It's an old mans car; like every other volvo. Spend your cash on a gti, type r or st instead.

erm, these are not cool, a bit chav maybe, but not cool by any means.

Well said, chap.

Volvo are an odd company when it comes to cool, they were so staid that when the T5 first came out it was like an accountant having a mid-life crisis. Those yellow estates were sold off the back of touring car performances, police cars and generally being a bit mental.

The funny thing is that this particular Swedish accountant has, like many Scandinavians, the schizophrenic outlook of a conservative viking metalhead. From the early days of rallying their nice saloons down mountainsides, through the 900 and 480 turbos and on to the original T5's they've always had a left field thing going on despite the sobriety of their other cars.

For the above reasons I'll always have a soft spot for Volvo, though if I ever buy one I may have to buy a dull grey suit and cut my hair in to a combover - If only so I can open the window and have the combover rise in to the air as I burn off some chav at the lights.

Define "Cool" though?

As above, to the untrained eye/uncouth it may be an "old-mans car", until it shows them a clean pair of heels. Or the stereo drowns out the tinny aftermarket affair from a Halfords clearance sale. I think it is a PH rule that "sleepers" are cool.

Although I've spent most of the last 8 years in D5 Volvos of various flavours, I have driven the S40, S60 and V70 T5s at various points, and can't add much more than what has already been said. Solid, rapid, comfortable, practical, well designed and rapid. Again.
I've done over 250,000 miles in that time, and besides routine maintenance I've had a wiper motor failure, a minor ECU fault, a snapped seat rail and a loose brake disc cover. Maybe a few other problems, but I'm genuinely struggling to remember anything more significant. Running costs have been nothing out of the ordinary - although most have been company cars, I have seen the servicing bills, and my current XC90 has been no more pricey to run than a typical mid-range family car.

The only thing I would be wary of is front tyre wear - it is a big heavy lump driving the front wheels with vigour after all, and in the case of my D5 variants, the turning circle is nothing impressive due to the width of the engine block.

But try one for yourself, and make your own mind up. I doubt you will be disappointed.

I'm 24 and have a V40 T4 estate, it is honestly the business.

Nice and fast, heated seats are great in the winter, good stereo with a factory fitted sub in the boot!



My 20 year old brother has just bought this T4 on the back of how good mine is and he loves it.



I used to have a WRX impreza, but would rather have a fast Volvo anyday, cheap insurance and does 30-40 MPG when no booting it

A man after my own heart.

Get it because YOU want it.

That's precisely it for me. Cool is not people swooning the first time you roll up in your new flash motor. Cool is when 2 or 3 months down the line people realise that your left field choice of car, that they would never have even considered, is better than theirs in nearly every respect.

I'm 18 and drive an A4 1.8T S-Line saloon. While the mates take the piss for having a 'family car', once you're 5 up bombing along at 120mph with ease, it suddenly becomes a very cool car compared to the 1.0 st boxes they drive that struggle to hit 90.