Hi
I am from South Africa where we have many dealerships here. Volvo is taking off. I have had a 2001 S40 T4 and I was thoroughly satisfied with it. I traded it in at 54000km and bought my new T4. The new spec has a "cheaper" looking grill, a less well set out dashboard, come with TELESTO rims that are no as good looking as the first car. But worst of all, the ride is much stiffer so that one feels all the bumps, and also the car has a reported top speed of 245 KMPH, but my speedo only goes up to 240 (the old car went up to 260).

The Volvo factory in south africa could not answer my question reagarding the last point . Can anyone help me? ( I actually bought a beautiful set of PITSTYLE 16inch rims and YOKOHAMA tyres , and got peanuts for the brand new ones that were on the car .

Well mate,
i hate to say that top speed for your -03 T4 isn´t 245km/h it´s same as the older models. (235kmph)
I agree that the older model feels better!
I was thinking to change mine to 2003/2004 mod. but i think that i´ll be waiting for whole new car. (based on Focus)
You can change the shitty looking grill to something nicer.
(OEM looks like 760GLT grill)
Also the OEM wheels sucks big times, but hey...tell me some car that has nice ones as standard! (Maybe Ferrari?)
So i think you should go for at least 17" rims, if you don´t wanna keep that salesman look in your T4.
I´ve got 18" in my own ride, but they aren´t so good to drive anymore!
You know, we have quite bumpy roads in Finland.

What is your question? Are you asking why a 2003 S40 is different from a 2001 model? Only Volvo knows. In most cases, changes are based on what the consumer wants and is willing to pay for.