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Our Fleet Test Drive: Volvo V40 - 12th Report
Date: 24 January 2014 | Author: Jack Carfrae
Give it a brake: the V40 was the first car in Volvo's line-up to be fitted with City Safety as standard
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It is the most recent all-new Volvo, and the V40 has set the benchmark for other models in the company's range.
The lower medium model was the first in the line-up to have as standard the firm's City Safety system, which applies the brakes automatically if, at town speeds, it detects a pedestrian walking out in front of the car or another impending object to shunt.
The popularity of autonomous emergency braking (AEB) systems has been gaining. They've been acknowledged as a force for good by the insurance industry, and if a car is fitted with one as standard it will have its premiums lowered as a result.
Off the back of the success of City Safety in the V40, Volvo has now made it standard fit across the rest of its new cars, instigating a range-wide drop in insurance groups. That's not a bad bit of influencing from a car that only joined the range last year.
I can't say I've ever experienced the AEB on our V40 - for which I'm ultimately grateful - but it's comforting to know it's there. I have tried it in an upper medium S60 on a test track, though. Weird as it was to have the car slam on the anchors with no input from me, it dutifully halted in front of the (dummy) pedestrian I was aiming for.
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