Volvo C30 R-Design Inter-review ft. Andre Campbell

2011 was undoubtedly Car Throttle's "Year of the Swede". Thanks to Volvo UK's generosity and support of CT, we managed to get our hands on nearly every model in their line-up from the S60 to the XC60. We even managed to captain some scallywags across The Solent in a Volvo Racing Yacht; definitely one of my highlights of the year.

So it comes as no large surprise that we would choose Volvo, especially after the passing of their younger Swedish brother Saab, to kick-start our 2012. However this time we chose to steer clear of the family saloons, older-gen estates and pricey SUV's and instead took on a car right up your alleyway, fellow youngsters. Yes, the 2012 Volvo C30. With a starting price of £14,995 though this isn't a normal C30. This R-Design has a rear spoiler, Flame Orange paint and other trickeries abound.

In order to give us some real insight into the mind of the younger demographics that will be purchasing the car, we called on Car Throttle friend and leading British entrepreneur Andre Campbell to give us his thoughts on the Volvo and on why he thinks the youth should follow their dreams to build their ideal careers with Enfuse Youth. Want to watch the inter-review? Watch the embed at the top of this post, or hit the link below:

2012 Volvo C30 R-Design Inter-review Featuring Andre Campbell, Founder of Enfuse Youth

Where to start? Well physically, we drove up to Cuffley in Hertfordshire to pick up our guest for the afternoon, Andre. But where to begin with the car? Well actually that's quite easy. On the outside this C30 packs a visual punch whilst still retaining a strong, powerful stance. The black honeycomb grille with R-Design badging certainly helps, as do the faux inlets around the foglights. Sitting low to the ground and at a total height of 1447mm (that's 1.45 metres y'all), the car is poised and ready to take cornering in its stride.

Where the face is commanding, the side angle isn't as flattering and is probably the C30 R-Design's least juicy angle. The side sills give away the sportier nature of the R-Design as does the Orange Flame paintjob but the 17 inch Cratus alloys fall flat with their lack of sparkle and imagination and there is evidence of clunky design. Thankfully towards the rear, the R-Design is saved with chrome exhaust pipes and that beautiful rear window. It's so unique to this C30 range and we hope that future updates and refreshes to this model will still keep in that iconic shape.

So far, so good. The R-Design proves to be a worthwhile option to tick on the outside thanks to its sleek bodykit and in my mind throws its hat in the ring as a good rival to C30 competitors which take the shape of BMW's 1 Series and Volkswagen's Golf. You might snigger and heckle but Volvo have managed to make themselves heard in the luxury segment higher up the range, so it's no surprise that they're wanting to claw market share lower down the food-chain, despite their older average customer age.

At this point, Andre and I started to talk about the interior. One of the first things that sprang up, and an acute observation by Mr Campbell, was the lack of flare on the outside. And he's 100% right. As this is an R-Design model, why the muted black and dark appearance in the cabin?

Let's look at the seats - they're extremely comfortable and side bolsters certainly help passengers to stay in place when the C30 attacks sweeping country road bends, but nothing stands out. Cars like the Fabia vRS (with its sportier udnerpinnings) do a fabulous job at "one-upping" the standard base-spec vehicles, so why not introduce two-tone leathers, Volvo? Heck, even the Toyota Yaris does this to good effect!

It's the same story with the centre console. The instruments are perfectly functional and in fact very well made, but there's no R-Design glamour here, and in fact, there are quite a lot of buttons to wrap your head around particularly when it comes to climate control. A better user interface would come in handy and I'm sure it's something the Swedish engineers are thinking about with a refreshed model. Don't get me wrong, what Volvo does extremely well is creating solid-feeling, long-lasting components and equipment, but to capture the imaginations of younger buyers there needs to be more imagination crafted inside the C30.

With regards to options, this is where you can really start to personalise this hatchback and make it stand out and fit your style, but also where you can rack up a sizeable bill. Options like the Satellite Navigation which conveniently flips out of the dash is sexy, but runs you up £1,535. Weirdly you control this unit using buttons behind the right side of the steering wheel, in front of the windscreen wiper stalk. Like the rest of the car, it also needs updating to be in keeping with some of the awesome units people like Toyota with their Touch & Go are creating in 2012. If you want a nav in your C30, we advise you to buy your own standalone unit from Halfords instead for a fraction of the price.

Andre commented on the great seat heaters which did a job on toasting our frozen backsides (we were filming in winter, don't hate!) and again, this sort of stuff is what Volvo does best. It's simple, quick to heat-up and always delivered. My bottom thanks you! If you fancy being loud and extravagant like the exterior of the R-Design, then you can also option up the car to include Premium Sound Audio at £1,025. Again, slightly expensive compared to your own local audio fitter, but there isn't much of a soundtrack from the diesel engine sitting under the bonnet, so all you Tinie Tempah wannabes may want to add it to the list.

Talk of the diesel devil, let's get to the driving experience and that engine unit. We drove the D3 block, which is a 1984cc, transverse 20 valve, 5 cylinder unit. As you would expect, on cold start up it's a touch agricultural but it soon settles down into a low rumble. Prod the hot pedal and revs build nice and quickly and throttle response is thankfully quite sharp.

There's not a great deal of power, mind. 150 horsepower is enough to make motorway cruising and overtaking fairly fuss-free, but it's not as rapid as the exterior styling would suggest. On the plus side, the diesel is super torquey coming in with 350 Nm from as low as 1,500rpm. What that means in English, is that acceleration is deadly from the lights and you can quite easily outgun a 2.0 TDI GT Golf which puts down around 320Nm. The Volvo hits the 60mph mark in 8.8 seconds, which in reality is nowhere near hot hatch speed, but on the other hand, not embarrasingly slow.

The driving experience, especially with a passenger sitting next to you, is fairly relaxed. To keep in the power range you'll need to have a strong left-arm and your foot near the clutch at all times, but you're helped with a beautiful short-throw manual 'box which makes getting up into 6th an absolute charm. The steering is nicely weighted too and free from total electronic nannery which seems to boss city cars and A-segmenters these days.

All in all, it's an easy drive. Not raucously fun as the name R-Design would suggest, but enough to satisfy power urges at all times. And without too much damage on your wallet. The car is rated to give an economy of 55.4mpg combined. Granted we achieved under 50mpg during our vigorous tests, but with a 60-litre tank it will mean less trips to the black pump.

So what's the verdict on the 2012 Volvo C30 R-Design?

We decided to adopt a scoring system to better understand the positives and negatives Andre and I felt with the car. Andre went first, with each mini-score out of 5 marks and the total score out of 15.

How slick does it look? 3.5/5 How tricked out was the inside? 3.5/5 How comfortable was the ride? 4.5/5

That gave Andre a total of 11.5/15. I went with 5/5, 3/5 and 4/5 respectively and my total score of 12/15. That brought us to a total inter-review score of 23.5 out of 30 which I felt was strong for this hatchback contender.

The final word: this car is perfect for those who are "young at heart" and want to look good without the associated fuel costs. Whilst this particularly model did come fully optioned up at £27,430, it also included some unnecessary and expensive options like the Sat Nav and Winter Pack (£1,025) which you could probably do without. Better yet, these Volvos are so hip that they've been called up in starring roles in the latest JLS music video and in the Twilight films. So you'll be replicating your favourite boyband and teenage vampires too.

2012 Volvo C30 R-Design Full Gallery