so my girlfriend just bought the new s40(not the T5). And i am kinda impressed with a few things. Her car:

2.4 liter engine 163 HP(i think)
black with grey leather and wood grain dash
premium kit, upgraded 6 in dash CD player with 6 speakers, cold weather package(fogs, heated seats and mirrors, headlamp wash), sport package(upgraded wheels, moonroof, upgraded seats, sport suspension)

performane wise not that bad....definately pretty tight even alittle too tight. Suprisingly quick and handling also wasnt bad. Needs slighty better tires( comes with michelin energy). The engine has pretty mean sound(better then a non-intake/header/exhaust TSX).

Interior definately needs some help. The seats are comfortable but alittle too cheap luxury for me. I like the sportiness and sleakiness of the TSX. The audio dash setup is pretty cool with the floating panel affect. the green ambient lighting is kinda bland along with instrument cluster. The radio technology and climate control technology is first class.

Exterior i like. nose is aggressive. I am going to purchase a solid grill as soon as i can and take off the VOLVO Stripe. needs to go. Could use dual exhaust. Headlights are also pretty hot along with the fogs. Nice visabilty without HID's. Just not sporty enough for me. the T5 was much more expensive (like 6 g's more) and insurance on the T5 is out of control.

Overall i like the car and would drive it. Sticker of a fully loaded 2.4 is 29,500. For that money i would rather have a TL for invoice. A good fit for my girlfriend though. from 1 to 10 i give it a 7.

 

When we drove the S40 the air conditioning blower changed speeds when we hit red lights and that was very annoying. Car handled well and preformed well but the one we drove had the ground effects, spoiler, fog lamps, and special wheels. It belonged to Volvo and the exact car was not even available to purchase. The options could only be ordered through the parts department and then sent out to be painted and installed.

 

Don't you hate it when dealers do that.

 

thats pretty much how aftermarket parts work at any dealer anyways. If its dealer added it means ordering through parts dept and being sent out to be painted/fitted/installed

 

The main problem with the S40 I was told was that the interior is claustrophobic. This was from someone that has driven a 90 Civic for the past 14 years.

 

My buddy test drove one, I went along for the ride...I think the interior is way too cheap looking considering the price tag. Power was pretty good, but overall ride was not what you'd expect out of a 27K plus car.
What's with the center console anyways....looks like an oversized phone
As far as the AC, we drove the car for about 15-20 min, AC was full blast, and never cooled the cabin down...I think it was like 85-90 degrees that day. Needless to say we got out of the car and was relieved to be taking in the outside air which felt cooler than that hot ass car.
Interior is kinda cramped. I would say it has as much room as my current Civic, no more or less, but the width of the car could use a few more inches.
Just from my experience.......

 

I drove it at the S40 experience and got to drive it around an autocross.

I didnt like the feel of the shifter, it was very.. emm plastic feeling

The steering was a little light for my tastes but it did have a good on center feel.

The seats were comfortable and i liked the fabric they had for the non leather version.

The automatic sucked though, it was really wierd about upshifting/downshifting.. it had the psudo manual mode which was okay but wasnt much better.

I still prefer my TSX over it.

 

Hi All!

I also recently test drove the S40 T5 and was not impressed with how it felt on the road. The turbo was not as refined (audibly) as I anticipated and I didn't like the 'jerkiness' when the auto-trans shifted from 1st to 2nd.

The interior felt rather cramped and didn't take a liking to the design of the gearshift/handbrake area. Looked rather cheap. The center console looked cool but I think I will get bored of it after the novelty wears off. One other odd observation, the accelerator and brake pedals seemed very close to each other. Could be just me.

However!

The exterior, it seems, is their main selling point and they did an outstanding job. It looks very very nice, in pretty much any color except safari green.

At least I got to cross one car off my buying list.

Hope I will not be as dissapointed when I test drive the TSX.