Month 6 running a Volvo V40: a pale interior colour was mistake!
You only really get to know a car when you clean it – when you get down on your hands and knees and get intimate with the footwell, when you scrape that gummy bear out of the door pocket with your fingernails, or shove a Hoover pipe into those crevices where the sun never shines. Only then will you find the sharp edges, the exposed screws and the cheap plastics that betray shortcuts in quality. It’s another reason to be impressed with the Volvo: the V40 has a beautifully made interior, with its solid-feeling dashboard grained like elephant skin, its stainless steel-look trim highlights, and the bespoke feeling switches and dials. I love the ‘floating’ centre console too, Volvo’s design quirk that creates a hollowed-out space behind the lower dash (though I haven’t actually found a use for the cubbyhole).My only concern is the pale interior. Our ‘Passion Red’ paint finish is complemented by the ‘Blond’ cloth trim, but the seats are getting a serious battering after just 6000 miles. I can’t even blame the kids, and their lethal combination of melted chocolate, McDonalds’ ketchup and that orange stuff that stains your fingers when you eat Doritos. No, the worst affected area is the driver’s seat – my jeans are turning the seat blue. Advice? Go for blue seats, as Volvo doesn’t offer ‘Dorito Orange’.
Month 5 running a Volvo V40: testing the V40's practicality to the limit
Having a new baby at the end of last year has had quite an impact on family life with the Volvo: going anywhere these days – even a short daytrip – involves lugging a mountain of equipment around, like we’re embarking on a major expedition up the Orinoco River. Frankly, the V40 just isn’t big enough anymore. This came to light during a week-long winter holiday in the Lake District. By the time we’d loaded up the three-wheeled, off-roading baby buggy, the boot was full. Then the enormous Maxi-Cosi car seat, with its ‘FamilyFix’ clip-in base, took up one of the back seats, which means everything else (five bags, an enormous travel cot, wellies, umbrella, and enough waterproof clothing to kit out an entire scout troop) needed the split rear seat to be folded down just to fit it all in. If we’d been travelling with any of the other kids we’d have needed a roof rack.Apart from its size, the Volvo performed well. As I’ve said many times before, the high-tech interior is a great place to spend a few hours, and all the gadgets have a sensible, Scandinavian cohesion that makes it a cinch to switch from sat-nav to radio to the Bluetooth phone on the move. From the driver’s seat that feels like ‘big car’ luxury, even if it only has a ‘small car’ boot.
And while our D2 SE model only has the four-cylinder 1.6-litre diesel (the D3 and D4 models come with bigger 2.0-litre five cylinders), with its slick six-speed gearbox and 200lb ft available from 1750rpm, it’s a car that rarely falters when you ask for more, and it’ll sweep you effortlessly up a steep Cumbrian pass. I enjoyed driving it to the Lakes and back – it was only when we returned to it after a long walk in the pouring rain, when we’d have to squeeze everything back in, soaking wet, that I’d think ‘I wish we had an estate’.
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