Test drive Volvo V50 2004 - 2007 station wagon
Northern lights
Acquaintance with the car took place at the end of winter in snowy Finland. The company invited a motley company of journalists from all over the world - from Brazil, Jordan, Holland, Italy, the USA, Latvia, and the largest group arrived from Moscow. And in what other country is so many automobile magazines published? 
The surroundings of the town of Ivalo in the north of Lapland is an ideal place for winter tests, many automobile and tire companies have long been watching it (Michelin even has a tire - IVALO). Roads on which you will not find anyone but unpredictable northern deer, the most intricate combinations of road surfaces, an ice highway on the frozen lake - a large winter gentleman's set. One thing is bad - very cold. Arctic! The program was built a variety of, which allows you to test the car in conditions in which you rarely get in ordinary life. A car is a Volvo V50 T5 AWD station wagon, a top version: a 2.5-liter 220-horsepower engine with a low-pressure turbine (torque 320 Nm), a mechanical 6-speed checkpoint and all-wheel drive. Winter shoes, with spikes ...
A powerful engine is easily lucky with a car, acceleration assertive and dynamic. It seems that there are too many capacities, and the wheels are about to start slipping - but no, APS (the Tracs anti -circus system, it is also the traction control system) vigilantly ensures that there is no breakdown. The car reliably clings to all wheels to snow and continues to confidently gain speed. At the slightest hint of a slip of the APS, the guilty wheel immediately slows down, redistributing the thrust in favor of others. On provocations like a sharp press on the gas pedal, the system is not amenable to. The company claims that the time of its reaction is a quarter of the turnover turnover. It looks like the truth. 
The checkpoint was borrowed from the Volvo R sports series. During a multi -kilometer mileage, a tandem engine showed itself from the best side. The programs are included in a light push of the lever in the right direction. Fixed clearly. If desired, you can work according to the 1V3V6 algorithm, and if you touch the hill, and even according to a simplified scheme of 1V6 - torque is enough by the eyes. In the fourth and even fifth gear, you can go, as with an automaton. The main thing is not to forget to switch before stopping ... 
And here is a stop - there is time to look around. I do not find anything new in the interior of the station wagon about the S40 sedan. The same design, the same soaring central console in the Hi-Tech style, the same solid plastic and high-quality fitting of elements. And the same feeling of warmth, comfort and security. In no other car of this class, such a thick door did not separate me from the outside world. She is like a wide windowsill in a village house, it is just right to put pots with flowers. But I know that a complex structure is hidden under plastic, which will reliably protect me from a lateral blow. The salon is quite spacious and in width and height. Nothing presses, nothing is pressing ... 
Got it. A huge frozen lake. The track is laid - a ring, eight, straight. Somewhere ice, somewhere rolled snow. There are no pillars, chipsters and cuvettes - you can fly only into a snowdrift, it is safe. Therefore, everyone joyfully came off in full. So what? The impressions are ambiguous. There are no comments to the APS - as it worked and works. On straight lines. But in high -speed turns, a system of dynamic stabilization of the DSTC course stabilization is connected to it ... This thing is designed to facilitate the control of the car, making it predictable and safe on a slippery road. On the bare ice, rolled snow, icy coating - that is, in those areas where most likely a violation of the wheel adhesion with the road, the DSTC works almost flawlessly. But only if you go normal - in reasonable speed modes and not pull the car.
With increasing speed, the situation is changing. If the coating is mixed - ice, behind it, dripped snow, asphalt baldness, and then again ice (you must admit that this is not uncommon in our area), and even the turn is already looming, the system is lost. She does not have time to work out the flow of information coming from the sensors. There are delays and unexpected failures in traction, the braid of the wheels acquires an incomprehensible algorithm. Then you are pushed from behind (the Haldex coupling switches), when you do not wait at all, then, on the contrary, the front is branded. The trajectory begins to be firing, you get lost, get confused in management and do not find a common language with a car. In addition, in turns, the car alternately behaves as front, then as a rear-wheel drive. I emphasize that all this was noted at higher speeds than those on which they usually ride on icy roads. Smell the speed, do not be nervous - the situation is immediately normalized, the trajectory will return to the place and everything will be fine. For most of the DSTC motorists, an excellent assistant. Separate savings of the system can be quickly used to, especially if you do not provoke it with a twitching style of driving. In the end, this is not a sports car, but a family station wagon, albeit dynamic ...
Full -wheel drive showed itself in all its glory. Driving in such a car is a pleasure. Having turned off the icy highway to loose snow and switched to a reduced gear, it is possible to drive where the XC90 SUV has just been. The machine rushes like a tank. If only the snow was not very deep - in this one can lie on the belly. The Volvo V50 T5 AWD will cope with everything. What else? There are no complaints to controllability. And where does it come from if the Volvo V50 has the same platform as Ford Focus with Mazda3? You can’t find it in this regard. The suspension is harsh - reckoning for an all -wheel drive transmission. To place it, I had to increase the clearance. And the negative consequences of raising the center of gravity were compensated by an increase in the rigidity of stabilizers and shock absorbers.
The only obvious minus Volvo V50 T5 AWD is the price. Official Moscow dealers for the car are asking for $ 44.700 ($ 1550 must pay for an automatic box). For comparison: a larger V70 AWD with a 2.5 LT engine comparable in power (210 hp) and a mechanical 5-speed box costs $ 42.200.
Text: Alexander Goryunov
Source: Motor magazine [No. 4/2005]
