SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
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*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.


We experience the 2013 Volvo V40 T4 Elite m/t

Safe but far from boring

Posted on March 2, 2013

Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday March 6,2013

The first 1600 cc Volvo we drove was a friend’s PV544 Beetleback. The steering wheel was on the left and it had a four-speed gearbox. Urban legend goes that when Volvo first approached BMC for engines, the request was turned down. Those cunning Swedes then held up a mirror, copied everything in reverse and built their own. The resulting B16B motor, fitted with twin SU HS4 carburettors, put out 85 BHP. That’s a mind-numbing 63,38 kW in today’s language, but it was fun to drive and very sporty for its time.

Today’s 1600 cc Volvo T4 engine, as fitted to the V40 Elite hatchback we drove recently, is somewhat different. It has dual overhead camshafts rather than a single in-block device lifting pushrods; four valves per cylinder rather than two, and it’s turbocharged. It also comes out of the Ford parts bin where it’s filed under ‘EcoBoost’.  Power output is somewhat greater at 132 kW and the one we drove was fitted with a six-speed manual gearbox. As some wiseguy once said: “More is better.”

Unfortunately, somewhere between that Beetleback and just recently, Volvo cars developed a reputation for being solid, reliable, safe and as boring (yet polite) as a Canadian accountant. That has changed. This V40 T4 with stick shift is a hoot to drive.

Take a willing power unit like this one; add a crisp-shifting ‘box and the V40’s athletic chassis and you have a secret too good to keep. It’s solid, it’s nimble, it’s quick (0 – 100 km/h in 7,7 seconds) and it responds to right-foot input like Popeye to spinach. It turns over at 2400 rpm for 120 in top and rolls-on like a locomotive. Actually, it might be better to keep it secret – we don’t want all those vulgar German car drivers switching over en-masse do we?

Being a Volvo, it’s built safe. Apart from obvious stuff such as being constructed like a fortress, ABS brakes with EBD, ISOFix anchorages and remote central locking, you also get seven airbags, City Safety that protects you in low velocity nose-to-tail mishaps, dynamic stability and traction control, side impact guards and whiplash protection.

If you still feel insecure, you could add safety options like Blind Spot Information with cross traffic alert, a guardian that catches you drifting off to sleep, automatic high beam regulator and forward collision warning, or adaptive cruise control with pedestrian detection and automatic emergency braking. There’s even an optional airbag to save that mindless pedestrian who stepped out in front of you.

Standard kit on the Elite model tested includes all the usual powered windows, heated folding mirrors with puddle lamps; follow-me lights, a high performing multimedia entertainment system with Bluetooth, USB, auxiliary, eight speakers and a seven-inch colour display. There is also rear park assist, Bi-Xenon headlights that turn with the car, washers for them, a capless fuel filler and adaptive brake lamps. You can even switch between themes for the virtual dashboard instruments; eco in shades of grey, conservative tones of beige and brown, or in-your-face scarlet when the rev counter dominates and the speedo switches to digital.

Naturally, it’s upholstered in leather, both front seats are powered and the one for the driver has three memory settings. And because Volvo has offered the function for more than 40 years, you can adjust lumbar support. Among the standard safety kit is a nagging alert for rear seat passengers who fail to buckle up. It’s annoying but valid and could save you a fine if you run into a traffic cop who knows his stuff.

At the end of it all, it remains a Volvo; comfortable, stylish, meticulously finished and supremely practical. Get yourself one, and when that German-car fanboy from next door comes looking, pretend it’s polite but boring.

Test car from Volvo SA press fleet

The numbers
Price: R330 700
Engine: 1596cc, DOHC, 16-valve, four-cylinder; turbocharged
Power: 132 kW at 5700 rpm
Torque: 240 Nm between 1600 and 5000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h” 7,7 seconds
Maximum speed: 225 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: 7,8 l/100 km
Tank: 62 litres
Boot: 335 litres
Warranty and maintenance: 5 year/100 000 km Volvo Plan

To see our review of V40 CC and regular diesels, click here

What We Do

 This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material. If I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

My reviews and launch reports appear on Thursdays in the Wheels supplement to The Witness, South Africa's oldest continuously running newspaper, and occasionally on Saturdays in Weekend Witness as well. I drive eight to ten vehicles each month, most months of the year (except over the festive season) so not everything gets published in the paper. Those that are, get a tagline but the rest is virgin, unpublished and unedited by the political-correctness police.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. As quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so they can see I do actually exist.


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