2000-2004 Volvo V40

Your college-bound child needs a car or you need a nice, near-luxury compact hauler.

Is there a car in this picture? Where is it? Where's the Waldo-Volvo!

If your kid is on their way to educating their liver, also referred as college, they need a nice, safe car that they can haul all of the stuff they need for their dorm room in. Or maybe you’d wisely like to take advantage of steep depreciation on a compact wagon that you can haul your small to medium-sized dogs around in; something that’s safe, has a bit of luxury, isn’t ostentatious in any way and oriented towards safety.

I’ve got a car for you; the first-generation V40. Exactly like the S40 sedan, it offers utility that many sport-utes can’t while maintaining a lower center of gravity and the accompanying more predictable handling, which is quite good for a FWD, just over 3000 pound vehicle.

In 1995, Volvo started selling the S40 and V40 compact sedan and wagon overseas. It took them five years to bring it to the States. The target audience was Generation X, who apparently didn’t need a lot of cargo space but did like the $25K base MSRP, which undercut just about every other European wagon available on the market here (more on that at a later date).

Famed Volvo hotrod shop TWR set up the suspension, but don’t get too excited; these are nowhere near as balanced as the contemporary BMW 3-series wagon (see recent articles on the subject). While the ride and handling definitely have a European flavor, you won’t be tearing up the apexs. Power from the turbocharged 1.9 four-cylinder, which is a revolution of what you could get in the old 960 minus a cylinder or two, was nothing to write home about, with 160 hp and 170 torques. Still, if you’re in the city bopping around, the 0-60 in the eight and a half range isn’t terrible.

The interior is pretty much the same as the larger contemporary Volvo S60 sedan and V70 wagon. If you’re used to sitting in a car from the Swedish “I go!” company, then you’ll feel right at home. In fact, the entire driving experience is very familiar, which is weird because the first gen S40 and V40 are based on the Mitsubishi Carisma and Proton Waja platform. Both of those cars are considered large family cars overseas and you could even buy a crossover with that platform, the Mitsubishi Space Star. All of them were built at the same plant in the Netherlands and none were huge sellers. While all of the models combined for decent sales numbers worldwide (most likely in the 1-2 million sold range), they never sold in Toyota numbers. The best sales year for the V40 in the States was

You could get a 4-speed automatic or…an automatic. Only one transmission was ever offered here, the well known, sturdy and trouble-free Toyota-owned, Japanese-made, Aisin AW50-42LE, which was offered elsewhere in the Volvo line too. In 2001, the transmission was upgraded to the Aisin five-speed AW55-5X, another transmission that was used in an awesome array of cars from a wide variety of makers. I think it’s worth it to try to focus on a V40 with this transmission because it’s slightly more comfortable on the freeway and maybe a tiny bit more efficient.

Despite some shortcomings, these are quite well made vehicles, with a very reasonable long range ownership prognosis. Maintaining one is pretty easy and parts are fairly easily obtained. There are performance upgrades available, but unlike the turbo 5-cylinder Volvos, it’s a bit more work for less gain. If you want to boost power over 200 hp, you’re looking at reflashing the ECU and better breathing. That’s no surprise, but what is that there aren’t a lot of sources to obtain upgrades from. As always, online forums contain all of the information leads you’ll need. But the V40 isn’t really the vehicle you want if you’re looking for more performance anyway. It’s just best to leave this one stock and enjoy it for what it is. MPG is rated at 19/27ish.

The exterior design is, well, boring. It’s a smooth two-box design that will excite nobody. But that’s a good thing if you’re trying to fly under the radar. Buy a silver one and you’ll be practically invisible.

Back to the minimal cargo room; how small is it? Well, that depends on your expectations and how you’re using it. If you need to haul long, thin objects, the folding all of the seats down (for 68.1 cubic feet), including the front passenger, will allow you to haul an amazing bit of junk. But the 33.5 feet of cargo space with all of the seats in place is still less than the contemporary Subaru Outback wagon, which had 34.3; instead of a backpack, it’s more of a fanny-pack slung behind you.

Surprisingly, the rear bumper is quite high. As I’ve written many times before, that’s a real concern for me and might even prevent me from buying a V40. The V50 is a bit better, which I’d plump for instead. Rear leg room in the V40 is an absolutely pathetic 32.7 inches. That’s awful; forget carrying passengers back there. What were they thinking; a Ford Focus SVT hatchback has nearly half a foot more rear leg room!

There’s a real deal to be had on one of these bite-sized Swedish meatballs; KBB private party with a leather interior values range from $2 for a 2000 all the way up to $3.5K for a loaded 2004 LSE. Winter beater and bargain shopper alert! There are a lot of these on the market, so you’ll have your pick of the litter.

The first generation S40 sedan and V40 wagon were replaced by the superior in every measure P1/C1-based S40 and mystifyingly renamed V50.