Click here for the Ride&Drive Index!

The Volvo S40 is the latest new model from Volvo Cars, a company that has been recreating itself segment by segment in recent years. The new S40 replaces the previous model of the same designation, which was launched in Europe in 1995, and joins the larger Volvo S60 and S80 sedans.

From the outside, the new S40 has an unmistakably Volvo "look" to it, a modern evolution of the design school that began with the S80 sedan. Inside, it's more of the same — Volvo writ small(er). The company is especially proud of its ultra-slim center console. Says Henrik Otto, Design Director at Volvo Cars:

"The center console is a design icon for the new Volvo S40. We intend to pursue our position as inaugurators in the car design world, not looking at what our competitors are doing. It is therefore far more valuable to keep an eye on what they're not doing."

With the S40, Volvo continues its groundbreaking use of high-tensile steel. In the new front structure, four different grades of steel are used in an intelligent interplay to provide maximum safety for the car's occupants. Side impact protection is addressed by the use of extremely rigid cross members that form a three-way attachment between the leading edge of the A-pillar and the base of the B-pillar. Similar cross members are found in the rear doors as well. This system of energy absorption, along with the new slim-design 5-cylinder engines is called Volvo's Intelligent Vehicle Architecture (VIVA), and represents, they say, a new approach to vehicle safety design.

The new S40 is being introduced with a choice of five-cylinder engines: a normally aspirated unit producing 168-horsepower and a 218-horsepower high-pressure turbocharged engine found in the T5. Our test car was a T5 equipped with Volvo's new six-speed close-ratio manual gearbox and electronically controlled all-wheel drive.

Volvo is staking a lot on the S40 — and especially the T5 — to attract younger buyers to the brand. They may succeed. The S40 is deceptively bland in urban driving, but really comes into its own in hard driving out in the country. There, the handling really shines. It was just a whole lot of fun flinging our S40 through hard curves.

On the downside, we were disappointed in the rear seat legroom. The S40 is really more of a four-door 2+2. We have been berating BMW for years for the same lapse. Perhaps they know something we don't — i.e., that the typical S40 (and 3-Series Bimmer) buyer is going to be young and single, and rarely transport more than two passengers. We hope so, because any full-grown adult forced to endure the back seat for any length of time is likely to be very unhappy about it.

The S40 is being built in the Volvo Cars factory in Ghent, Belgium, which was thoroughly remodeled and modernized at a cost of $387 million. Wasn't there a Treaty of Ghent? Indeed, there was. It ended the War of 1812 with Britain, the war the history books always seemed to forget when they told us America had never lost a war.

So the Volvo S40 is the SECOND piece of good news for America to come out of Ghent. And a pleasant enough vehicle it is, too. Our test car carried a sticker of $30,440, including options and destination charges. That's pretty typical of cars in the small sport sedan market segment and represents good value.

Looking ahead, we're told that the new S40 is the first in a range of upcoming Volvo models that will be sharing common technology. Next in line is the Volvo V50, a "premium activity wagon" that will replace the current V40. Expect to see a road test review on that in a year or so. R&D