by David Morgan (4 November 2006)
Volvo's new C30 SportsCoupé is a stylish entry to a crowded market that will impress with its comfort and safety, but I fear there's far too much style and not enough sportiness for the more enthusiastic drivers in this sector. I came away from the launch with mixed feelings. On one hand the roomy interior's quartet of individual seats and crisp modern trim gives it a fresh feel, but on the road it was far too softly sprung to have any handling edge.
Driving a pair of five-cylinder models should have left me with a hot hatch glow, but neither the 178bhp 2.5-litre D5 turbo diesel or the 217bhp 2.4-litre T5 petrol inspired me to rank the C30 with its equivalent performance peers - the meticulously-assembled Audi A3 or BMW's poorly-finished 1-Series.
Maybe it was Volvo's decision to link the launch D5s to a sequential automatic gearbox and leave the six-speed manual to the T5s that blunted my impressions. The D5 auto was slow to change up through the gears while the hard-driving mountain route reserved for the manual T5s was so demanding it tested the car's chassis to the limit and left it wanting.
There is no denying the D5's immense torque and economy potential, or the T5's towering power and overtaking punch, but the delivery of both felt "soft" with little urgency. The smooth-riding chassis was unhappy being hurried round hairpins and there was too much intervention from the electronic chassis control programme.
Cruel? Yes, I agree - but if you think of the C30 as a performance hot hatch you'd be missing the point. The C could just as well stand for "change" as it does for "coupé" and Volvo’s cheapest car may be the C-change the sector has lacked until now.
I suspect Volvo engineers have designed this Focus-esque car to appeal to trendy young things who put style before velocity and door-handling cornering and to older down-sizing, empty-nesters who appreciate space, comfort and safety. Given that, the C30 fits the bill perfectly. It's a rather limp-wristed hot hatch which appeals on entirely different values to the traditional view of a performance orientated buyer.
That's why the model range is so wide. The D5 and T5 are simply the muscle C30s to appeal to those who want the tugboat pull of a lusty diesel or the punch of a turbocharged petrol. But even Volvo's C30 programme manager, Iain Howat, expects these versions to account for only 10% of the expected 5000 unit sales in Britain in 2007. The bulk of the C30 conquests will be with the more sensible 107bhp 1.6-litre turbo diesel and its excellent 134bhp two-litre sister - two models that will comfortably take half of the year’s sales with the modest 99bhp 1.6 petrol taking another 20%.
Why? Because that's where Volvo's richest vein of buyers lies - practically-minded style trendies who are looking for quality, safety, common sense and the conservative appeal of the respected Volvo badge.
To that end Volvo is offering no fewer than five petrol engines - 1.6 (99bhp), 1.8 (123bhp), 2.0 (143bhp), 2.4i (168bhp) and blown 2.4 T5 Turbo (217bhp) - and three diesels - 1.6D (107bhp), 2.0D (134bhp) and 2.5 D5 (178bhp). You can also choose from four trim levels - S, SE, SE Sport and SE Lux - and there are imaginative option packs and exciting new colours and body kits along with interior finishing choices to tailor your C30 perfectly to your heart's desire. Even before you start personalising the C30 there are 26 models and trim variants in the range.
Park the performance and handling shortcomings and take a clear-head view of the rest of the package and the C30 delivers strongly on individuality, expression and style. The four-seat layout is eminently sensible. The rear pair of semi-bucket seats are angled slightly towards the centre to make communicating with the front passengers easy and improve rearward visibility - it makes the C30 "sociable" and easy to live with.
The front seats power forward to aid access while the seat belt can be easily unclipped to avoid tripping rear seat passengers as they clamber in and out. The rear pair fold flat to boost cargo space and swallow golf bag sized loads.
Due to arrive in the UK in December, the C30 will find its first customers in January and sell for between a bargain £14,750 for the 1.6i S to £22,995 for the T5 SE Sport or SE Lux.
Volvo's oddly-titled Attributes and Safety Manager, Jorden Persson, told me: "We gave the C30 an enormously strong body and the best safety features we could - we think our customers value that kind of attention to detail." He's correct, of course. That is what the C30 is all about: common sense.
Here, as you would expect from Volvo, is a perfectly formed "sensible" three-door hatch with unimpeachable safety credentials, modern styling and unique features which has been given the SportsCoupé badge to make it, um, interesting. Accept that fact and the car's strengths begin to make sense.
If you want out-and-out performance and razor-sharp handling, look elsewhere. But if you like your cars to be mildly sporty, practical and safe with some subtle head-turning style the C30 might just be what the doctor ordered.