Ovlov T4s

Had one as a hire car.

S**te.

Yes.

IIRC James May reckoned the X-type Jaguar estate was better to drive, better built and better packaged than the V40 estate.

See above, I think the V40 was where Volvo lost their way. Actually, no, it's as bad as the Renault parts bin Volvos and the former DAF cars that preceded it.

It's just sold , so something of a moot point now.

MX-5 is still the one true car.

I had a shot of a S40 2.0T. It was solid and smooth and torquey like a VAG 1.8T, and had better seats than anything VAG related. It just wasn't very interesting.

I imagine a T4 quite a speedy and civilised way of getting around but is more of the same with a few extra horsepowers.

I ran around in a 1.8i for a year, it was OK. Comfy and safe as volvos always are, surprising amount of space, T4 should have dynaudio stereo too which is nice. Handling consists of two types of steering, under and torque.

Engines will happily chip to proper power though, making them fast in a straight line if you keep a firm grip of the wheel.

I used to drive Gatwick and back about once a week in mine.

We have a new style V50 now, a much better, but smaller feeling, car.

Yours wasn't that slow, I didn't think... :-)

Kinda silly in some respects. Rapid in a straight line, once you have traction and the turbocharger is spooled up.

Firm riding, good seats, compact interior. Build quality variable. Uninteresting handling.

Probably not. If you need to cover a long distance on M- and A-roads and need a good drivers' seat, the S40 makes sense.

Big, thirsty car, high VED!

The chocolate Laguna gearbox is the reason they're cheap...

T4 is a good engine in a not very good car, imo, but that depends on the age of the V40. The early ones were rough as f*ck, but they got a lot better on about a T plate.