Volvo S40, V50 Discontinued for 2012

Volvo has decided to discontinue the S40 sedan and V50 wagon for the 2012 model year in the U.S. Both were compact offerings derived from the same platform. The second-generation Volvo S40 debuted as a 2004 model, while the V50 came in 2005.

Both models have struggled to attract American car buyers — the automaker had reshuffled trim names and content offerings to make each more attractive over time. Even so, the S40 and V50 have seen double-digit decreases in year-over-year sales, which are down 29.5% for the S40 and 59.1% for the V50. “The S40 and V50 are great cars,” says Volvo spokesman James Hope, “[but] our focus, however, needs to be on our volume vehicles, specifically the S60, XC60, XC90, S80 and XC70.”

The C30 and C70 will continue to be offered, says Hope, even though neither is a particularly strong seller in the U.S. As we reported earlier, Volvo also discontinued the larger V70 wagon in 2011, leaving an automaker once synonymous with wagons with just one entry left in the field: the rugged XC70.

Volvo’s only compact entry in the U.S. for 2012 is the C30 hatchback.

Comments

Volvo s40 is a very good compact executive car. It has some very nice features like it has decent space for the driver while the seats are incredibly comfortable, huge sunroof, manual is slick-shifting and nice to use and like all the Volvo cars it is also a safe and long lasting car. But I have also find some bad sites of it. Some problems that I faced in using my Volvo are Ignition misfire under acceleration due to bad Coil-on-plugs and sudden battery failure. Though it has few problems it has very smart outlook and I really love this car.