Hi all, new V50 1.6 D owner 2011, had it a few weeks now.
Having moved from a 180 BHP A4 with excellent handling performance is an issue for me, but i intend to pep it up a little to make it more tolerable, so will be seeking advice form members of the forum about what works, and what doesn't.
I dont ever expect it to match the A4, but am sure it can be better. It fulfils the same role as the A4, being the small economical estate car, to offset against our Disco. Having failed to find an A4 in budget that wasn't battered abused or had poor accident damage we re evaluated what we fundamentally needed, and SWMBO realised this would give same economy as Audi, but save £200+ per year on road tax, so we looked at them and bought one.
Car itself seems good, and despite my comments pleasantly pleased with it.

 

Let me the first to welcome you to the forum and be the first to give you the wise-guy answer on pepping up an NA or D car: If you want more HP, trade it in for a T5 :-) If you want to improve handling, here's my order of upgrades 1) better wheels/tires (or tyres?). Check wheel-size.com for wheel specs appropriate to your model. 2) add after-market sway bars. Not sure what's available for the V50s so you need to look around at various tuner stores. 3) Upgrade shocks/springs - Volvo OEM shocks/struts are actually pretty firm so this isn't a big step. Koni/Bilsteins are upgrades Boge/Sachs is OEM. Koni and some specialty brands offer compression and rebound valve control to help tune the shocks if you are tech savvy. When it comes to springs, you can go fixed rate lowering springs (ie H+R) progressive rate springs (softer at the ends to give some initial ride compliance) like Eibach or the top end is to use coil overs. Coil overs have the benefit of adjustible ride height and the springs/shocks are properly paired. If you lower the car more than say 1 inch, you may want to look for a geometry kit like camber plates 4) Front tower brace - more show than go for street rides but its available. 5) better brakes. Look for big disk kits kits or research what other Volvo brakes can fit your model. Typically you can install larger rotors by changing the caliper carrier from another model but you'd need to research this. Slotted/drilled rotors - this vents the hot gasses out that cause brake fade. You can also use upgraded pads or calipers with more pots to improve clamping force.