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Followed a really, really ugly car at the weekend. Some sort of Volvo, with a dire derriere. What was it?
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I'll wager it's a new V70 from your reaction. Not only ugly but quite dated as well.
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It looked as if the bottom 1/2 was "normal", but as if the top 1/2 had been squeezed very hard in a huge vice, and then the lot stuck together with sticky-backed plastic.
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C30
That looks like the boyo! Vile thing, disproportionately large glass bit at the back, just like the delivery end of a hearse. Yuck!
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Ain't taste a funny thing. I love the C30 and may well buy one as our second car when the children are big enough to jump in the back and secure their seatbelts themselves.
It's that or an Alfa GT, the latter only if my wife starts forgetting about my long, sad history of bucket-of-spanner Alfa Romeos (all of which I loved).
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The C30 owes a lot styling-wise to the old classic P1800ES. Personally, I like it, though I've heard the back seat and boot are severely compromised as a result.
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Beauty is in the eye and all that! I like it, something different to the normal boring old rear ends that all look the same.
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Beauty is in the eye
Yes, but the rear of the ruddy thing looks like the back end of a mutated hearse! Blig.
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How many of these have they actually sold? I have seen around 3 since they came out. Why aren't there more around - is it the styling , the price?
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How many of these have they actually sold? I have seen around 3 since they came out. Why aren't there more around - is it the styling the price?
I think Volvo are always going to struggle pitching sporty coupe type affairs to the younger person in this country due to the cardie and slippers image of the badge. Most 20/30 somethings looking for a sporty hatch will flow sheep-like in to the Audi dealer for an A3.
And that kind of appeals to me as a dedicated non-herd person, I had a 480 some years ago (to which the C30 is an obvious heir) which gave me blinding service until a dust cart drove in to it (175000 miles and driving like new).
In fact the more I think about it, the more I want one.
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I like them too. I followed a white T5 model up the A404 yesterday evening until the car in front pulled over and it disappeared like a scalded cat. Very quick car, and a glorious sounding exhaust note. I'd love one.
Looks different, sounds great, goes like stink, likely to be well made and reliable, and not an obvious choice. What's not to like? Fuel bills schmuel bills... ;-)
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I think the colour makes a difference.
First time I saw one, I thought it was really nice.
Saw one in grey, and all of a sudden the proportions were all wrong and it looked a right mess.
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I always liked the wedge-shape of the 480. A quick (superficial) comparison on Autotrader shows that a big northwest car supermarket has a 2007 1.6 Audi A3 for £12,800, and also has a 1.6 Volvo C30 for £9,000. The Volvo seems good value next to the Audi. You must be right, it must be an image thing.
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Most new Volvos look ugly from the back. The recent facelift snip has tipped the S40 from passable to awkward, and the new V70 has never looked good. The new way they spread the letters V O L V O across the back end doesn't help - curious, when it looks so elegant when Peugeot does the same.
On the other hand, add me to the list of those in favour of the C30; if I still need a solo motorway car when it's time to bid adieu to the S60, I'll be looking hard at it.
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 24/09/2008 at 01:30
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While we're on the subject of the back end of Volvos...
I followed a brand new V70 and noticed the brake lights are almost exactly the same shape as the LED lights fitted to the Maserati 3200GT (before they altered the back end for the 4200GT). I was under the impression Maserati had to do away with the "boomerang" shape brake lights because they weren't compliant with US standards, or something. Assuming the V70 is sold to 'merkins in much the same guise, how come it doesn't fall foul of the same legislation?
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AS someone else said///"price"
I used to look at a volvo owners site a lot, and even on there they comment about lack of c30s on the road, and pricing seems to be it....
also as said above the image. when we went down from 2 cars to 1....
we had a v40 and s40,
a chap and his 21 year old daughter popped over to look at the s40, she liked the standard aircon and abs, alloys, cd etc etc on a 34,000 mile car with fsh advertised for 3k but hating the styling and badge. It was her father who told her to look at a volvo as HE was fed up spending a fortune fixing her "cool" clio....
apart from when volvo had cars in the BTCC using V70s then S40s the tartan slippers and black lab image is going to stick....
In the end a retired couple bought the S40 to replace there aging 460.
Paul.
v40 owner....at weekends...
GT push bike to work weekdays...
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I agree that price when new may be an issue - C30's start around £15k, which is a lot of money to me. But a year old one for £9k when the equivalent Audi A3 is £11k+, sounds like good value. I can only think that coupe drivers don't like the Volvo image. That's a shame when the P1800 and 480, even the C70, seem such cool cars.
Edited by Pugugly on 24/09/2008 at 22:29
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TINTIN...
don't forget the Amazon....superb looking car, slightly morris minor looking...
but depending upon trim levels a nice twin choke 2 litre...
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My friend has a Volvo Amazon estate in that muddy blue colour. I must say though, I don't think it is an attractive car, whereas the p1800 is really something to look at (not the estate model, obviously, that's ugly).
When we bought our 9-5 the garage had just sold a traded-in black p1800 for £1200. It was in pretty good condition too. The lady owner needed something more child-friendly and cried when she handed it over apparently.
Thanks for the editing/correction, PU.
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The world's highest mileage Volvo is a P1800, at 2.5 million. One owner from new, American obviously.
Someone please post here when a C30 reaches a million miles and then we can assess its reliability.
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