Faults:
Leaky fuel unions- fixed by dealer.
Gear lever rubber mountings worn- (common for pre-99 S40's) £40 job by dealer.
Some broken trim on the driver's seat- cheap and easy to replace.
"Graunching" from the front suspension struts. Worn bushings not cheap to replace.
General Comments:
Performance and reliability of the S40 far outstrips the 480ES I used to have. The car corners very well with no sign of stepping out.
The engine is EXTREMELY reliable and has never let me down. After service tuning, the car has managed 40.1 mpg. Average is 38.4 mpg, even with town driving.
Very comfortable interior on the CD model. Leather seats, adjustable driver seat level and steering wheel rake. However, my S40 is a pre-99 model and displays a certain harshness over badly-maintained roads. Post-99 models have improved suspension.
Visibility is generally good, but the front window pillars can obscure vision on hill junctions, and rearward vision can be difficult due to the high level of the boot lid.
Rear seat legroom is limited- tall rear seat passenger had better sit on the nearside!
The car is sometimes used to carry a disabled passenger- the rear springs had to be uprated to allow the loading of a heavy power-chair. The dealer fitted V40 springs to help compensate.
10th Feb 2004, 12:26
Depending on how old an S40 and the engine that's fitted to it, there seem to be two major types of manual gearbox:
One sort has reverse indicated on the shift pattern as being left of 1st. This gearbox is notchy, vague and generally poor.
One sort has reverse located below 5th on the shift pattern.
This gearbox is much smoother and precise.
It seems to vary as to which gearbox you get - generally, the bigger the engine and the newer the car, the more likely you are to have the second (better) gearbox.