Road Test
Volvo C30 2.0D
Test date 22 November 2006
Price as tested £18,610
For Keen engine, driving position, premium feel
AgainstBoot space, ordinary dynamics, price
The new Volvo C30 is like no other current Volvo. It’s a premium three-door hatch that avoids traditional Volvo virtues such as space and practicality, replacing them with subjective draws like style and quality feel.
This is Volvo’s first three-door hatchback since the 480 of 1986 and, as far as Volvo’s concerned, it’s a sports coupé, but it’s not really. A Mazda RX-8 or Nissan 350Z is a sports coupe; the C30 is a trendy, fashionable premium hatch – think BMW 1-series, Audi A3 or Mini.
The C30 was first shown as a concept at the Detroit motor show last January, that project in turn derived from Volvo’s 2001 SCC (Safety Concept Car). Visually, it has made it through to production wonderfully and unusually intact. The concept’s four individual seats, small glass tailgate and gently tapering top-half, with broad lower shoulders, have all been retained on the production car. It can even be specified in show-car-aping white with a brown bodykit – a styling accessory most people who saw it reckoned it could do with.
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