Faults:

It's a red vehicle and the paint is a problem, as it looks oxidized a week after a wax; I just don't do it anymore.

General Comments:

I have driven this car 300 mile s a week for a year and a half. 34,000 miles and aside from oil changes, tire rotations a set of headlight bulbs and some performance mods, all I've had to do is a rear brake change. The paint on mine is red and yes, it looks very oxidized and had this happened after a year or two if I had been a new buyer, I'd complain, but I knew the paint issue going in. This has been a very reliable, problem-free, fun-to-drive vehicle. A sport exhaust, K&N filter, gas shocks and a fat anti-sway bar have made this car a great cruiser and fun to play with the beemers.

Faults:

Nothing has gone wrong with the car except the air-con had to be re-gassed.

General Comments:

I bought this car from a friend, and have not looked back. It runs like a dream, and the sport trim makes it in my opinion the best looking car on the road.

It is very fast with its 1.8i engine, and I get about 30 miles per gallon.

Its not the most exciting car I have ever driven, but it is probably the safest.

The only thing I don't like about it is the running costs. The servicing and parts are not cheap, but because it's such a solid car I'll forgive it for being a little thirsty.

Faults:

Car has had no problems.

General Comments:

I bought this car for my wife on Aug 1st 2005 and she loves it! It is like new and has been well maintained with 62,000+miles on it now. It has loads of power and still gets 33mpg on highway! The mpg is almost as good as my Honda Civic. I will add more after we have had car longer.

Faults:

Practically nothing so far. The steering makes a very subtle squeaking sound when being turned if the car is stationary, but this does not bother me at all.

General Comments:

I downgraded from my 2.4L S80 because although it had the comforts of a ballroom and the solidity of a tank, it was consuming too much fuel since I was doing mostly town driving.

The V40 is obviously less spacious in the back seat and the interior trim is nowhere near as posh as the S80, but it is much more practical.

The fantastic estate boot is functional with belts and nets to secure cargo. It takes my Large dog comfortably and I recently carried a 6ft Christmas Tree in there. Very practical.

The 1.6 being the weakest engine in the range, it accelerates a bit slow when joining large roads, but if you do not want racy driving, it is perfectly adequate. It has carried 5 adults and a dog and the only thing is that you'd have to drive in 1 gear higher than what you usually would.

The good thing is that it it is very economical and my weekly fuel spending has gone down to between 1/2 and 2/3 of what it used to be with the S80.

Insurance and Tax are also lower.

For a car of such high mileage for its age, it is behaving very well - almost like new. And the service history indicates all the repairs were very minor - bulbs etc.

Overall: manoeuvreable, responsive steering, easy to park, decent handling, loads of bolume in the rear, but poor back seat legroom, cheap and practical to run... in one word - workhorse.

... and for £4500 off ebay it was a real bargain.