I can't remember the last time I've had more fun behind the wheel of a car than I've had over the past week, motoring around southeast Texas in a 2009 Volvo C30. Driving this sporty little luxury coupe is so much fun, that it should be illegal! In fact, I had so much fun exceeding the posted speed limits on both highways and byways that it actually WAS illegal....(but let's just keep that little scofflaw secret between the two of us, okay?) It's not really my fault though. I blame Volvo. They're the ones who built such a COOL car! (Wonder if that argument would buy me any sympathy in traffic court....hope I don't need to find out.)
I like driving just for the pure, simple fun of driving. Always have, always will.
When choosing a car, I often prefer the nimble agility of a small car. They just plain have more driving spunk. But I also like intelligent engineering and I like luxury perks, so I do find myself gravitating towards higher-end brands. The Volvo C30 is a car after my own heart...it looks good, feels great inside, exhibits near brilliance in many of its design aspects, and best of all, it feels magnificent out on the road!
Great Looking Exterior Design: Sporty but Classy...In a world of indistinguishably similar streamlined sedans and bulbous SUVs, the Volvo C30 is a rare beast. It's one of the few cars on the market that stands out from the pack with a truly unique design.
From a head-on perspective, the nose is pure Volvo and looks for all the world like it could be an S40 or a V50...but from the side profile or the rear, there is absolutely NO question that its a C30 and nothing else from any manufacturer anywhere. Nobody else has the proportions and lines of the C30 from the side, and nobody comes close to emulating the stylish notched back end that's the C30's most prominently unique feature. The large pane of back glass isn't just slick looking, it's also functional because the C30 has some of the best, most open, safest rear sight lines of any small car I've driven in recent memory.
Of course this is all subject to personal opinion. That's kind of the nature of unique styling. Some people will go head over heels for it. Some people will call it "weird". Personally, I think weird IS good, after all, who wants to live in a boring world of unimaginitive sameness? Not me! Evidently not the guys at Volvo either since their car has a style all its own.
Comfortable, Usable, Functional Interior...Riding in the Volvo C30 is a very comfortable experience. It's a quiet, solid car with quality materials and workmanship and intelligently designed features.
I'm a huge proponent of usability engineering in any kind of technology, and its an area in which many car makers have trouble. They add on features in the featuritis marketing race with no real thought as to how a real world purchaser would use them. Some car makers do far better at usability than others. Volvo's design of the C30 interior shows that they are FAR ahead of the pack. Virtually every detail is implemented correctly on this car. The dashboard has a feeling of elegant simplicity that makes driving it a real joy. When I step into the drivers seat, I feel like every single button and knob is exactly where it belongs and labeled exactly the way an intelligent driver would expect. The center cluster is mercifully free of clutter and distractions, and it's brilliantly laid out with no critical feature occluded by the steering wheel. Steering wheel controls are labeled with simple icons that make sense, and ALL features needed to operate both the cruise control and the stereo are at your fingertips and working the way you expect. Volvo does nothing weird, quirky, or silly with regards to the dashboard. It's a smart layout for smart drivers.
The center stack is so elegantly designed that you'd almost expect it to have come from a higher dollar luxury brand, but Volvo's had this center stack in other models for the past few years, and it continues to set a standard for simplicity and beauty. It's essentially a wavy flat panel that connects the dashboard to the console with empty space (and some gadget storage) behind it. The center stack presents a clear climate control cluster and a clear sound system control cluster. Both sets of controls are minimalist, yet full featured. The stereo sounds good too...though the Sirius satellite signal tends to fade out every time you go under even a very small bridge. Not sure why the sat signal is so sensitive on this car, but it loses reception noticeably more often than the receiver in my Cadillac does.
The C30 is really a driving enthusiast's car and not a family car. While it's great for a tall driver to be able to scoot the seat back so far that it practically touches the rear seat, it also highlights how tight and cramped that back seat really is. (And tall drivers might find the headroom inadequate...I'm 6 feet even, and it was fine for me with a couple inches of headspace above me, but I imagine a driver of 6'2" or more will find it tight.)
While Volvo claims the car seats 4, it's really most comfortable with 2 adults. The back seat is quite comfortable, though legroom is tight to non-existent. The contoured bucket forms in the backseat are great though and I love the high quality upholstery (got the leather on this baby....I'm not crazy about the fabric seats on the base C30s). Small kids will do okay in the back, but by the time they get to be 9 or 10 years old, they'll force you to give up the soul and excitement of a C30 for a more family accommodating model like the XC60 or S80. I love me some kids, but my oh my, how they force me to make sacrifices when choosing "the daily ride".
