Volvo’s five-door V40 has proved to be a credible entrant in the premium compact hatch sector against cars like BMW’s 1 Series and Audi’s A3.

Now it’s been facelifted and made even more efficient writes Jonathan Crouch.

As with most things in life, the best products take what seems a complicated bunch of requirements and reduce them to something very simple and elegant. The improved, facelifted Volvo V40 is just such a car.

The Swedish company has built a premium five-door family hatch that looks great, drives well, makes sense on the balance sheet and which has an amazing amount of safety equipment built into it.

It really is as good as it looks, especially with a set of highly efficient ‘Drive-E’ engines beneath the bonnet.

These include three 2.0-litre Drive-E diesel units developing either 120, 150 or 190bhp and respectively used in the D2, D3 and D4 models.

Then there are four 2.0-litre Drive-E petrol powerplants, offering 120, 150, 190 or 245bhp and respectively used in the T2, T3, T4 and T5 models.

AWD traction is an option on the auto-only T5 if you choose ‘Cross Country’ trim.

Go for the T2 and the T3 variants with automatic transmission and your engine will be 1.5-litres in size but the performance will be the same as the 2.0-litre powerplant.

All models come with alloy wheels, electronic climate control that also cools the glovebox, plus leather-trim for the gear knob and for a steering wheel that has audio controls for an eight speaker stereo with USB and iPod inputs, operable via the same 5-inch colour screen you can use to set up the Bluetooth connection for your ‘phone.

Safety-wise, there’s a world first - an under-bonnet airbag that springs out to protect pedestrian in the event of an impact.

With the V40, Volvo has brought its brand up to date - and continues to do so.

More fashionable styling clothes some serious safety in a very assured piece of design further improved by Volvo’s own ‘Drive-E’ 2.0-litre petrol and diesel engines.

Efficient yet characterful, stylish yet sensible, it ought to appeal far beyond Volvo’s core customer base.