The Volvo XC40

You may recall that I recently paid homage to a bit of motoring history right here in The Portugal News. It was a pretty hefty chunk of automotive history in actual fact. Yes, I genuinely bid a very fond farewell to the fabled Volvo estate as well as their luxurious saloon siblings. They’d been great friends of mine over many years but now, they're no more on the UK market. Sad times indeed.

As far as the UK is concerned, these traditional Volvo staples are toast. Gone. Terminado! Like the pearls of morning dew, they’ll soon fade away, ne’er to be found on any Volvo forecourt again. We’ll have to trawl our way through the classifieds or find ourselves tramping across those windswept forecourts of Honest John & Co’s used car emporiums to find our old Volvo staples from here on in. It's an extinction event moment. The UK and American markets, as far as Volvo is concerned, are now SUV-only territory. Let eVOLVOlution do its thing.

Until recently, the Volvo SUV range kicked off with the XC40. If you still wish to stick with combustion engines or hybrids, I guess it still does. The only other alternative is the smaller (and relatively new) EX30 model but that’s only available as a dedicated, full-on, low-fat, tree-hugging EV.

Palatable

Volvo's smallest combustion-powered SUV does a decent job at being distinctly Volvo but it does so by being ‘different’ in a wholly palatable way. A way that won't scare away any of those die-hard Volvo stalwarts. Interiors remain very familiar territory which is both very comfortable and very safe. Of course, the XC40 is also available as a full-blown EV. So it's all things to all humans.

The XC40 has been around since 2017 but the range enjoyed a bit of a mild facelift in 2022. This helped keep things looking nice and fresh.

Although the XC40 is marketed as a compact SUV, it actually looks like quite a sizable car if you ever find yourself standing next to one in a showroom. This is a very competitive section of the market, so Volvo needed to provide a bit of bang for the old buck. They seem to have achieved this.

Up against the not-so-small XC40 goes Audi’s Q3, the BMW X1, Mercedes’ GLA and Land Rover’s enduring Evoque. Also out there we find the Volkswagen Tiguan, Mazda’s CX-5 and the Lexus NX. That's a whole lot of competitors, I think you'll agree?

What can safely be said these days is that people seem to adore their compact SUV’s. But in many camps, model line-ups can look a bit same-old. A keen eye is needed to distinguish between a BMW X1, an X3s and an X5 for instance. These cars enjoy similar distinctive looks but are packaged in different sizes. A bit like boots.

Distinctive

Volvo, however, made the XC40 look quite distinct from their XC60 and XC90 SUV ranges. If it really was footwear, it would be a Croc. Although it has to be said that the XC40 has retained a pretty distinctively Volvo air about it, it does come with a more square-edged angular look. Despite having a relatively small glass area compared to some other Volvo designs, the cabins remain surprisingly airy, retaining reasonable visibility for front-seat occupants at least. The XC40 design lends itself well to fashionable two-tone paint designs so these things look pretty damned cool.

Even the interiors can turn out quite colorful if you so-choose. I must concede that some of the examples I've seen have been specced up in a way that looks somewhat garish at times! Volvos are usually the epitome of conservative - with a small ‘c’. Once I'd ‘unseen’ some of the bespoke colour daubings, I found the XC40 to be unexpectedly roomy and even quite practical. Both the cabin and the loadbay have inherited some of Volvo’s clever storage ideas which have long featured in previous models.

The XC40 doesn't use a compressed version of the XC60/XC90 suspension and structure. Instead, it sits on Volvo’s Chinese parent company (Geely's) “Compact Modular Architecture.” This platform was cleverly designed to provide optimum interior space and, from the offset, was designed to accommodate EV powertrains. So many of today’s automotive offerings have got this back to front; trying to slot in EV gubbins into platforms that were never designed to end up as an EV. They don't quite work out.

I've never fathomed why car makers strive to make SUV’s feel “car-like”, especially if they actually also make cars. Here again, the XC40 is a bit of an enigma because Volvo have not endeavoured to make it too “car-like”. I think it has the feel of a decent-sized SUV but it's been packaged in a nicely compact format that makes it a perfectly plausible city car to-boot.

Having said that, the XC40’s country-bumpkin SUV credentials aren't in any way disguised or compromised. It feels smooth on the road and provides that distinctly imperious high-up SUV ride quality which allows you to peer over those dry-stone walls which flank our country lanes. All this loftiness in no way compromises the car’s cornering abilities either. It's actually a very sure-footed motor car.

These days, the combustion-engined variants are limited to a mild-hybrid 4-cyl 2.0-litre petrol engine. Two versions are available in either 161-bhp or 194-bhp guise (B3 and B4 models respectively). Both return around 42.2 mpg.

Family cars

Volvo has always made great family cars and the XC40 remains firmly committed to that great tradition. It’s doubtlessly a wonderful family car and an ideal workhorse that's more than capable of catering for all the applications which Volvo has been renowned for over the years. I immediately felt that it's much more of a practical family car than anything Mercedes, BMW or Audi produces.

Staying with practicalities, the cabin design is clever with plenty of hooks, nooks and plugs to make everyone’s road trip a tidy and convenient affair. Likewise, there’s a bit of Volvo trickery going on in the boot which simply makes it even more practical when ferrying loose items such as bits of the weekly shop. The rear seats would be cramped for three adults but there’s generous accommodation for kids despite the somewhat restricted view out from the back seats.

In summary, rather than trying too hard to make the XC40 into a car-like crossover, Volvo made something quite distinctive. Many SUV’s come over as being a tad on the pointless side but the XC40 is a properly solid SUV. It still lives up to many of the values on which Volvo built its age-old reputation complete with a sublime driving environment that would even provide reassurance in wintry Scandinavian conditions. The roomy cabin gives a sense that everything has been very well made.

I'm yet to try one, but all indications suggest that the EV version of the XC40 is definitely worth consideration, if, of course, that's something that’s on your radar. However, the EV cost difference is currently substantial compared with petrol versions.

In a nutshell. I rather like the XC40. It's an enigma that works. For me, that's appealing.

Douglas Hughes is a UK-based writer producing general interest articles ranging from travel pieces to classic motoring. 

Douglas Hughes