The Agility of a Gymnast, the Power Performance of a Bodybuilder...
Got your attention with the sports analogy headline? Good. It's a lie though. When I think about how the Volvo C30 handles and performs out on the road, it's probably more like a Kung Fu master than it is either a gymnast or a bodybuilder. Yes, it does have brilliant agility, and yes it is one of the fastest, quickest vehicles in its class....but the reason it's more like a Kung Fu master is that it doesn't necessarily look particularly threatening. If you see the Volvo grille coming up in your rearview mirror, you could be excused for thinking it was just another safety minded soccer mom carrying the kids to practice after school. It's not till you're breathing the clouds of dust when its driver slyly powershifts it into 6th that you realize that wasn't just your typical suburban S40 sedan. The C30 is a very easy car to underestimate.
The C30 I'm driving has the 6-speed manual transmission and Volvo's turbocharged inline 5-cylinder engine, which kicks out a respectable 227 horsepower. A car this small doesn't really need that much power, but the car is very heavy for a smaller vehicle, with a curb weight over 3200 pounds. Yikes! No wonder the car can't do much better than 30MPG on the highway.
I do love the driving dynamics on this car though. I love it's very quick acceleration and its immediate response when I punch the gas...no hesitation, no turbo lag, no electronics interference. It's just pure punch & go with smooth, effortless efficiency. It's one of the most elegant feeling turbos I've driven (and I used to own an S40 with the same T5 turbo plant, and this one is much slicker and smoother feeling than my old 2002 Volvo, which always exhibited a sudden surge when the turbo kicked in....this 2009 C30 doesn't do that...it surges smoothly without the jolt). The clock tells the story on this car: it'll do 0-60 in just a hair over 6 seconds. Sure, there's cars in dealership showrooms that can beat that, but not many at this price range or with this level of quality.
One thing I like about driving the C30 is that it's got a great feeling stick shift and not the paddle shifter that's becoming overused these days. A paddle can shift faster, but it lacks the exhileration and pure fun factor that a real stick provides. Besides, the shifter on the C30 is pretty tight and you can do a quick shift through most of the gears. I find a little longer travel path between 1st and 2nd than I'd like, but it only took me a few miles of road trip quality time to figure out that the car behaves very well using only gears 2-5. First gear I avoided because it was just kind of a pain in the butt for normal takeoffs, and sixth I didn't really need at all, though it did let me drop the RPMs a couple hundred when cruising at highway speeds. Driving the 6-speed like it was a 4-speed kept me happy most of the time...
To really appreciate a car like the C30, you need to get it off the interstate and on to some backroads. In my opinion, the C30 really shines there. I thought the car exhibited outstanding stability on the curves and dips, especially when I let her rip on a twisty, hilly rural highway. The car felt tight and solid and the tactile response of the wheel was excellent. I was also impressed at how utterly quiet the car was at highway cruising speed (guess that 3200 pounds of curb weight buys you something after all).
Practical Aspects of Owning a Volvo C30...Fahrvergnugen is a great thing to have, but a car needs more than spirit and soul. It also needs great safety engineering, good reliability, and low cost of ownership.
Safety has always been Volvo's biggest selling point. Their company culture is one of safety fanatacism, and the C30 shows that just as much as the bigger, pricier Volvos. The car has an impressive array of safety features built in, from 4-wheel ABS braking systems to electronic stability control, traction control, front and side airbags, and so on and so forth. More telling, the C30 gets a 5-star crash test rating from NHTSA and is listed by IIHS as "Top Safety Pick". You won't find a safer small luxury sports vehicle than the Volvo C30.
Despite the car's fun attitude and impeccable engineering, it's not expensive. Base models start at $23,800 and no matter how heavily you load it down with options, you'll have a tough time getting the price over $30K. At around the $25K level you can get a very nice C30. The car should have low total cost of ownership, particularly over the first 4 years when it is covered by the full bumper-to-bumper and drivetrain warranty with roadside assistance. Volvo also throws in maintenance for the first 3 years, though a look at the owners manual shows that's mostly a systems check and an oil change. (Cars sure are getting easier on the maintenance requirements, aren't they?)
Bottom Line...I've always been a Volvo fan, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Mostly though, I've admired them for their dedication to safety engineering. The C30 shows me that I can admire them for building in some serious fun driving attitude too. I sure do like this C30. Unfortunately, I like my kids too so I won't be able to buy one for myself. Oh well, there's always hope for a divorce some day! (Kids *DO* always go with the mom, right????)
Amount Paid (US$): 23,800
Model and Options: R-design
