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Having spent a few months as a 460 owner, I was very impressed with Volvo’s quality and reliability. There was nothing wrong with the 460, but it stank of unburnt fuel and ran very hot in traffic, so I decided to treat myself in Feb. 2001 to the above car, a 1.8 440xi.
I’ll never forget the test drive, because the rear - view mirror was missing! Overall it just felt ‘tighter’ and a lot lighter in terms of controls than the 1991 460. Okay, I wasn’t coming up in the years much - the 440 is 1994 - but it just felt a lot more nimble and ‘user friendly’ compared to the 460.
I have had an interesting life with the 440, between early 2001 when I bought it, and mid 2007. The accident tally alone is, um, rather impressive. A collision with a Jeep Cherokee on a roundabout. Reversing into the neighbour’s car. The ‘high point’ was getting pushed sideways by a Scania truck near the M50 in Dublin.
The driver was obviously asleep, for he had left the space of a truck in front of him in rush - hour traffic. I though that he was letting me pull out ( of the petrol station ) but just as I exited he floored it ... and would have ‘carpeted’ me if I was driving anything else ...
He basically caught the entire front of the car. The amazing thing is, the lack of damage. other than the bumper getting messed up ( again! ) and the acrylic headlamp guard getting broken, there was no damage. It passed the NCT ( National Car Test - roadworthiness ) shortly afterwards! Had I been driving a Punto, it would have been a ‘write off’.
Oops! Volvo main dealer in Limerick messed up the front bumper. They refused to fix it, and I ended up doing it myself. This pic. was taken sometime in 2006, after it had gotten messed up again - by a large Swedish relative ( Scania truck! )
I racked up a full 72,000 miles in this car over 6 years. Rarely has there been a problem. The only big ones were the cambelt snapping ( luckily I was doing 3 m.p.h. at the time ) and the more recent problem - stalling when coming to a halt. To be honest it has had a rainwater leak problem that I never fixed until ‘07, so this may have something to do with it. I recently blew 202 euro on an idle control valve, just in case! This car will not be allowed to die!
 The space in these cars is absolutely phenomenal! My record so far on trips to my local dump is 12 full refuse sacks and a fridge. It’s carried a sofa, doors, cement mixer, lawnmower ... you name it. It’s also towed a number of cars, and even a forklift. It’s a ‘rig’ in the true sense of the word. It doesn’t look like a big car but when you drop the back seats forward you instantly have a van: not a pretend van, a van!
It’s also not a bad looker. Park a 440 beside many of the latter day Volvo’s and it looks contemporary. Personally I prefer it to the later stuff, which in my opinion looks like it was squeezed out of a tube. Last but not least, the 440 is quite good on the petrol: I was easily achieving 38 m.p.g., which is very respectable for a 1.8. It’s a perky, revvy car with that.
1,300 euro for over 6 years of motoring? - I’ll drink to that!
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