2008 Volvo C30 S review
June 11, 2008 by Karl Peskett
Behind the wheel, you’ll find that the steering is dull, but has nice weighting. What’s interesting is you can hear the servo assistance when wheeling around in carparks at slow speed. There’s an electric whirr, as the motor slews the rack back and forth. The turning circle’s not bad, either.
The C30 S handles reasonably, with a slight understeer bias, typical of heavier front-wheel-drives. The brakes need a little push to give their best, but they don’t fade too much, and the grip to ABS calibration is rather good.
The ride is on the firmer side, but it’s acceptable. It does crash slightly on harsh ridges, and can be a little jittery in some situations. The damping is obviously different to the two cars built on the same platform – the Focus and Mazda 3. But where it feels better is in body rigidity.
The body has a fairly solid feel about it. Thank the hefty side intrusion beams for that. This does two things to the car. It reduces room inside which means that there’s no pretensions for it being a five seater. But it also adds to the weight of the doors. Still, for the reduced room, four adults can comfortably sit in it with no issues. The rear can feel a little claustrophobic though, with smaller rear windows.
Love the c30, my favourite hot hatch. would def go the T5 tho
Love the styling of this thing. The base model was always a puzzling item. The diesel has pull and the T5 has grunt, the base model is the definite orphan.
One thing I have never liked is the textured black plastic trim. Always seems to fade to gray.
Wrong engine in this one…def need CRD or the T5.
Of course it’s the worst engine of them, it’s the cheapest and the only naturally aspirated one
Not really a fan of the rear, myself.
I saw the T5 reviewed on Fifth Gear today. They said it was quite good. The guy that reviewed it said that this car proves centre consoles can be practical and not boring, and that its a premium drive not a sporty one. So its not really in the hot hatch segment having little less power than the Focus XR5, which shares the same engine.
hmm.. quite a heavy car for its size, no wonder it sips 9.0L/100km.. not bad but still.. can’t quite figure out why Volvos are always so heavy.
How can you say the interior is bland. Take a look at Volvos from 3+ years back then you will appreciate the ultimate in bland – or better yet a SAAB.
I own a red S40 with this 2.4 five pot, and the engine is great. It has more power and torque than any rival (base engines in the Audi A3/A4 or BMW 120i or 320i), and the extra cylinder makes the difference. 125KW is huge for a ‘base’ powerplant. It’s far from the ‘poverty’ engine it’s portrayed as here.
also it’s a……………….bland Volvo.