2005 Volvo V50 in Winston Salem

Volvo's previous small wagon, the V40, was a terrifically average car that ambled down the road of mediocrity with a 1.9-liter, 170-horsepower four-cylinder engine, front-wheel drive, and an automatic transmission. Its successor, the V50, steps into the small-wagon ring with the proper equipment-and style-to go grille-to-grille with the Audi A4 Avant, Mercedes-Benz C-class, and BMW 3-series wagons. In terms of general ambition, the V50 is Bill Clinton to the V40's Roger.

The V50 offers two engines: a normally aspirated, 168-horsepower, 2.4-liter five-cylinder and the 218-horsepower, turbocharged 2.5-liter in the T5. You can get the T5 with a six-speed manual transmission or all-wheel drive but not both. Volvo officials explain this situation by halfheartedly muttering something about the front-wheel-drive manual T5 being lighter and less expensive, but it seems counterintuitive that performance-oriented drivers would want a manual transmission only if they could use it to smoke the front tires like herring. The manual-and-awd combo is offered in Europe, so if enough manual-minded shoppers migrate to the Bavarian competition (and the upcoming Japaswedish Saab 9-2X), this could change.

The interior displays a few tricks that indicate Volvo designers have been running with the SEMA crowd in recent years, such as the optional, semitransparent "Iced-Aqua" plastic trim that adorns the sleek center console.... Read full article