Category: Small Family 
Price Range: £14,995 to £20,845
Clever mix of Volvo design and three-door hatchback compactness, airy cabin, quick but quiet, strong grip, confident handling and disciplined ride, well finished and well-equipped, five-star NCAP crash test score.
Jerky manual downshifts in auto versions, no paddle-shifts, tiny glovebox, sliding electric front seats for rear access are slow and have no memory.
Volvo virtues in a sporty hatchback make an alluring combination. It's the first 'affordable' Volvo in years to appeal to the heart.
This is undoubtedly a pleasant way to travel. All four seats are very comfortable (the fronts are the same as a Volvo C70's), and rear passengers have a lot of space around them. They also have a clear view forward because they are positioned inboard of the front seats' head restraints. The ride comfort is as good in the back as it is in the front; firmish, but well-rounded with no aftershocks and excellent control of big body movements. The C30 is commendably quiet, too, with little wind rush or road roar.
The deep, all-glass tailgate opens over a high sill to reveal a decent if hardly cavernous boot, and part of the C30's styling idea is that you can see from the rear window right through to the 'floating' console. In practice you'll most likely use the flexible luggage cover if you have any valuables in the boot, and fold up the rear seats' centre armrest to fill the gap between the seats. A rigid cover is optional. The rear seat backrests fold forward, but the one-piece seat base (it looks like two separate seats but isn't) stays where it is.
Meagre door pockets are augmented by more pockets next to the rear seats, but the glovebox is close to a joke. Behind its promising lid is a slot just big enough for the handbook and no more. There's a further storage box between the front seats.
Top C30s get electric seat adjustment, but all of them use electric motors to slide the front seats forward for rear-seat access. The movement is tediously slow, and the seat doesn't remember where it started from. A tilt-and-slide manual system, as used in most three-door superminis, would be much better.
There's a variety of interior trim and colour options, including rust-red carpets which look a lot better than they sound, and you can specify a potent Dynaudio stereo system with Dolby ProLogic surround sound. An iPod or MP3 player interface is on the cards.
Dual-zone climate control is standard, and you can have the centre console finished in matt off-white if you wish (supposedly inspired by Apple computers, although they are whiter and glossier). Etched aluminium is another option. The Sport has 18" wheels in place of the standard 17s, but there are no suspension changes. Some markets' Sport models have lower, firmer suspension but this was deemed a bad idea for British roads.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Volvo C30
wrote on 23 07 2007