RE: Shed Of The Week: Volvo V40 T4
Discussion
Fair to say the dealer has a wide selection of motors. From a sub £500 Jag to a £145K Merc G-Class. All photos consistently taken against the white wall with an obligatory blurry interior shot. You've got to give credit to someone who markets a banger with the same level of detail he markets a car worth 29,000% more.
Toyoda said:
You've got to give credit to someone who markets a banger with the same level of detail he markets a car worth 29,000% more.
Agreed. Just because I don't have £50k to spend, doesn't mean I want to be treated like a second-class citizen when buying a car.Fair play to the dealer for putting in the effort.
Though he loses some "good dealer" points for writing the advert in UPPERCASE THROUGHOUT. That sort of thing sets my teeth on edge.
The Don of Croy said:
Great shed!
Having clicked on the link above for the manic Swede evidence, it lead me to this example (who knew speedo needles kept going?);
I lol'dHaving clicked on the link above for the manic Swede evidence, it lead me to this example (who knew speedo needles kept going?);
Officer: 'Sir, have you ANY idea how fast you were going?'
Swedish mentalist: 'Honestly officer, I have no idea, but I am guessing it was some way north of 300 kph'
Beautiful.
I too have owned one of these of a 2001 vintage - I put 40k miles on in 2 years & other than a caliper & normal servicing/tyres, it was a cheap car to run. Also good in the depths of the cold 2010 winter at -10C consistently. Not surprisingly, it sold straight away for £1200 with 145k miles on back in 2012 to a PHer. I knew it was likely to be a good car given the amount of S/H & the National Trust sticker in the back 
Crazy Don said:
Back in '95 was the owner of a lovely 850 estate took it in for a service. Dealer offered me a T4 as a loan car. On a quick run to from Southampton to Bournemouth verified the top speed but also verified the lack of handling and roadholding. No comparison to the 850.
I had an 850 T5, so it handled worse than them, bloody hell !My Dad had an S40 version of this (same spec, colour and wheels too!) from new back in 1998 - kept it for 8 years and over 120k miles - never let him down once. According to the DVLA MOT check it made it past 180k miles which is pretty good going, especially bearing in mind the thrashing it received on road and track by a petrol-headed teenager all those years ago! Didn't offer the same level of handling as, say, a 3 series would, but then it was considerably more comfortable as a daily family car and offered far more performance/£.
Great shed.
Great shed.
SirSamuelBuca said:
am i right in thinking these t4 engine can be tuned really high bhp quite easily? sure there was a build in readers cars years ago and it was like 500 bhp lol
Not sure about easily, the 500 bhp ones wotn be simple, but guessign here, 300 might be doable fairly cheaply, i suspect the remappers might have to dust that map off though.My old man bought one of these when I was a nipper, it had BBS wheels and everything! Great cars these, we had loads of fun in ours. Its status in family folklore was cemented when my mum drove it for the first time and nearly torque-steered it into a wall. She refused to drive it again! ahh happy days
I've got one that was kindly given to me a 2 years ago by a friend who couldn't drive any more. I honestly didn't want it but it had only done 25,000 miles in 14 years and other than a few parking dents was like new. I hated the torque steer (a 305 bhp Cadillac doesn't have that so why a 200 bhp Volvo) but now don't floor it in the lower gears. It's a great motorway cruiser and 35 mpg on V power. Great fun holding back BM's and Audi's as the outside lane clears and then flooring it (I imagine!). Engineering quality of this Volvo is also nice to discover.
Werent these a based on the Mitsubishia Carisma ?
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Yes, I believe they were. I drove a few V40s when they were new (only the cooking models) and thought they were terrible; over assisted steering which was devoid of any feel, cramped interior and very expensive for what they were. The s40/v40 models which followed were much better.
Can't complain at that price though!
Agreed, always liked the idea of one of these as a sort of 'melt in to the scenery / melt tyres' kind of daily driver but they always stuck me as a little 'softer' than the likes of an 850 or V70 Classic. Softer as in, not as well engineered or as robust and hence I've stuck to the 5 cylinder stuff but I'd happily take this at £690.00 if the situation dictated. The pre-facelift ones even look quite retro in a non-descript way. Quite like the wheels too.
Good effort.
Good effort.
J4CKO said:
Werent these a based on the Mitsubishia Carisma ?
They were indeed, a truly awful car. But not as bad as their lesser known sibling, the Proton Impian! At least the Volvo version was a little better (but not 'brilliant' by any stretch). All three were made in Holland by Nedcars. The factory used to be DAF, and is now BMW/Mini. Who knew!drgoatboy said:
Good shed, always liked the bland looks and performance combo of these. however looked at buying one a few years back and it felt rather slower than the numbers would suggest and I walked away feeling a bit disappointed. Maybe it was a bad one or maybe sense of speed was diminished by the comfort of the thing...
Either way at that price whats not to like!!
Drove one of these many years ago (when they were "not quite new" - car I drove was ~4-5y.o. I think)...and it wasn't great. Walked away feeling thoroughly underwhelmed.Either way at that price whats not to like!!
Engine was keen enough, but the car just felt soft all round - handling best described as 'baggy', and pedals that clearly had cotton-wool somewhere in the mechanism - as above, soft throttle response does a good job in disguising 200bhp.
Think I ended up with a Mk1 Focus TDCi Sport, which was slower but so much more engaging / responsive.
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