Volvo XC40 SUV - Reliability & safety

The Volvo XC40 was ranked the most reliable SUV on sale in 2020, and scored a top-10 finish in 2021, so owning one shouldn’t be a pain. Safety is in keeping with Volvo’s impeccable reputation for making cars that protect your family, and increasingly, those around you on the road, too.

Volvo XC40 reliability

The Volvo XC40 is built on a new platform for Volvo, so its reliability could have been questionable. However, customer feedback seems to be glowingly positive, suggesting the XC40 is great to live with. Its engines are tried and tested, too, fitted in models including the XC90, XC60, V60 and V90, with a good reputation for covering many miles without incident. 

In our 2021 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, the XC40 finished in an impressive eighth place out of the top 75 cars. Owners spoke highly of its reliability and build quality, and pretty much across the board, with only its fuel economy coming under fire. 

Volvo as a brand performed similarly impressively, finishing in ninth place out of 29 manufacturers. Overall, 20.5% of owners reported a fault with their cars in the first year - that’s a little high, but the brand’s strong marks in this area suggest that most faults were minor glitches.

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Safety

The Volvo XC40 has been given five stars in independent Euro NCAP crash tests, with impressive scores across the board that make it the safest small SUV. A 97% score for adult occupant protection is certainly reassuring, along with a high 87% score for child occupants.

Perhaps the car's key safety technology is City Safety autonomous emergency braking, which can not only detect vehicles, but pedestrians, cyclists and even large animals, helping prevent collisions or at least lessen their severity. There are also systems to help keep the car on the road, and prevent it heading towards oncoming traffic, all fitted as standard.

Every XC40 also comes with Volvo On Call, a smartphone app and emergency assistance package that allows you to control some functions of the car remotely (like locking and unlocking), and can alert the emergency services if you're involved in a crash.