Faults:
To be honest, not a great deal has gone wrong with this car.
Only experienced one break down resulting in RAC assistance. The fault was a defective throttle butterfly.
Earth strap broke. Easily repaired in five minutes.
Very minor electrical problems, due to bad earth. Easily rectified.
General Comments:
The car always starts easily regardless of weather.
The seats are very comfortable and the ride quality is good.
The layout of the facia is uncluttered making it easy to activated the "feel good quality" controls.
The interior has not suffered much wear.
The drive is comfortable, but I do feel closed in with limited visibility.
Bearing in mind this is the basic Si model, which means no electric windows, no electric mirrors, no sunroof and no tachometer (rev counter) etc.
The engine is underpowered at producing only 89bhp. The five speed gearbox is ideal for long motorway journeys.
I would prefer if the car had a solid Volvo engine instead of a feeble Renault one.
The car can easily exceed the 100mph mark. The engine is a bit of a guzzler around town at returning a poor 25mpg.
In the four years of ownership, this car has been a good vehicle. It has Passed every MOT with no work needed and still looks clean both inside and out.
The 400 series Volvo was one of their first front wheel drive cars. I preferred the rear wheel drive qualities of my Volvo 340.
The car`s demise almost occurred when some spineless maggot wrenched open the driver`s door, broke the steering cowling and made a futile attempt to hot-wire the ignition. Luckily, the lout(s) gave up, either because they found the steering lock too robust, or the electrical system confusing.
To be honest, I have never known joy riders to be attracted to the theft or attempted theft of any Volvo. I always thought joy riders stole cars such as Fords, Austins and Vauxhauls.
