Test drive Volvo S40 2004 - 2007 sedan

The flowering of strength

A powerful engine of this car is capable of laying the speedometer arrow up to hundreds in only 7.2 seconds, and the presence of all -wheel drive allows you not to strain even by 200 km/h. Saturated red, in which the Volvo S40 T5 AWD is painted, makes it turn around after every second.
 
I'm in the spotlight. Pedestrians passing by, passing by drivers, are looking at me, boys pokes after me with their fingers. And why? Yes, because I am a foreign body in this car. I absolutely do not fit into her surroundings. My cheeks are visible because of my ears. I have a second chin. Finally, instead of a torso, a huge, a lump of nerves, acquired for years in a cheshechka. And most importantly, I am not rich, as it might seem to others. Even in the most beautiful dream, I can’t imagine that this car will stand in my garage - I can’t pull $ 47,000 under any conditions. In general, in this place it should have been different. The one who is customary to talk about golden youth is strong, sleek and rich. Nevertheless, I am driving this car. Why? Because I have such a job, and because two years ago he sunk into my soul. So, sooner or later our meeting was supposed to take place.
 
Then, at the presentation of the new Volvo S40, this T5 in the Sport configuration was shown to journalists only in statics. The car was still at the stage of refinement. But none of us doubted that a great future was waiting for her. And first of all, because it is damn good. It is slightly different from the usual magpie, but still ... the other lower part of the front and rear bumper, the overlays on the thresholds and the neat anti -winged on the trunk - strokes, no more. But it is they who make from the usual Volvo S40 what causes delight among others.
 
Inside the differences are even less. Sports wheel and front seats with more developed lateral support. Everything else is like in other magpies. However, sitting down on these seats and taking up this steering wheel, you are already plunging into a slightly different atmosphere. A racer who has yet in his youth begins to wake up in you. Again, I wanted to drown the gas pedal on the floor, take up a sports grip behind the wheel, which does not slip, even if you rub it with soap, and cut off some kind of groovy music, so that the image trembled in the outer mirrors. Why, in fact, not? Hey, reckless youth, where are you?
 
The fact that on this machine can easily be broken from the intersection, there was no doubt. It was enough to look at the passport data to understand: at least the second place in street rasping has already been reserved. On the S40 T5 it is much more pleasant to mock those who believe that the maximum speed of 140 km/h is the line for many unattainable. You will paint up to such a snob allegedly with the last forces, you will pass in parallel meters a hundred, and then the gas pedal to the floor and leave it to the point, as if from a standing one. The sensations are indescribable. The dynamics is such that you can lose the pulse. But the most pleasant thing is that both the car behaves exactly the same on the carpet and on two -hundreds. The only difference is in the noise background: somewhere after 140 the engine begins to listen. However, even at maximum speed, and it is 235 km/h, you can talk in the car without raising your voice - the noise insulation is magnificent.
 
Good and suspension. She, of course, is slightly tougher than the usual S40, but this does not affect comfort at all. But controllability thanks to it is an order of magnitude higher: the feeling of the car is one hundred percent. The steering is clear and with good feedback, writes turns, as if on a pattern, without the slightest departure and with minimal rolls.
 
Undoubtedly, there is a merit and all -wheel drive. However, its presence in the car is visually felt only at the time of a dynamic start from the intersection: all wheels are repelled from the asphalt at once, as evidenced by the absence of a thicket of front wheels. At the rest of the time, progressive traffic is carried out only at the expense of the front. True, for the time being. It is worth the machine to step on a slippery coating or jumping onto the sand, as smart electronics again use the rear bridge. By the way, it was precisely because of the presence of all-wheel drive that the trunk is useful, although it has decreased: the floor level is now flush with the lower cut of the trunk cover.
 
But is the volume of trunk for such a machine so important? I think no. After all, its main purpose is to satisfy ambitions, and the Volvo S40 T5 AWD copes with this perfectly. In any case, my ambitions, which for a long time dozed and which she woke up, are fully satisfied. And most importantly, during the test I became much younger. And even, very well, slimmer. After all, I wanted to match her.
 
+ Magnificent dynamics, good handling and sound insulation, predicted brake operation, all -wheel drive
 
- High price, wide front racks
 
Technical characteristics of Volvo S40 T5 AWD
 
Body - supporting, all -metal
Equipped mass, kg - 1419
Complete mass, kg - 1930
Dimensions, mm:
- length - 4468
- Width - 1770
- Height - 1452
Base, mm - 2640
Trunk volume, l - 390
Maximum speed, km/h - 235
Acceleration time to 100 km/h, s - 7.2
Control consumption of fuel, l/100 km:
- City cycle - 13.7
- Zagorod - 6.9
- mixed - 9.4
Fuel tank volume, L - 62
Engine:
- type - row., 5 -cyl., with a turbine and intercooler
- working volume, cm3 - 2521
- Power, L.S. at MIN -1 - 220/5000
- torque, NM at min-1- 320/1500-4800
Transmission - automatic., 5 -t., Sikventaln. mode
Tire size - 205/55R16
Wheel suspension (front and rear) - independent
Brakes (front/rear) - disk., Ventil./Disk.
Steering - gear -rake, with gur
Price, $ - 43 400
 
Text: Oleg Kalaushin
 

A source: Magazine 5 wheel [08/2005]