Hi. I recently bought a used 2000 v40 with 14k miles on it. few questions for the v40 owners as i try to figure out more about my new car :

power while driving: i noticed the car has some kick but not a huge surge of turbo power as i would have expected more when i hit the highway. sport mode definitely helps kick it in more though. is this typical of this car?

alarm: when i push the lock button on the remote all doors lock but nothing tells me if the alarm is activated such as flashing lights as i see on many other cars. i have asked the volvo dealer about this and they tell me the lights are not supposed to flash when i push lock with teh remote to set the alarm however i am not sure if i trust their response as i see this feature on other volvo models....can anyone shed any light on this?

engine noise: after excelerating and then going to slow down you can clearly hear the engine winding down is this something other v40 owners have experienced?

one thing i have noticed and it has happened twice since i have purchased the car: i have gone to start it up and it has turned over a few times but not started. i would have to turn the key off adn turn it on again adn then teh car will start ok. this has only happened twice but i dont feel that it should happen at all. anyone else have this problem?

any ideas and thoughts are most appreciated.
other than that i love this car and couldn't be happier!

Hi there and congrats on your car. I have an 2000 S40 with 37.7k miles on it...I'll try to answer your questions the best that I can.

power while driving: The S40 has a light pressure turbo which is adequate for the car, but won't break any land speed records. Sport mode desfinitely will help the performance of the car, but your gas mileage will suffer slightly.

alarm: My lights flash when I lock my car. The interior map lights comes on when I unlock the car.

engine noise: Lol...I questioned this when I first purchased my car. I was never told exactly what was winding down after I excelerated, but I was told that the winding down noise was normal for the car. The fuel pump is silly loud in our car as well.

As far as your starting problem goes: Your battery is now at least 4 years old. You may want to have to looked at and replaced. I don't know where you live, but the cold winter weather will certainly have an effect on an old battery. I personlly do not have any winter starting issues with my car.

Other things to look for are: the rear brake pump has some problems, the original wheel center caps would fall off and were subsequently replaced by the dealer with new ones that were designed differently. The car could use a tighter suspension, a better stereo and if your car still has the OE Michelins...get rid of them, they stink...other than that my S40 has been problem free.

Edvig

Thanks edvig for all the valuable information. im definitely going to have the alarm checked soon with volvo before the rest of my original warranty runs out. i am actually missing a center cap on one of my wheels as well so i will talk to volvo about that too. i had a feeling something was faulty with those.

the car had a new battery put in about 1 yr ago before i purchased it - i did have some problems with the battery cables which were replaced but i fear there is another small issue which may be the cause of the car not starting as it should all the time. no cold winter morning issues where i am either so itll be an issue ill have to deal with once it appears more frequently and i can point it out to volvo.

thanks again for the pointers on the 40 series - i appreciate it.

happy driving

I also recently bought a used V40. The car had about 30K on it when I purchased it, I've put around 7k on it since. Overall I'm satisfied with the car, but a few things I have noticed are troublesome. First of all, I think the fuel gauge is completely inaccurate. The tank will read completely empty and when I go to refill, the car will only take 11.5-12 gal. (minor, but annoying) More recently I have noticed a burning smell coming from the engine. It would seem that I have an oil leak, but I see no evidence of it otherwise. I'm not losing oil according to the dipstick or my driveway and the engine looks clean. Has anyone else experienced this??