Volvo’s C30 is an attractive and sporty looking coupe. It is especially attractive in striking colours. This particular car had another less obvious attraction, in that it came with Volvo’s environmentally friendly Drive package. The Drive version uses the Ford 1.6 litre diesel engine, with all the latest fuel saving technology, like the automatic stop/start and high overall gear ratios. The Ford diesel was developed in conjunction with the diesel experts - Peugeot - and is used by Ford in their Focus and by Mazda in the new Mazda 3. In this Volvo it is tuned to deliver the same levels of power and torque as the latest Mazda 3. The Drive specification also includes a number of aerodynamic and other aids, like low rolling resistance tyres, rear roof spoiler, special undercarriage, revised grille and wheels.
All this adds up to published fuel consumption figures of 61 mpg (4.6 lt/100 km) on the urban cycle, 84 mpg (3.3 lt/100 km) on the extra urban cycle and 74 mpg (3.8 lt/100 km) on the combined cycle. This gives exhaust emissions of 99 gm/km, putting the Volvo C30 Drive comfortably into Irish road tax band A, with an annual charge, at present rates, of 104 euro. I never achieved such impressive figures during the test, but then I tended to avoid using the automatic stop/start facility.
Those impressive figures do not come at the expense of performance, as the top speed is claimed to be 190 kph (118 mph), with 0-100 kph acceleration in 11.3 seconds. Yes, there are faster accelerating cars, but in city and suburban driving conditions, there is very little opportunity to exploit that superior acceleration. This Volvo C30 Drive, had no difficulty at all in keeping up with the other traffic and could comfortably take the lead, when the occasion demanded.

The interior is basically comfortable, but I found a number of annoying little details. For example, the lever to adjust the fore and aft reach of the seats, is on the lower outer edge of each front seat. For some reason, in my case it frequently hooked itself into the leg of my trousers, as I was getting in. Then there is that flat vertical centre console. The heating/ventilating controls are a number of small push buttons for a variety of operations. They are at the bottom of the stack, ahead of and obscured by the gearlever, especially when it is in one of its forward positions (1-3-5). Being so low down you have to take your eyes off the road to find them and being so small, it can take far too long to do so. This can hardly be safe, especially in traffic.

Some operations do work well, like the two lower round selectors for the distribution fan speed (left) and the dual zone temperature selector (right). The selected temperature is then indicated in the digital screen at the top of the stack, which also serves the audio system immediately below. This screen also gives a nice, easy to see, digital indication of the time. The hooded binnacle houses two large analogue dials for speed (left) and engine speed (right). They also house smaller dials for fuel level (left) and engine temperature (right). In addition the binnacle has two rectangular digital panels for other necessary information, like trip and total distance amongst other things. The left hand arm of the steering wheel has selectors for the cruise control, while the right hand arm houses additional controls for the audio system and the mobile telephone installation. Lights are in a panel on the facia, under the air vent on the right hand side, while the locking and electric windows are in the driver’s door armrest, with the exterior mirror controls. When the car is locked with the remote control, the exterior mirrors fold in automatically. The power assisted steering has a very sporty 2.4 turns from lock to lock. It has a nice direct and positive feel, as does the leather covered steering wheel, which has reach and height adjustments.

Both front seats adjust for reach, height and backrest angle. They are comfortable and supportive and on the test car they had the added attraction of two degrees of internal heating. This is very satisfying on a cold and frosty morning, as once the seat has warmed up, you can turn the heat down to a lower temperature, so it remains comfortably warm all the time.
The two rear seats also look to be comfortable and have a narrow folding armrest between them. Each folds down independently when the need arises, to carry additional luggage. You do need to be young and agile to be able to use those two rear seats, as getting in and out is not an easy matter. Although the two front doors are very long the space available between a front seat slid forwards and the B-pillar, is not all that generous and the front seat belt is fixed to the base of the front seat, so it acts as a trap to catch your feet. Added to that, the low roof means that you have to crawl in with great difficulty. Getting out is just as difficult. Then like many other coupes, you need three parking spaces to open the front doors fully. One for the car and one for each of the doors.

The luggage carrying arrangements were intriguing to say the least. The boot had a removable hard top, with a lift up flap to give access. Because of the shape of the rear end, this could be quite difficult to both remove and replace. Once removed it was not easy to carry in the car if you also had passengers and luggage.

Above left : Luggage cover in place ----------------- Above right : Luggage access flap open

Above left : Normal luggage space ------------------- Above right : Maximum luggage space

Normal luggage space is said to be 0.364 cubic metres, which expands to 1.010 cubic metres when the two rear seats are folded. I assume that is loading to the roof in both cases, as the Volvo data varies considerably, depending on where you get it. The driver’s handbook gives one set of data, the sales literature another, for the same vehicle. You are allowed to carry up to 75 kg in a suitable container on the roof, but one source says no towing is allowed with the Drive versions, while another gives normal weights for a car of this size. I can understand the no towing stipulation as the car has a Spacesaver spare wheel.

If you do get a puncture and have to use that spare wheel, I feel sorry for you. The car comes with a standard Ford Motor Company scissors jack. It is designed to be cheap to make, not easy to use. While those wheelarch and sill trims, may be aerodynamic, they make jacking up the car very difficult. The rear jacking position is reasonably accessible with some difficulty, the front position was almost impossible to find. Lying down flat on the ground, I still could not see it, so I had to feel for it with my left hand. Then having located it I had to keep my left hand there, while I tried to manoeuvre in the jack with my right hand. Then try holding the jack up into its location with one hand, while you try to wind it up with the other hand !
This leaves me with a dilemma. On the one hand the car was quite pleasant to drive, in a variety of different conditions. On the other it has a large number of major annoyances which tend to take the gloss of the whole experience. In too many instances it looks as if the designers knock off early every day and leave the unfinished details to the office cleaners to finalise before they go home.

Technical data

************ END ************