There are plenty of reasons why you don’t want a Volvo. After all, showing off your fertility isn’t really your thing. You don’t have a Labrador/Doodle and you absolutely hate furniture that you have to build yourself. We can totally understand that. But that old five-cylinder engine is secretly very nice. What now? Ford Focus ST and RS The main savior for non-Volvo enthusiasts is Ford, which added the Swedish brand to its portfolio in 1999. Ford recognized the qualities of the rumbling five-cylinder and saw a benefit in it for its own products. It took until 2005 for the engine to appear in a Ford. And not in the least: the second generation Focus ST was the lucky one. Or rather its owners, because they can now enjoy a rumbling five-cylinder with 225 hp. And, let’s be honest, that power source makes this car what it is. The Focus ST clearly tasted like more, so Ford went a step further. The Focus RS also got the eager Swedish block, which was boosted to 305 hp for the occasion. Quite a lot, although it can of course be even crazier. In the farewell edition Focus RS 500 you do it with no less than 350 hp. All this on the front wheels, so extremely spectacular. And, above all, in the top Focus the block delivers considerably more power than ever in a factory Volvo. Ford S-Max, Mondeo and Kuga If you don’t like that sporty stuff, then you are still not condemned to a Swede. You will also find the famous turbo engine in other Fords, which also handle more than well. With 220 hp, the Mondeo 2.5 20V and S-Max 2.5 20V are particularly suitable for brisk salesmen and fast families, in the latter case up to seven people. At Volvo you will then be sitting in a sedate XC90. That sprints faster from 0 to 100 only with V8 and certainly doesn’t push through to 235 km/h – or even 245 km/h for the Mondeo. Speaking of SUVs: in the first generation Ford Kuga you could also opt for the 2.5 20V. Admittedly, it had a little less room to gallop, because the power was reduced to 200 hp. Nevertheless, this Kuga is by no means a poor one, because in combination with the standard four-wheel drive you still shoot to 100 km/h in 8.2 seconds and you can go up to 210 km/h. Seems hard enough to us. The preliminary conclusion is that Ford in particular can help you get around a Volvo carriage just fine. Unless you are looking for transport for seven, in which case you will probably end up in an XC90. A seven-seater Ford with a five-cylinder turbo is unfortunately thin on the ground, and that also applies to the Mondeo. For the SUV, things are a little different: scoring a rumbling Kuga is a notch easier. It can also be done without a Ford Now suppose that sharp steering is not really your thing, but you still don’t want a Volvo. There is a solution for that too. And that solution comes from a surprising source, because Renault supplied the Safrane Phase II (1996-2000) with Volvo’s 2.4-liter five-cylinder. A different engine than Ford would later use, with a slightly smaller displacement and without a turbo. The Safrane therefore ‘only’ came to 168 hp and a 0-100 of 9.1 seconds – if you opt for the manual version. The more obvious automatic easily takes 10.2 seconds, but of course you don’t buy such a French glider for the numbers, but the combination of this growling five-cylinder with the French bodywork seems to us to be a special experience. The disadvantage here too is rarity. Because if you get greedy for this five-burner Renault, you have the best chance on a French classifieds website.
Source: www.autoweek.nl
