Legendary Volvo safety, VW-style reliability

I own a 2006 Volvo S40 2.4i with the sport suspension, premium sound, leather seats, and aluminum interior trim. My relationship with this car is a love/dislike one. When everything is working properly, I love it. A little underpowered without the turbo, and not the best in its class for in-town gas mileage (not bad on the highway, though), but I love the look and feel of this vehicle. It's not like most other cars and I get a lot of compliments on it.

Things I like: looks, handling, the puddle lights. I love the puddle lights! They make me feel SO safe when walking to my car late at night in the parking garage. I could see way ahead of time if someone was crouching next to my vehicle. Bravo to Volvo for thinking about safety, especially for women like me! This feature alone makes my friends jealous.

The seats are very supportive, and the car fits me well. However, I'm only 5'5" and this car wouldn't fit someone much taller than 5'9" or so. The backseat is more cramped than my old Mazda 626 was. My tall friends always get shotgun. The pedals are also very close together, but I got used to it. I imagine this could be an issue for a person with wide feet, though.

Blind spots: boy, does this car have them. I'm used to them now, but I had trouble with it for a while. I recently drove a loaner 2008 S40 that had a blind spot warning system. I almost traded my car in just for that feature. It was unbelievably helpful.

Also, if you're used to doing a little work on your car yourself, don't buy a Volvo. Just finding where all the parts are can be a challenge at times. Take, for instance, the oil filter. VERY smart design IMHO, but who knew the filter was under the hood and not under the car? Took me a while to pop the hood and find it, and to figure out how to reset the "Regular Maintenance Required" reminder on the control panel. Volvo makes it difficult for you to do the maintenance yourself, and I'm a mechanical engineer - I should be able to figure these things out. Well OK, to be fair, I'm NOT a mechanic. But it could still be easier.

The trunk is deep, but good luck trying to fit anything through the opening. The map pockets on the doors are *ridiculously* small. The extra-deep glove box is nice though, until you want to get something out of it while sitting in the driver's seat. Forget that. I could put half of my torso in that glove box, which means I can't reach the back of it without plopping into the passenger seat first.

By the way, if you don't want a bumpy ride, get the model that doesn't have the sport suspension. Sometimes my teeth chatter! But it is fun to drive if you find a curvy road - or live in the mountains (which I don't). I have been in other "sport" cars with tight suspensions, but they are far less bumpy than this car. I feel EVERY bump - I dread driving into parking lots or even over the reflectors on the pavement.

As for reliability issues: Mine has just under 16,000 miles and so far I've had issues with the A/C system (it was making a knocking sound and would stop blowing and then start again), various manufacturing defects like carpet tacks that pull out, seat belts that squeak when you breathe, etc...all of which are "known issues" that are explained away by my service advisor (lazy bum).

Two weeks ago I brought it in again for computer "upgrades"...which are seemingly endless for the S40...and the A/C was fixed. However, now I have developed a problem with my remotes not working, my door locks going haywire, and this morning my windows and side mirrors stopped working altogether. I am not at all pleased that I have to bring it in again for computer glitches.

Put simply, this car has way too many computers that apparently don't like to work well with each other. Oh and, it has VERY slow windshield wipers, even when they're on their highest speed. Not helpful in the middle of a South Louisiana thunderstorm.

I would buy this car again ONLY if they ironed out the majority of these computer bugs, and of course, if I could afford the turbo!

For all of its problems, however, I still like my car. I think Volvo has some serious issues with the electronics, but this car can still compete with other European cars in this price range. VW was more expensive and even less reliable than this car has been. It hasn't left me stranded yet and I don't think it will. Most of my complaints (outside of the electronics issues) are due to the fact that I'm still getting used to owning a Volvo...if you've ever owned one, you'll know exactly what I mean.