Another Look

2006 Volvo S40 T5 AWD: Running with the big dogs

I love being wrong.

It’s not that I’m a masochist. It’s just that it happens so rarely, I revel in the novelty of it all. Like a solar eclipse, it would become bothersome were it to be a regular occurrence, but because of its infrequency, it is quite an attraction. So let me now say those words unlikely to be repeated – or necessary – for a generation or more:

I was wrong.

The last time I drove the Volvo S40, shortly after the second generation of the smallest Volvo on US shores came out, I wasn’t impressed. Actually, I was downright cranky. I did not then think the S40 could become what Volvo needed: a bona fide contender in the entry level luxury Euro sport sedan category.

Thank God I’m such a wonderful individual I always keep an open mind, because the sound you hear is my mind changing. (No, not that sound. That’s a whoopee cushion. I hope.)

The 2006 Volvo S40 T5 AWD sedan very definitely establishes Volvo as a competitor in this marketplace. Even better, it comes in at a price that will save more than a few dollars over much of its competition.

The S40 comes in a variety of trim and performance levels, starting with the base S40 2.4i, which has a MSRP of $23,755. The T5 starts at $26,615 and my T5 AWD (all-wheel-drive) begins at $28,390. Destination for any of them is $695, and Volvo estimates that you can actually get the S40 up to just over $40,000. I’m not sure what incredibly extravagant options you’d need to get the price up that high, because my well-equipped S40 came in at $33,720 including destination.

The only obviously missing options on mine were a navigation system and a moonroof, but for the price, I got a boatload of features, everything from heated seats to spoilers and headlamp washers.

But you come to expect all that in this class. What I wasn’t sure of going in was the performance. You expect Volvos to be safe and sturdy and take a Scandinavian, Garrison Keilor-like stab at styling, but sports handling hasn’t been synonymous with Volvo for a long time.

Old time Volvo lovers, rejoice! The S40 demonstrates that when the Swedes want to have fun, they know how.

The 2.5-liter, 5-cylinder inline turbocharged engine is just the start, and quite a start it is. The S40 only weighs 3,447 pounds, and the 218 horses and 236 lb.-ft of torque the engine puts out is enough to get you zooming from place to place, or, more likely, trying to hit all the curvy detours in between. A revelation is the 6-speed manual transmission that controls the power. I liked the clutch and loved the transmission. Had I been blindfolded, no-one could have convinced me this was a Volvo transmission.

The transmission throw was relatively short and very crisp. In a long commute up Route 7, made almost unbearably longer by road construction and rush hour traffic, the virtues of this transmission in a commuter became apparent. Shifts were second nature, requiring little effort, and unlike in many high performance sports sedans, never became burdensome.

But get on the open road and Dr. Jekyll becomes Mr. Hyde. The same stick that was so easy to shift suddenly tried to glue itself to my hands, forcing me to fly with it through first, then second, third, fourth, fifth, ah…sixth. Actually, the whole car transformed from this reliable, undemanding commuter to all-out sports sedan.

Thankfully, I did not need to explain to any of those nice state troopers why I was grinning maniacally and shifting like a race car driver. But I’m sure if I’d let them use the S40 as a pursuit vehicle, they would have understood.

I detected very little turbo lag in this engine, and an overwhelming desire to devour pavement at great speeds. Making sure the tires stayed connected to the road were the independent strut suspension in front and multilink independent with coil springs in the rear, tuned to be sporty enough to give the road feel crucial to making driving a sports car fun, but not too stiff as to be uncomfortable.

S-curves were candy to the S40, it ate them all up and kept begging for more. The only downside was I was unable to get the tires to squeal. The all wheel drive and traction control kept the tires firmly planted and gripping at all times. But the buzz you felt moving off the line more than made up for it. Accelerating at cruising speed also was no problem. There was lots of torque available all through the curve. It was a beautiful thing.

As would be expected, the high performance T5 AWD is the thirstiest of the S40 family, with EPA estimated mileage of 20 city/29 highway with the six-speed manual. You will be pulling up to the premium pump, by the way.

In case, I haven’t made myself clear, this was one fun car to drive. And for those concerned with safety, stopping was just as spectacular. Braking is, as one would expect from a car company devoted to safety, superb.

The safety features are…hey, it’s a Volvo. Of course it’s as safe as you get. Safety features are too numerous to mention, but rest assured Volvo’s Intelligent Vehicle Architecture combines passive and active safety measures to ensure world-class protection. In the front structure alone, for example, four different grades of steel are used to provide maximum safety.

As for looks, beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder. The external design of the S40 is what I’d call interesting. It does have lines and curves and is clearly a Volvo and is certainly not unpleasant, but my reaction to it varied from day to day. To my eye, it seemed a little squeezed, almost stocky.

Inside is different. This sedan is anchored visually by Volvo’s gorgeous ultra-slim center console. For those who’ve never seen it, think one of those sleek Bang & Olufsen stereos, but with all the controls where they should be. This is a car you sit in and immediately know where everything is. Volvo very successfully designed the instruments and controls to be eminently readable and intuitively usable. The dash is clean, the design and layout more than just neat, it’s elegant, and that brushed aluminum console which forms a gracious Brancusi-“Bird-in-Space”-like curve down the center of the dash is a museum quality design statement.

As if all this weren’t enough, guess what’s new for ’06 on the T5? Oh, c’mon, guess! Fine, I’ll tell you: new, improved cupholders.

Be still, my heart!

How much more could anyone want? Smooth, fast, stylish, safe and with good cupholders – many of us have spent half our lives looking for Swedes like that. A test drive in the 2006 Volvo S40 T5 AWD may well be enough to make Absolut (or Ann-Margaret, for you older folk) your second favorite Swedish import.

posted by Andy Mais @ 3:11 PM