| Until quite recently in order to appear on Volvo's sales | | | | profitable car-maker in the House of Henry. |
| radar you would have needed to be either a police | | | | Turning our attention now to the C30, Volvo has |
| force or someone with a lot of furniture or children | | | | benefited from Ford's ride and handling prowess |
| to move around or perhaps both. There have only | | | | mainly thanks to the highly praised Focus chassis and |
| been a couple of occasions in Volvo's long motoring | | | | its line-up of petrol and Peugeot/Ford diesel engines, |
| history where they have produced a design that | | | | Volvo now has the tools to do the small-car business. |
| bucked the reputation for solid and dependable if not | | | | The C30 has set itself apart from competition such |
| terribly exciting cars. The P1800 was a design classic | | | | as the Audi A3 and BMW's 1-series with softer lines |
| but considering they stopped making it in 1973 and | | | | and lends itself to less angular coupes of old. The C30 |
| was in essence a sports car something new from the | | | | is being strongly marketed at a "young and dynamic" |
| Swedish stable has been a long time coming. | | | | market to people with "intense urban lifestyles" |
| Other previous attempts to make a small, two-door | | | | whoever they are, although Volvo is still expecting to |
| hatchback have resulted in the much maligned 340 | | | | sell some cars to the rest of us regular folks. |
| series with its Renault engine or the somewhat | | | | Production will be at Volvo's Ghent plant in Belgium |
| troublesome 480 which smelt of smouldering electrics | | | | with some 65,000 C30's expected to roll off the lines |
| as soon as you turned the ignition key. As a result of | | | | each year. |
| these somewhat disastrous forays into the smaller | | | | As you would expect with all Volvo's the C30 has an |
| car market, Volvo rather rapidly went back to | | | | excellent build quality to easily match its German |
| producing larger rear wheel drive cars which it has | | | | rivals. The panel gaps are spot on and the lustrous |
| historically been rather good at. | | | | paintwork then leads you into a well designed high |
| Volvo who were founded in 1927 surprised the | | | | quality cabin. The soft coatings of the interior give |
| automotive world in 1999 and decided to sell the | | | | rise to a cleverly designed "floating" centre console |
| family silver to good 'ol Ford and as a result the two | | | | which provides hidden storage space behind. An |
| blue badges (oval and kinda square) became one. | | | | optional satellite navigation system emerges from the |
| This was quite a canny move by the Swedes as | | | | dash if you should lose your way. |
| Ford has more or less let Volvo get on with things | | | | There is not a huge amount of luggage space as you |
| and in turn Volvo has sent a healthy profit back to | | | | might expect in a two-door coupe but then hey if it's |
| Detroit (a reported $700 million in 2004). Despite | | | | a family car you are after you're barking up the |
| falling sales in the USA, it has at times been the only | | | | wrong tree here. |