Volvo S40 - Are they good?

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

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I am looking for my first car, never needed one before but i think it's about time and i could do with one now. Came across these on Autotrader, private seller, £650. Just want something that goes from A-B and these seems REALLY good value, certainly seems to get more money for the bucks than some tiny hatchback for the same money.

mediarz5.jpg


http://search.autotrader.co.uk/es-u...VO&model=&min_pr=500&max_pr=1000&max_mileage=


Or is my logic completely flawed?
 
Crap in what way ?

I am not looking to hit 60 in 5 seconds, nor is looking to corner like a Scooby. A-B and reliablity is the top of my list.
 
That looks ok for the money, i heard that parts can be expensive a bit for volvo but for A to B car its alright.
 
I'm sorry but that simply isn't true. It's less of a concern at £650 but the 96-00 S40's were NOT generally well built at all, infact on the contrary the build quality was poor at best and reliability so-so.

They are not good cars by any stretch of the imagination and until recently were to be avoided at all costs. It just so happens that they've depreciated to ridiculously low prices meaning as rubbish as they are, they are less rubbish than other 500 quid cars.

T4 wasnt bad, though.
 
They are very well built although the first two years suffered with some electrical gremlins and trim rattle problems, these were ironed out by the end of 98 though. They are very easy to work on(designed with the person working on it in mind not just cost, i've worked on lots of cars and have a good comparison base) dont suffer to many problems, suspension bushes are the one downfall really but they dont normally go until 100k+ and even then not all of them wear the same. The bodies are very good and even early cars still seem to be holding rust at bay 11-12yrs down the line.

I had a T4 which my dad drives now and pretty much hammered it everywhere for 30k miles(its at 105k now) and it never let me down at all. I did replace the antiroll bar drop links on the rear along with the two top arms but that was to expected the way I drove it really. My dad likes it that mcuh hes loathered to sell it(for what hed get for it) as its still a really nice tight drive. He did have a phase 2 1.6 S40 before and that was dog slow and ony bought as it was the right price from the auction but again it never let him down and looked reasonbly smart. The one down fall with the non turbo cars is they are a little under powered and dull to drive but the 2.0 is the best of these.

The s/v40 comes out near the top of warranty directs top 100 cars with 15th position. http://www.reliabilityindex.co.uk/tophundred.html?apc=3128339010848601.
 
[TW]Fox;12094332 said:
I'm sorry but that simply isn't true. It's less of a concern at £650 but the 96-00 S40's were NOT generally well built at all, infact on the contrary the build quality was poor at best and reliability so-so.

They are not good cars by any stretch of the imagination and until recently were to be avoided at all costs. It just so happens that they've depreciated to ridiculously low prices meaning as rubbish as they are, they are less rubbish than other 500 quid cars.

T4 wasnt bad, though.
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They weren't up to Volvo standards but they certainly weren't terrible - the build quality and reliability of them in my experience is good but not special. At this price point they're pretty good and a solid alternative to cars like Mondeos and Primeras. They're good cheap comfy cars that are ok at what they're aimed at - I'd agree in that "why buy average when you can buy awesome", but they're the equal of most cheap things on the road.

They're decent cars and well worth considering (though the 1.8 was underpowered and I think the '96 ones had teething problems?), but there's a lot of big cars that aren't worth a lot anymore, so stuff like Vauxhall Omegas, Mondeos, Primeras are all worth thinking about too.
 
The problem with these cars on here is that people think they were built to compete with the Mondeo, vectra, primera etc. They weren't Volvo had in mind that these cars were going to go head to head with the BMW 3 series and the Audi A4, the problem was like the Audi A4 they arent a patch of the same era three series and IMO they are equally as good as the A4 but suffer from the fact Volvo had the totally wrong image for that market. They are a level above mondeos etc just look at where they were priced, it makes them especially good value second hand. While I had my 99 T4 a guy at work bought a 06 Titanium focus and the interior in my car although 7 yrs old blew the ford out of the water with all its hard black silver plastics everywhere, the focus didnt even have climate control which was standard on all Volvo SEs from 97/98 onwards.
 
I had an s40 for 2 years ragged the crap out of it and it never missed a beat all ti cost was tyres

was a great car
 
there's a 1999 1.8 for sale down the road with 6,000 miles on the clock.
it's an absolute bargain, but i chose not to get it as i can't imagine it to be a particularly exciting drive.

if you want nothing more from a car than to get you from A to B, then go for it. For £600 you can't really go wrong, especially as this one has a very good spec (leather, heated seats, etc), altho i'm not sure why they've blanked out the radio in one of the pictures..
 
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