2007 Volvo S40

Base Price $24,240.00
Top Speed mph (km/h) 140mph

The Volvo S40, V40 and V50 are compact near-luxury cars / small family cars produced by Volvo Cars. There have been two generations, the first launched in 1995 and the second one in 2004. First generation (1995-2004) The 1995 S40 sedan and V40 wagon were built in the Netherlands at the NedCar factory, a pre-Ford joint venture between Volvo and Mitsubishi Motors. It was based on common platform with Mitsubishi Carisma but did not sell as well. Despite the shared platform, they were not the same car. Of the 5,000 parts on the cars, 4,000 were unique to each. Of the remainder, 650 were produced by Volvo and 350 by Mitsubishi.

Volvo's traditional emphasis for safety and ergonomics were thus easily identifiable in these models too. In 2000 the 40 Series went through a facelift, and a number of technical improvements were simultaneosly introduced, such as increasing the size of brake discs, upgrading some suspension components and slight widening of the track width. These new specification 40 Series Volvos are often referred to as "Phase II" models. The 40 Series cars were equipped with a 1.9 L diesel or 1.6 L, 1.8 L or 2.0 L fuel-injected gasoline engines, not forgetting the sporty low (2.0T) and high (T4) pressure turbo variants on top of the motor range. The 1.9T was the only engine available in the United States.

In the UK trim levels were base, SE and CD. The 1.9 diesel was criticised by the motoring press as being stolid. First generation (2004-present) Introduced in the middle of the 2004 model year, the second generation S40 introduced a new design based on the Volvo P1 platform built at the Volvo Cars factory in Ghent, Belgium. At the same time, the V40 was replaced by the V50 wagon, also based on the P1 platform and built in Ghent. The S40 was nominated for the World Car of the Year award for 2005 and won the Canadian Car of the Year Best New Sport Compact award for 2005.

It has also been elected the South African Car of the Year for 2005 by the South African Guild of Motoring Jounalists. The S40 T5 (one of the several variants of the S40) features a 2.5 L (2521 cc) five-cylinder fuel injected engine with a light-pressure turbocharger. The valvetrain has four valves per cylinder and is a DOHC design. The engine is transversely mounted at the front of the vehicle and drives the front wheels.