In 2001, at the Detroit Auto Show, Volvo displayed what was simply known as the Safety Concept Car (SCC). I remember looking at photos, going to Volvo’s website, reading all I could about this crazy little car from “the future.” I loved it’s giant rear window and just-forward-thinking design. Someday they’ll build this, I thought.
I hoped.
Well, welcome to the future.
ALL VOLVO
While not representing every idea available in the SCC, the Volvo C30 does reveal enough of the SCC as a real production car, and to me it is as exciting as the flat images I saw back in 2001. To walk around it, to see it, the C30 is all Volvo. The face evokes the style and curves that have defined Volvo since the S60 first bent people’s minds around the “new” Volvo in the late 1990s. The sides carry the broad hips most people recognize so easily in the bricky 240 series and the 140s before them. And rear of the car takes you back to the lovely 1800ES built from 1971 to 73.
But it also takes you forward to the SCC. The rear hatch—complete with its oversized window—looks fabulously matched onto the squat and curvy frame. I admit the rear design might not be for everyone, as I know several people who didn’t fall in love, but for those of us who did, it didn’t matter, because love is all you need, as they say.
THE GUTS
With just one engine option available, I had the 2.5L inline-5 cylinder turbo (borrowed from the S40 and V50). With 216 hp, it was plenty quick and plenty fast. While that number may seem low, Volvo employs it efficiently in the small, 3,000-lb car, and the fun-to-weight ratio was right on. Personally, after 10 minutes of driving this car around city streets, I dubbed it “the Mini killer.” I can’t imagine anyone choosing a Mini Cooper over this thing. One of my gripes with the Mini was a sluggishness off the line, and the C30 certainly took an opportunity to establish itself as a car without such problems.
ABOUT TOWN
Driving the C30 is always fun. It’s a small zippy car with great visibility, and it darts in and out of traffic easily. It jumps from green lights like a greyhound after the rabbit, and it’s comfortable as it does so. In the way a Subaru Impreza or Mini Cooper just aren’t. Sitting in the C30 is also delightful. Volvo endowed all of its cars, from the top-end S80 all the way down to the entry-level C30, with exquisite interior design. Nothing feels cheap or thrown together, and like its big brothers, every detail in the C30 seems well thought out and practical. No dial or gauge is hard to read or reach. No knob is out of place. It looks elegant and simple, something rarely found in cars under $30,000.
And this car, starting at only $23,000, is a steal.
NOT ALL ROSES
The few gripes I have about the C30 are obvious, the kind you might see if you just looked through one of the car’s windows. The back seats are small (yet not so small as those in the Mini), and the car has no rear cargo cover, so anything in the rear compartment is plainly open for anyone to see. While I can see the design didn’t lend itself well to a cover, after having one for years in most of my cars, you do feel a little “exposed” when you have to leave something back there, Especially if its an expensive something.
I would love to see an all-wheel-drive version, but that’s just not an option at the moment. But honestly, that’s about it for my quibbles. It might be impractical as a family car, and it might not be the best “only” car of the family, but when my wife gets around to replacing her current driver, we both agree it will be with one of these.
Five stars.
