Volvo has discontinued selling the S40 sedan in the United States, which is a damn shame. It’s a great car, quite popular elsewhere in the world, and I see them quite a bit in Seattle. Though, to be fair, if Volvo’s Seattle market share was mirrored nationwide, it’d be a Top 5 automaker. We Seattlelites love our Volvos, probably because they’re quite practical cars for the climate (and we pride ourselves on being quite practical people), but also because Seattle has a very strong Scandinavian heritage. What the Irish are to Boston and Chicago, Scandinavians are to Seattle.
I love my S40 T5 AWD. I’ve had it for almost four years, and I’ve driven it up and down the West Coast and across the country and back. Trust the Swedes to build a car that can tackle the snow and winter conditions without a sweat. And I’ve seen my S40 turn heads in admiration.
Alas, it doesn’t even look like Volvo will design a next generation S40; the current design dates back to 2004 and no replacement is in sight, which means that Volvo will likely trim its sedan line to just the new S60. I do like the look of the new S60, but I’ve priced it out to almost $45K to get one equipped comparably to my S40, and my S40 is years away from needing replacement. So I’ll be a proud owner of the now-dwindling number of S40s in the United States for the foreseeable future.