The cabin has been designed in a way that puts front-seat occupants far higher up the food chain than those in the back.
Being a rear passenger is a fairly thankless task. It isn’t that the rear cabin is small– headroom is tight for the tall, but because there are only two seats, shoulder room is generous, and adults will find enough legroom. But getting in and out is awkward. The front seats tip and slide but are hard to return to their original position, while the front-seat belts slide on runners across the door opening, making a trip hazard.
The boot is poorly sized. The sill is high, the floor shallow and the opening small. Volvo claims boot space is 364 litres with the rear seats up, and that hollows at the sides make it wide enough to swallow a set of golf clubs. That’s true, but you can’t get a set into the boot into the first place without dropping one of the rear seats. An average pushchair is a squeeze. But if the hatch is a near-joke, the loadbay cover is a
Two Ronnies
sketchbook. It’s made from flexible vinyl, with two sprung bars securing it to the interior and a loose flap that needs to be pitched like a tent before the view through the hatch is obscured. A hard cover is optional.
Cabin storage elsewhere is inadequate too. The door pockets are measly, the glovebox is big enough solely for the handbook, and there are just a couple of cubbies in the centre console.
Still, fit and finish are excellent. There are soft-feel finishes to most surfaces and the swtichgear feels of genuinely good quality.
All C30s come with alloy wheels, a CD player and dual-zone climate control. Prices start at £14,750, but every model bar the base 1.6S is £15,995 or more. And although SE models like our test car contain most of the toys you’d expect, it’s not until the SE Sport trim level (another £1500 on this car) that you get the body kit that makes the C30 such a looker. Metallic paint is £500.
