Swedish Sleekness

The thing about cars is they tend to stereotype the owner. Expedition owners have this image of being rich, devil-may-care gas guzzlers; Picanto owners of being parsimonious, brand-indifferent types; and CR-V owners as practical but brand-conscious types who just like to think that they’re even remotely sporty. Whether or not this is actually true is something worthy of debate, but you get the point: your wheels say what kind of person you are.

So, here’s what happened when I spent a weekend in the Volvo C30. The women loved the styling and wished they were behind the wheel instead of me, and my brutally candid male friends asked if I might be going gay with my choice of car. This test drive business does have its downsides, and my only consolation was that Friend 1 drove a Picanto, and Friend 2 an aging CR-V. So there. That, and the fact that they still had no qualms about getting in for a ride around the block. A Volvo is still a very nice car to ride around in, after all. After that, I made sure I was always seen driving around with my wife.

I first became familiar with the C30’s UFO-like styling when it was still just a concept car. Volvo brought an alternative fueled-concept along for the 2005 Challenge Bibendum event in Shanghai. I’ve forgotten what the motor was running on back then, but the styling was unforgettable; a sleek, futuristic shape that would not have looked out of place in a George Lucas set. Obviously, the design made it to production with some very minor tweaks, and the result is quite fetching. It’s not manly at all like the BMW 1-Series (much less the Dodge Caliber), but it’s a coherent, fluid shape that looks good day in and day out without ever getting tiring to the eyes.

The interior, especially the cockpit, is similarly a nice place to be in with large, clearly legible instrumentation and the “floating” center panel that hides a little shelf at the back for your handheld items. A word of advice though: try to steer clear of its sister car, the S40 when you wander into a Volvo showroom. The two have very similar dashboards (likely to save on production costs), so the C30 loses some of its “unique” luster when you begin to appreciate the economics of car manufacturing. Naturally, some other parts are shared with the S40 like the drivetrain and underpinnings, but all of it’s good and the bottom line is that the price isn’t too dear: P1,688,888 for the basic 2.4L.

By comparison, the S40 2.4L is priced at P1,995,000. Think of it as saving three hundred grand by shaving off two doors and some weight. Even though the C30 is shorter than the S40 by 216 millimeters, the wheelbase at 2,640 mm. is identical, suggesting that both cars share the same basic floorpan. On the open road then, the C30 belies its compact dimensions by offering a solid, stable ride that’s unperturbed by low quality tarmac. The front struts and multilink rear have generous suspension travel and excellent rebound control, taking out the whallop of potholes and ruts. There’s none of that short-wheelbase buzziness that can quickly turn nauseating with sports coupes and sports cars. Turn-in and steering sharpness are adequate but not sports car-sharp though, making the C30 a “sports coupe” more of the touring kind than the canyon-carving kind. Actually, blindfold an S40 owner, plop him in the driver’s seat of the C30, get him to drive, and he wouldn’t notice the difference. So, at its limit, the C30 reverts to being an understeering front-driver with a rear end that’ll take a moron to rotate, and that’s probably Volvo’s intent. People who buy this car probably want the looks more than the performance anyway.

The standard engine is Volvo’s slightly peculiar five-cylinder 2.4-liter, twincam. Rated at 170 horsepower and 23 kg-m of torque, it’s not a high-strung engine and neither is it a laggard. Acceleration is more than good enough for most situations, although like all European-bred cars, the accelerator has a long travel that’s less than ideal for urban stop-and-go traffic. The choice of five cylinders results in a slightly unbalanced engine architecture versus an inline-four or a small displacement V6, although a ton of insulating materials between you and the firewall keeps the telltale pulses to a minimum. You mostly hear a hushed whine as it works its way up the tach. Peak output and torque occur at 6,000 and 4,400 rpm, respectively, so it takes a little bit of patience for the engine to hit its sweet spot. Some more low-end torque would be better to minimize the high-rpm exertions and improve fuel economy.

A 5-speed automatic with sequential manual override is the standard transmission, and the software algorithm is spot-on 98% of the time that you’ll just leave it in Drive and forget about shifting. The only time I manually shifted was during a brief blast on the highway to see how fast it could go. The Volvo brochure quotes top speed at 215 kph, but top-end acceleration was sluggish past 170 when the drivetrain was straining against the wind. If you must have the fastest C30, spring for the turbocharged, 230 horsepower T5 and its P2.188M price tag.

In truth, the C30 is happiest tooling around town or cruising in the low hundreds on the highway where it’ll give back decent fuel economy at 8 kpl. The fabric “Kalix” upholstered seats are cool to the eye, have excellent support and breathe very well even in 38-degree weather, the artful marriage of gray and black resins with silver aluminum inlays makes you want to stay in the car for hours, and the creature comforts are almost first class.

Many a C30 buyer’s first order of business will be to plug in his or her iPod into the C30’s stereo, and it’s bound to bring out a smile. The audio system has the requisite in-dash CD, AUX input, and no less than eight loudspeakers for crystal clear clarity, authoritative bass, and punchy midrange. The elegant cockpit may have an austere look but all the good stuff is there like the dual-zone climate control and power-adjustable cockpit. Space at the back is even livable for two adults. Getting in there means ducking under the pillar-mounted seatbelts, but the rear seat is split into two buckets. Anyone over 6 feet will be rubbing against the headliner, though.

Space behind the rear seats is also quite generous. Raise the C30’s exquisite clamshell glass tailgate and you’ll behold a flat load floor that’s big enough for several suitcases. You can also fold down the 50:50 split rear seatback to yield more space. For a 2-door, 4-passenger coupe then, it’s quite a painless experience compared to most form-over-function coupe designs.

As all good Volvos must, the C30 has the whole alphabet of safety gear: anti-submarining seats, driver and front passenger airbags, inflatable side curtain airbags, seatbelt pretensioners, side impact airbags, traction control, and Whiplash Protection System, to name a few. More proof that if fate should ever put you in a car crash, you’ll be thankful you’re in a Volvo. The C30 may be one of the most fashionable Volvos yet, but at its heart, it’s a predictable handling, well engineered machine that tries its best to take care of its owner.

THE GOOD

• Svelte, fashion-forward styling.

• Competent performance.

• Comfortable, predictable, controlled ride.

• Unquestionably safe, even for a small car.

THE BAD

• Feminine appeal, for better and worse.

• Doesn’t feel very nimble in the zigzags.

• Could use more low-end torque.

THE VERDICT

• A safe, stylish, and even “sporty” choice for those who want the style of a 2-door but not the discomfort.