SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Most, but not all, the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live.

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Compact in the city: 2018 Volvo XC40 D4 R-Design awd

Practical and sexy

Posted: 28 June 2018

The numbers
Price: R639 192 including CO2 tax
Engine: 1969 cc DOHC 16-valve twin-turbo diesel
Power: 140 kW at 4000 rpm
Torque: 400 Nm between 1750 and 2500 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 7.9 seconds
Maximum speed: 210 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 9.0 l/100 km
Tank: 54 litres
Luggage: 460 – 1336 litres
Maximum (braked) towing mass: 2100 kg
Ground clearance: 210 mm
Turning circle: 11.4 metres (18”wheels) 11.8 metres (19”wheels)
Warranty and maintenance plan: 5 years / 100 000km with roadside assistance


The folk at Volvo get flat-eared if you call their multiple award-winning XC40 a “little XC60” or, worse, a “baby XC90”.

They’ll tell you it’s a completely separate model range built on a new set of Lego called Compact Modular Architecture (CMA). Said platform will be shared by future compact Volvos, Lynk and Co (a joint venture manufacturing midrange vehicles for the Chinese market) and Geely.

XC40 is pitched as a youthful and modern city SUV; seating four adults comfortably with space in the back seat for a further, little, person if needed. Size-wise it’s 4425 mm long on a wheelbase of 2702; is 1902 mm wide and stands 1652 mm high, making it 263 mm shorter, 39 mm narrower and fractionally lower than XC60.

But XC40 is aimed at different buyers. Its smaller size makes it noticeably lighter, benefiting handling and performance. It was also fast track engineered to feel energised, alert, precise, responsive and connected - for winding country roads and busy urban traffic. Yet still deliver Volvo’s signature comfort levels.

How do they do it? Advanced simulation kit provides a range of virtual environments from Germany’s Nürburgring to specialised tracks at Volvo’s own testing facility in Sweden. The rig facilitates rapid, early stage development work on factors like high-speed stability, balance, and individual drive modes. Quickly optimising the various sub-systems and how they integrate, it saves development time, effort and money.

Back home we have six variants in three trim levels (Momentum, Inscription and R-Design), powered by two engines, D4 and T5. Gear shifting is with Aisin’s eight-speed, electronically controlled AWF8F45. All feature Haldex all-wheel drive. Three stick-shift 4x2s, in the same trim levels and fitted with Volvo’s new 1.5-litre turbopetrol triple, are expected soon. Spoiler alert: 115 kilowatts and 265 Nm.

Our test car was an R-Design with in-kit sport suspension, the D4 diesel motor and awd. Fitted with optional 20” wheels, it ended up with 45-profile Pirelli P-Zero street tyres - surely a recipe for a harsh ride on the rippled dirt road out past the vegetable farms. Not so; we couldn’t fault its behaviour. Sweden is known for its gravel roads (where do you think those famous rally drivers of past decades came from?) and it shows.

The all-wheel drive system also happens to have some fairly serious dirt-cred for that last stretch of “road” through the woods to your country hideout. Off Road mode adjusts accelerator and braking responses, sets steering effort to Comfort, locks front-to-rear drive distribution at 50:50, sets the ESC to traction/sport, optimises engine and gearbox for best traction, switches automatic stop-start off and adds downhill crawl when it’s needed.

It operates at speeds up to 40 km/h, alters the digital speedometer to reflect that and defaults back to Comfort mode if you force it any faster –because you obviously don’t need it any longer. We tried it on our Tenderfoot Trail that is, despite our dismissive description, harsher than most of the so-called Off-road scenery you see on YouTube. The car didn’t miss a beat.

As always, XC40 is fitted with Volvo signature safety equipment including City Safety, driver-alert, run-off road mitigation, road sign information, intelligent driver information and frontal collision mitigation support, plus the usual handling aids. But there have been a few updates.

City Safety now includes steering support that engages when automatic braking, alone, would not be enough. In such circumstances the car will add steering assistance to help avoid a collision. It is active between 50- and100 km/h.

Oncoming Lane Mitigation helps drivers to avoid collisions with oncoming vehicles. The system works by alerting drivers, who have unwittingly wandered out of their driving lanes, by providing automatic steering assistance to guide them back on course and out of the paths of approaching vehicles. This system is active between 60- and140 km/h.

Volvo Cars’ optional Blind Spot Information System, that alerts drivers to the presence of vehicles in their blind spots, now includes steering assistance. It helps to avoid potential collisions with unnoticed vehicles by steering the car back into its own lane and away from danger.

Another Volvo signature feature, the Sensus navigation, music playing, streaming, connectivity and secondary control system is still front and centre via the now-famous 9” touch, swipe and pinch screen. It does a lot but, as many reviewers have complained, it’s fussy to operate and contains too much.

Neat freaks, on the other hand, will love that Volvo designers and engineers considered their needs. They freed up the front cup holders, so you don’t have to use them as storage / rubbish bins, by providing a removable waste receptacle in the centre console. Speakers were taken out of the front doors so the bins would be generous enough to stash a (small) box of tissues, a bottle or two and a standard 15” laptop. The glove box is decently sized too. There is obviously a dedicated spot for your phone, with choice of using the built-in recharge pad or a powered USB. There’s a second one for music sticks or whatever you choose.

Summing up, XC40 R-Design with 2.0-litre diesel and awd is versatile, decently sporty, sufficiently roomy and noticeably more modern. It’s also practical and sexy.

Test unit from Volvo Cars SA press fleet



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 ever I place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with a very similar vehicle 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.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. There are no advertisers and no “editorial policy” rules. I add bylines to acknowledge sponsored launch functions and the manufacturers or dealerships that provide the test vehicles.  And, as quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so you can see I do actually exist.

Comments or questions?
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