Driven: Volvo C70

Under The Hood

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a barge? Potentially. From side on, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this is a car which could easily double up as a Sunday canal trawler. Harsh, but true. And while Volvo have done their best to pimp the C70 to appeal to the inner yoot in your older man's heart (read: SE Lux package with off black 'leather hide'), it doesn't exactly help when “Under The Hood” means staring at a puny D3 diesel engine with a pedestrian 148 brakes worth of horsepower.

If by hood, you're also referring to the roof, then you'll notice that the C70 features a sleek folding hard-top roof. While ordinarily a great feature - and I've rather grown to love a good convertible - when you see a time of "less than 30 seconds to transform your car" written in the press materials, you know you're going to be in the sticky when the heavens open.

Behind The Wheel

If there's one thing the Swedes are good at, aside from a flat-packed coffee table, it's an aesthetic and comfortable interior. And so slipping behind the rather large wheel happens to be a lush affair of leather, floating centre stack and typical if dated Volvo dials. Think C30, and well, you know where I'm heading with this...

Another remark - the Volvo C70 has potentially the worst set of keys I've ever seen. Not only are they big and clunky, but your only choice (due to keyless start) is to stuff them in the cup holders, as another inbuilt key is already fitted and required to turn over the diesel unit. It's annoying and strange. In fact, just plain annoying.

Driven hard, the 350Nm of torque afforded by the D3 engine at least makes for a quick getaway from the lights (not that you'd burn anyone at the greens mind) but it runs out of puff quicker than Diddy. Flung into corners, the car holds the line well, but you'll never forget that you're driving a nearly 2 tonne beast and some uncannily light steering makes for an unsettled motorway cruiser.

Entertainment wise (a.k.a. choons) the C70 doesn't disappoint as controls fall neatly to hand, especially if you're familiar with the '30. The nav works, the speakers pack bass and with a £280 windblocker option'd (which isn't mightily effective at blocking buffeting), you can start to feel like a boss.

Splash The Cash

But the headline figure of £36,060 on the road is enough to make even Rick Ross balk at a potential purchase of this coupe cabriolet. Coupled with the fact that the Volvo C70 is ending production in late 2013, it's safe to say that Volvo haven't hit the sweet spot in light of rough competition from BMW and Audi. So you can be unique and buy a C70 (because you won't see any others around), but giving it to you straight, we'd probably not advise you to do so. Now ain't that the windy truth?