Volvo S40 (NedCar)

With the demise of the 240 in the early 90s and a proliferation of larger and more luxurious models throughout Volvo's lineup, Volvo found itself without a good entry-level model. For their new small car, Volvo teamed up with Mitsubishi, co-developing a compact, front-wheel-drive platform for production at their joint-venture factory in the Netherlands, with the first of these so-called "NedCars" going on sale in 1995.

In the USA, we wouldn't get the first-generation S40 compact wagon in the USA until model year 2000, even though it was the S40 (and its platform-mate, the V40 compact wagon) that started the modern Volvo model nomenclature: S for sedan, V for "versatile" (wagon), XC for Cross Country, and numbers indicating size, with 40/50 being compact, 60/70 being midsize, and 80/90 being full-size.

Powering these new small Volvos were new four-cylinder derivatives of the by-now-ubiquitous "white block" all-aluminum Volvo inline engine. In the US, all models came equipped with various versions of the 1.9L "2.0T" light pressure turbo, backed by either a 4-speed AW50-42 in 2000 or 5-speed AW55-5X automatic transmission from 2001 onwards.

We've found NedCars to be generally reliable, but we've noted suspension issues on 2000 models that have sometimes been remedied by front-end rebuilds with all 2001+ parts; if you're looking at suspension parts like control arms or struts for your early NedCar, it's worth double-checking which components are currently on your car before you buy.

When the S40's all-five-cylinder, P1-based second generation went on sale in mid 2004, it was sometimes labeled as a 2005 car or sometimes as a 2004.5/2004½ car. If you have a 2004 S40 and you're not sure if it's a 1st-gen NedCar or 2nd-gen P1, check out our Technical Article on how to spot the differences between them.

Model information is based on the USA vehicle market. Other model variations may exist outside the USA.