Over the years this writer has established something of a ‘short list’ of really desirable cars to own. Built-in safety features most highly in the regular reports that appear, because – although the personal transport features three classic cars with very little of the normal safety delights – it is appreciated that most owners take for granted that the cars they own are as safe as modern engineering can, within certain financial constraints, produce.
Obvious, as it is to many who watch various motor sports events, that if money were no object, every family car could be as safe as a formula 1 race car, or a World Rally car. Sadly, the reality is that the cost of reaching this degree of safety would plunge potential buyers into spending hundreds of thousands of euros. Use the Bugatti or Maclaren as examples of really safe, high-cost motors.
Having made the point, let us compromise a little and talk about the test Volvo. Volvo have for many years manufactured normal vehicles for a public that often lives and drives in the most hazardous and terrifying conditions in Northern Europe, Canada and a host of other countries that would scare the living daylights out of our happy-go-lucky Maltese motoring public.
The V40 has profiles that must make many competitors wish they had the where-with-all to produce such good-looking, aggressive in all the right places, body shells that would make the normal owner drool every time the car was approached. The rear end with the seriously darkened rear screen puts this family-sized hatchback into a class of its own. The boot lid opens to reveal a splendid area, even with the rear seats in place. There is no compromise here; family luggage can be easily accommodated for continental holidays, let alone the family shopping trips.
The side profile is finely sculpted and the four doors can all be accessed with the greatest ease. Look closely and the rear doors have a subtle hook that floats back into the 1960s and the classic P1800 coupe that featured, if memory serves me well, in The Saint series featuring a young Sir Roger Moore.
The front end reminds this writer of an angry looking polar bear: ‘Don’t mess with me brother’. It starts with the elongated air-scoop stretches upward to the radiator mesh and then the long, slanted headlight clusters steeply sloping windscreen and pugnacious looking outside mirrors.
For most motorists the fleeting glimpse of the front-end will then highlight the rear with its twin sporty exhausts as the V40 thrums its way into the distance. The occupants of the V40 will be most comfortably seated in heavily cosseted comfort. After all, Volvo was the first manufacturer to employ lumbar surgeons to design, prior to construction, the ‘properly’ manufactured front seats, and this becomes apparent as the driver gets absolutely set up for an exacting test drive.
I have a personal fad and that’s to see as much of the bonnet as possible for it has to be born in mind that in a couple of hours of test driving an invisible bonnet gives no idea where the front of the car is. Obviously, once the car has become part of the furniture, the front will be gauged with great accuracy and there will not be a need to jack the driver’s perch as high as possible to get the bonnet profile within sight.
Having said that, the car is easy to drive most satisfyingly well. We had a manual six-speed version and, in all honesty, with the traffic on our roads, too much time was spent in second and third gears. Obviously, as we approached the magic 80km/h fourth and fifth were used and it became apparent that sixth would answer most satisfyingly well as a sensible overdrive, maintaining speed comfortably and tackling inclines with aplomb. We also spent serious time in the narrow streets of Dingli and Rabat and were more than content with the effortless way the Volvo coped with horrible little roads.
Volvo have always led the way when safety is the measure, and we were particularly taken with the pedestrian airbag that may be specified to complement the excellent array of internal airbags, super-fast safety belts and a dynamic chassis that has been developed over many, many thousands of serious kilometres. Most of us are totally familiar with traction control, but the V40 goes one better and provides corner traction control as standard. It’s a torque monitoring system that helps to stop understeer at that moment when you’ve turned the wheel and the front end skates sublimely onwards, often planting the driver in the shrubbery. Obviously, with this corner traction control, cornering can be even more fun.
This Volvo is safe and strong, as strong as Volvo founders in 1927 Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson decreed that their cars should be in order that they would cope with the incredibly rough Swedish roads of the 1920s. In fact when this writer took interest in cars in the early 1950s Volvos were still built to last for very long periods in atrocious conditions, and grace and beauty only became apparent in the 1960s with the advent of the P1800 Coupe, one of which still resides in Malta in the hands of its original owner.
Volvo have developed what they call IntelliSafe, a whole raft of technologies to support the daily drive protecting in case of an accident and often preventing the collision in the first place: city safety, collision warning with full auto brake, pedestrian detection as well as cyclist detection.
Obviously, all the other expected aids to help keep the car on the road at unexpected moments are in place which goes a long way to explaining why the Volvo V40 achieved a 5-star Euro NCAP rating as well as the Euro NCAP Best in class award in 2012.
This is a serious contender no matter what the potential owner’s requirements are.
A closer look at the engine is essential because this D2 is a 1.6 litre common-rail- turbo diesel. We had a six-speed manual on test which is the envy of many manufacturers as the combined fuel cycle works out at a miserly 3.4-3.9 litres per hundred kilometres and the emissions vary between 88/102 gms for every kilometre covered. She puts out 115 bhp at 3,600 rpm and the pulling power sits at 270Nm from 1750-2500 rpm.
This will allow the driver to reach 100kph in a reasonable 11.9 seconds and the car pulls 190kmh before acceleration fades. If you wish to accelerate more and go faster, buy the D4 2 litre which reaches 230kph and can reach 10kph in only 7.2 seconds. The choice is yours.
Although Volvo describe the car as a small family hatchback, she will require a garage over 4,3699mm in length and over 2,041mm of width as the outside mirrors are somewhat large, the body only being 1,783mm wide.