Volvo. What image does that name put into your mind? We’re willing to bet it isn’t small, sporty, out of the ordinary. That is unless perhaps you’re familiar with the Volvo C30. The Volvo aimed at young minded 20-30 somethings and “empty nesters”, those who’s children have flown the coops and want to recapture a little of their youth. Although the appearance may lead you to beg to differ, Volvo are aiming their funky “love it or hate it” new Volvo squarely at the very market the MINI also appeals to. So we though that, following our review of the more obvious Fiat 500, our next MINI Challenger would be the Volvo.
The C30 is a challenging offering from Volvo, who up until now seem to have occupied a small, but comfortable (and profitable) place in the market. Volvo make estates, comfortable saloons and executive 4×4s, not ‘fun’ cars, and certainly not sporty hatchbacks. But while we’ve been keeping an eye over the small car segment, the Volvo, for good or bad, seems to be one of those cars that’s hard to ignore. Maybe because, like the MINI, it offers something different. It’s not a small family hatch that comes with a three door variant. It’s not an ultra-practical affording car that can do everything including lugging you and your brood off to the shops while trying to remain engaging enough to enjoy a jaunt along the country lanes. The C30 is a four seater only, two proper sculpted rear seats take care of that, and it’s not full of clever storage bins, smart rolling seats or adjustable seat backs, cubby holes all over the place. Volvo have really decided to go for it with this car and produce a car that people will want to drive and be driven in. So have they succeeded?
Lets start with the looks. The C30 puts a lot of faith in its design. The online marketing campaign plays heavily on the lines of the car, using a “love it or hate it” tag line heavily throughout. At first glance from the front the C30 looks very much like the rest of the Volvo range, although if you look more closely you can see there is extra curve and slightly more interesting lines than it’s bigger siblings. As you follow the shoulder line back, the passenger compartment curves inwards, while the shoulders stay proud and broad. The effect from many angles is quite dramatic, and many people we spoke to really liked the look of the car.
But all that hard work almost seems pointless when it is attached to a rear end as provocative as the C30’s. We didn’t think it would be so controversial, but when gauging the opinions of friends and family it really did divide opinion. And perhaps annoyingly for Volvo, the majority just didn’t really like it. The general consensus seemed to be that it looked “odd”, even those who did like it couldn’t deny it was quirky and unusual.
The C30 is within the price range of the MINI, in the UK at least, with prices starting at under £15,000 for a well equipped 1.6 litre petrol engine S variant. Our Sport model, which includes body coloured body kit, 18″ alloy wheels among its added features over standard, was loaded up to the tune of over £26,000, and while all but the most enthusiastic MINI speccer would struggle to reach those heights, it’s not unthinkable or unseen for MINIs to achieve that price.
The big difference here though is the standard equipment list. The Volvo trounces the MINI on this front, as, lets face it, do many other cars. Dual zone climate control, alloy wheels, dynamic stability control are among the rather impressive standard spec list right from the base model upwards, if you go for the second on the run SE model or upwards you’d find it hard to find additional options to add to the spec list.
Our test car managed quite well though. A Dynaudio Premium Sounds Audio System was an expensive disappointment at £1,400, the very good Bi-Xenon pack is pricey but well worth opting for at £850, the sunroof seems like a little glass for a lot of money at £700, especially when compared to the MINI’s much larger double sunroof. The most expensive option is the “Communications Pack”, which includes remote control satellite navigation with traffic information, “Volvo On Call” and a Dual Band Integrated GSM Telephone. This is good, but the Sat Nav sits in the glovebox, which is by design deep by low. This means losing a lot of storage space to fit the system, but it has to be said Volvo’s satellite navigation system is one of the best we’ve used, even if the female voice is a little stern as she commands you where to turn.
With a great deal of adjustment in the seat and steering wheel it’s pretty easy to get yourself comfortable. The Sport edition includes a leather sports steering wheel and gear stick. The steering wheel is nice, the controls for navigation and stereo easy and intuitive to use, however the shifter is lack lustre, but that doesn’t detract from the six speed manual gearbox, which is easy to work with at a crawl or at pace. The only real oddity, for all the minimalist and space age design in the cabin, is the position of the handbrake leaver, which sits away from the driver next to the passenger seat. The stares you get from your passenger as you hit their elbow for the umpteenth time make you curse the designer for that strange packaging decision.
