the power to make an impression. Thanks to recent revisions, there’s now 230bhp (10bhp more) from the turbocharged in-line five-cylinder engine and it’s difficult to find a challenger to compete with it at this sort of price. What’s more, it’s not as if Volvo have merely planted a big engine in a rep-spec car. Sit inside the S40 and it feels at least on par with a Mercedes in terms of interior fit and finish. So where’s the catch? Shouldn’t the T5, despite its somewhat ambiguous market positioning, be a guaranteed sales success? In short, no.

The key issue with the S40 T5 is that other S40 models make a whole lot more sense. Yes, it would be worth the premium for the added asking price and running costs of the T5 if it offered entertainment by the bucketload but it’s immediately apparent within a few yards of moving off that the T5 is more high-speed smoothie than all-out funster. The on-paper performance data are mightily impressive; the 149mph top speed and the 6.3 second sprint to 60mph being figures that far pricier offerings from the prestige German manufacturers are quite unable to match. When it comes to showroom appeal, the S40 T5 may well gain a few conquest sales.

More demanding customers who insist on a longer road test may well be less convinced. Both power and torque curves fall away dramatically beyond 5,000rpm which means that you won’t get too much benefit beyond a slightly raucous engine note by really extending the car. Its best work is done between 3 and 4,000rpm where its mid range punch makes it a devastatingly effective overtaking weapon. Below or above this relatively narrow band, however, the T5 feels weak and the throttle pedal feels disappointingly vague. The brakes, whilst undeniably strong at first, also feel a little spongy and several high speed stops overwhelmed their retarding power noticeably.

Drive the car about in a relaxed fashion and it feels fine. Ask a little more of it and it feels a little unconvincing. The same goes for the handling. Safe and secure is the byword here, with a stability control system that can be disengaged but automatically re-enters the fray if you really get out of shape. The steering feels pleasantly direct when cruising but when cornering hard it lacks feedback, the same going for the car’s overall body control. Grip is very impressive but in wet conditions the effect of that large engine thrown out ahead of the front axle will result in mild, if safe, understeer.

Drive the T5 hard then and it raises more questions than it answers. It will also consume fuel at a determined rate, certainly nowhere near the 32.5mpg combined figure Volvo quote. Compensation is offered in the case of a CO2 emissions showing of 208g/km which makes it one of the cleanest cars in its class and also an insurance rating of Group 15. If the T5 is impressive when cruising but less so when charging, why not save the expense and just opt for a lesser S40 model that may not have quite so much power but won’t lack its poise in quite such a ready manner? It’s an apposite question and it’s hard to find many justifications for the turbocharged T5.

Volvo has made some small incremental improvements to the