Home » Car Reviews » Volvo » 2004 » 2004 Volvo S40 Compact Near Luxury Sedan
2004 Volvo S40 Compact Near Luxury Sedan
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The center-stack panel is the perfect place to start making a Volvo S40 unique. The panels come in brushed aluminum, iMac see-through plastic in a variety of colors, and who knows what else the aftermarket will come up with. It could be anything -- but please SEMA, no Christmas Tree motifs.
The interior is roomy. Volvo made the new S40 both longer and wider, because Americans are both longer and wider. It has a split-folding rear bench seat that makes it possible to carry odd size or larger items when needed.
The seats are comfortable. They hold you in place on twisty roads and feel good on long drives. And their design is attractive. We still want them to take the Swedish furniture design theme further with the seating surfaces though.
Performance
The S40 comes standard with a 2.4-liter, inline 5-cylinder engine, with 4-valves per cylinder. The engine puts out 168-horsepower at 6,000 rpm, with 166 lb.-ft. torque at 4,400 rpm.
The optional T5 is a turbocharged, 2.5-liter, inline 5-cylinder engine, with 4 valves per cylinder. The engine puts out 218-horsepower at 5,000 rpm, with 236 lb.-ft. torque between 1,500 and 4,800 rpm.
The T5 is the engine to purchase for the S40. The manual goes from 0 to 60 in 6.3 seconds, comparable to a BMW 3 Series or an Audi A4. If you want one of these cars with an automatic transmission, buy the T5. Otherwise you won’t have enough power to get out of your own way, let alone someone else’s. The automatic T5 goes from 0 to 60 in 6.7 seconds, whereas the 2.4i does it in 8.4 seconds. That’s a big difference when you are trying to merge onto a highway, or trying to pass another vehicle.
The T5’s acceleration was a lot of fun with the 6-speed manual transmission. It’s the same transmission as in the Volvo S60R, their high-performance sedan. The 2.4 S40 has a 5-speed manual transmission. There is also a 4-speed automatic. But we don’t recommend it, unless it is on the T5.
Ride and Handling
We drove the S40 on some of our most familiar test drive routes in the counties north of Los Angeles. This was a good test with twisting, mountain roads running from sea level to around 6,000 feet.
The handling is much better than that of the previous version. It is much closer to a BMW, or an Audi. The ride quality is balanced to comfort, so passengers can enjoy a mountain road as well. And if passengers are comfortable on mountain roads, everyone is happy on the highway.
We look forward to testing an R version of the S40, if it is ever produced. As in that case, we expect to drive a Volvo that is about as nimble on the road as a BMW.
Safety
It’s a Volvo, so safety is important. As usual Volvo packs their car with standard safety features including 4-wheel antilock disc brakes, driver and front-passenger side-impact airbags, seatbelt pretensioners, crush zones, head curtains for four, and both stability and traction control. As an option you can get Volvo’s Dynamic Stability and Traction Control System.
The engine is very streamlined. This allows more room between the engine and the passenger compartment. This open space enables the crumple zones in the frame to deform properly, rather than being contorted by the mass of the engine.
The Volvo Intelligent Driver Information System, introduced in the S40, provides data in a less obtrusive manner. If the driver is braking or accelerating the data is delayed until it is safe to display it. It is inspired by fighter aircraft technology.