The rear interior is, like the rear of the exterior, a little more challenging. The stylish rear end appears to have been designed with little regard for luggage. It’s not that the storage space isn’t large enough, compared to the MINI, or even the new MINI Clubman, it’s cavernous, but the rear interior looks best with no luggage cover in place, centre arm rest down. With the large rear glass panel this configuration makes the car feel even more expansive, and road noise is surprisingly well dampened even when the rear is opened up in this manner. You also offer those cars behind you on the road the chance to see straight down the middle of the vehicle all the way to the floating centre stack, which has become the staple of Volvo interior design in recent times (and it is very cool).
As standard the C30 comes with a soft load cover, not entirely unlike the flimsy piece of material we recently grumbled about in our MINI Clubman review. However in the C30 the cover can be held tight in place by elasticated string and hooks, and it actually works very well. It’s pretty much what you would expect to find in any Volvo estate, in fact the rear of the car is very much like an estate in many ways. So at least in that way Volvo are sticking to what they know. The rear load space could be much better though, the boot has a high lip, a relatively small opening through the glass hatch, and is very shallow. On the plus side, the seats fold flat and the space is wide. If you don’t opt for an optional space saving spare, there’s more storage under a “false floor” in the boot to hide items for prying eyes if you chose to keep the soft cover (or optional hard cover) out of the boot.
The interior of the C30 is all about the occupants, primarily those in the front seats, but the rear is also very much geared towards occupant comfort and, of course, safety. Sure there could be more room for storage, but what is provided is adequate, the seats are very comfortable, head room is good front and rear, and adjustment of the front seats is also extremely flexible to suit most shapes and sizes.
The real issue though, especially if you’re considering the C30 as a genuine MINI Challenger, is how well the car drives, how you feel behind the wheel.
For us this is where the C30 was probably most successful. The ride isn’t harsh or crashing in any way, even with the optional 18″ alloys fitted. Compared to the MINI the drive feels very assured and not at all twitchy. But of course it should be, this is a much bigger car. But the C30 does have sporty aspirations, so the handling is very important.
The 2 litre diesel unit, combined with the smooth shifting six speed gearbox offers a great compromise between comfort when needed and smooth, well spaced shifts when you want to have a little fun. This isn’t the quickest of cars, with a 0-60 mph just under nine seconds, but it feels very strong and is ready to pull from most situations. Unfortunately with our driving, mostly short journeys on country lanes, the economy wasn’t brilliant, the C30 averaged around 37 mpg during our week together. That’s not at all bad, and matches to Volvo’s claimed return on the “urban” cycle.
We drove the C30 on all our usual test and fun routes, as well as around town and on the open road, and it proved extremely flexible. The high quality cabin is such that you feel relaxed and comfortable on longer journeys, the audio was of high enough quality you could drown out traffic stress by hearing your favourite tunes loud and clear (but not on a par with a similar system we’ve tested in the much bigger XC90, hence our initial disappointment), and sporty and clean enough to make you feel comfortable in the twisties. The seats could do with more side support from larger bolsters, especially for passengers who I soon learnt slid around a little more than I’ve become accustomed to in the MINI sports seats.
It’s hard to draw many strong conclusions on the C30, because aside from it’s exterior design there’s nothing much open for debate here. The “keyless” drive, which actually involves a small plastic key that stays in place at all times, is just a bit odd when the rest of the World are going ga-ga over start buttons, and storage when you opt for sat nav is pretty pitiful, but aside from that the Volvo does everything well. And I suppose that’s the main criticism, if you must make one. It doesn’t really do anything brilliantly. It’s not the cleverest packaging in a car, it’s not the most powerful or economical car of its ilk, it’s not the greatest drivers car for the money, and many would argue it isn’t the prettiest either. But overall we actually feel that, perhaps like the MINI, the C30 is more than the sum of its parts. We’d argue perhaps it’s a little over priced, but quality is top notch and there is very little to find fault with.
So despite coming from the company best known for “Boxy but good” safe and sensible cars, and size-wise being a step up from the MINI and even the Clubman, perhaps Volvo have produced a serious MINI Challenger with their C30. It seems to be developing a bit of a cult following on sites such as C30 World, and if Volvo could get more younger drivers through their doors to actually drive the C30, they could be onto a winner here.
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