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When they launched this car back in 2017, they said that the Volvo XC40 is aimed at the young audience. But with those prices, I'm really curious which young people it's aimed at. Probably not Romanians. Nor Germans. Nor British. Nor Italians. Not even Greeks.

But at least it's good to know that Volvo has a tight and sane community and you can't talk about reality because they don't accept reality. But if there were that many Volvo fans, the Volvo XC40 should have sold like hotcakes.

Because the Volvo XC40 was their attempt to address the younger demographic, but I don't think Volvo knows what young people look like. Like Mercedes and pretty much everyone else in the industry, Volvo's marketing department saw the potential of crossovers, especially cheap or at least affordable ones, and said they had to build one. And they saw that very few people were touching the XC60 and the XC90 was as lonely as Captain Holt after losing his mortal enemy because she died (presumably), so they thought of making a cheap crossover - the Volvo XC40.

But the Volvo XC40 is very expensive and that's the biggest downside of this car. Even the entry-level models cost more than the BMW X1 and practically any other crossover in its class, except for the Mercedes GLA and Audi Q3. So, it's classic Volvo, we have prices like the premium ranges in the industry

Do we have the premium car in the industry tho?

• Like Alfa Romeo, Volvo made a huge mistake with the XC40 and the sales figures confirm this. You can't come as a small manufacturer, present a car that is not necessarily the best in the segment, but which at a price is on par with the premium cars of established manufacturers. And so the Stelvio is a rarer presence than my moments of lucidity, and the XC40 also has visibility problems.


• Especially when you think that the Stelvio stands alone in the tree because there is also the Giulia and that's it, while in the case of the Volvo XC40 we are halfway to the center. Young people can buy a V40 which is a boring but good car, and those who buy crossovers... sorry, those who can afford to buy a crossover from Volvo will go straight for the XC60 or XC90. After that, they will go on set and call on celebrities to answer the challenges, and if they refuse, they will have to eat something spicy.


• I mean, yes, I understand, it's a car that looks modern on the outside and very luxurious on the inside, you really feel like you're sitting in an XC90 Lite. 

Volvo XC40 Engines

Petrol

• 1.5 Turbo B3154 de 129 si 163 horsepower – The 3-cylinder version of Volvo's VEA engine has proven to be all the engine you'll ever need. We no longer have the Ford-sourced 1.6 EcoBoost as the base engine, we now have a proper Volvo unit.


• 2.0 Turbo B4204 de 190, 247, 249 si 252 horsepower – A sensational engine, but I'm not sure it ties in with the character of the Volvo XC40. On a Polestar, sure this engine is exactly what you need, but at what an XC40 with this engine costs, it goes beyond the idea of ​​a crossover.

Diesel

2.0 D4204 of 150 and 190 horsepower – I'm not normally a diesel fan but here in Volvo's case it makes even less of a sense. Volvo's VEA diesel engines are plagued with issues, especially in the intake manifold cracking and turbo failures departments. The XC40 is already an expensive car to buy, don't hurt yourself even further by making it an expensive car to run.

Hybrid

1.5 Turbo Hybrid B3154T5 of 214 and 265 horsepower – The Volvo XC40 Recharge comes in either a hybrid or electric configuration, and here we have the plug-in hybrid version. We talk about issues at the general section.

Electric

Electric 231 and 408 horsepower – As with the diesel engine, the difference in power is given by the number of motors, as the diesel has either one or 2 turbos. The 231 horsepower has a single motor, and the 408 horsepower has 2 motors working together. Both have the same range, the only difference is that the 408 horsepower version reaches 0 – 100 km/h in 4.9 seconds, and the 231 reaches 0 – 100 km/h in 7.4 seconds. Is it worth all that extra money for 2.5 seconds of slower acceleration?

Volvo XC40 Relaibility Issues

• The infotainment system is not the most intuitive possible, so before buying a modern Volvo you should take a computer science course.


• Rear visibility isn't as good as is the case with all coupe SUV which spawned from trend set by the X6, but you're not far off. Sofia Boutella can be playing soccer with Sofia Vergara in the back of the car, and you'd never know it.


• The emergency braking module works intermittently, but it's a problem that can be easily solved through software.


• For Recharge models, the batteries of both hybrid and electric models may not charge and thus you are stuck in the parking lot. Most of the time it is a software problem and it is easily solved once you get to the Volvo specialists, but the whole problem is until you get to the Volvo specialists. Because a regular repair shop may not have the proper tools needed for this.

Volvo XC40 Verdict

The Volvo XC40 and all these crossovers that cost 40-50-60-70 grand remind me of the hysteria with the Audi RS3, the first hatchback to cross the 50,000 pound barrier. Yes, the Volvo XC40 is pompous and it's a perfectly decent car in basic equipment, but once you start getting into the options it starts to get very, very expensive. And I'm not the only one who says this. So I can only recommend a basic XC40, which is all the car you need, and at 33,000 euros it's a civilized offer.

Which engines do I recommend? For petrol power, the 1.5 Turbo and it's 129 horsepower are enough, but the vast majority of ads come equipped with the 2.0 and 150 horsepower diesel, which is unfortunate.  And on the electric side, I recommend the Volvo XC40 Recharge full electric 231 horsepower, because it still costs about the same as the traditional powered cars after state discounts and can be a better alternative than both petrol and diesel.