Winning Over the Uninitiated I had hardly slept the night before I left for Costa del Sol, Spain. It was another all-nighter, writing and editing a raft
 |
| I eagerly awaited the new Volvo S40 that was waiting for me to test drive in Malaga, Spain. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
of news stories and reviews so that they would be ready to go live while I was out of country. I got a little shuteye on the three long flights, about 15 hours total from the West Coast not including airport connection time, which made me less of danger to surrounding traffic after jumping into the new Volvo S40 that lay waiting for me in Malaga.
 |
| Either due to my lack of sleep, or Volvo's superb transmission, I didn't mind being assigned an automatic S40. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
Because of my sleep deprivation I didn't mind getting "stuck" with an example featuring the Swedish brand's automatic transmission, normally preferring the opportunity to shift gears for myself. Truly, it's a superb autobox, shifting from gear to without hesitation and with near seamless precision, while offering adaptive logic (the ability to 'read' driver input levels and modify shifting patterns according to passive or aggressive behavior) when in the "D" position or manual actuation for those frisky moments.
And believe it or not, Spain's brisk mountain air, serpentine highway system and overwhelmingly beautiful scenery, combined with a wonderfully refined, tantalizingly quick sport sedan perked me up rather quickly.
