2015 Volvo V40 T5 R

9 July, 2015   By: Alex Forrest

When Volvo launched its warm little V40 T5 R-Design hatchback two and a half years ago, it was a refreshing new alternative to the line-up of hot hatch usual suspects such as the good but ubiquitous Volkswagen Golf GTI.

Here was a brand new hot hatch with class-leading safety credentials and innovation. It proved safety and driving fun can actually live quite happily together.

Now, it has a new engine and a new gearbox and uses less fuel but has greater engine flexibility.

The key pioneering piece of safety on the V40 remains its pedestrian airbag, and with the right options it can even recognise a potential collision with a pedestrian and automatically apply the brakes to avoid the person.

Lurking under the bonnet of that first T-5 R-Design was a 2.5-litre, turbocharged five cylinder engine.

With 187kW and 360Nm on hand, it had no shortage of grunt for a vehicle in this class, but it was thirsty. Volvo have done something about that.

For 2015, the Volvo has given the T5 R-Design a brand new but smaller 2.0-litre turbocharged engine.

The new power plant is part of Volvo’s new family of Drive-E engines, which seek to bring more up-to-date levels of efficiency with little sacrifices to the outputs.

In fact, even though the 2015 T5 R-Design has only 180kW and 350Nm, both of these peak outputs come in earlier in the rev range, so the engine’s best is more accessible and easily usable than it was in the five-cylinder one.

Also new for this year is the eight-speed automatic gearbox, which is two extra cogs than in the initial version.

Stepping in to the V40, the solid build quality is immediately obvious.

The V40 easily passes the traditional door-closing ‘thunk’ test and once you’re in, switch gear such as the indicator stalk and the buttons on the centre stack have solid, defined movements.

All of which should set your mind slightly more at ease if you’ve just shelled out more than $50,000 for a three-door hatchback.

The interior of the V40 is tight though, with the low roof over the front seats limiting front passenger head room – those over 190cm tall would be cramped – and in the back, leg room is quite limited. The centre rear seat is very tight.

The ergonomics of the seatbelts are excellent though. The inertia reel is pleasingly easy to pull the belt from, and children had no trouble finding the buckle and fastening their belts – a trait which can’t be said of every new car.

There’s no doubt T5 R-Design’s ride is taut, with the trade-off being a sharp driving experience. However, the Golf does seem to find a happier medium between ride suppleness and handling aplomb.

The V40’s turning circle is also substantially bigger than is ideal.

Where the V40 T5 R-Design truly excels is in the safety equipment it offers – such as road sign recognition, which can read road signs and display the posted speed limit on the dash.

Most of the time it gets it right, but electronic school zone speed signs can confuse it.

This technology comes as part of a $5,000 driver assist pack, which also brings electronic  lane keeping assistance, a blind spot warning system, parking assist, adaptive cruise control and cross traffic alert.

Competitors include the Golf GTI, the brilliant but less practical BMW 220i, the Mercedes A250 Sport and the Audi A3 1.8 TFSI quattro.