Volvo C30 SE Lux | Shed of the Week

Another Shed debutant today in the intriguing shape of this Volvo C30. Volvo called it a Sports Coupe, two words not normally associated with this outfit, but the spec of our shed hints that they might be justified on this occasion, so let’s give it a chance before we dismiss it. 

That isn’t exactly what happened when the C30 came out in 2006. The press quite liked the solidity of the three-door hatch, but they damned it with faint praise on the basis of it not handling as well as a Fiesta. In fairness, not many cars did, so maybe we can put that aspect to one side and consider this little Volvo on its own merits. 

What were they, then? Well, in the case of this particular example, it’s the gurt big petrol engine under the bonnet. Unlike many cars of the modern era, there was a boggling choice of motors available for the C30 at various points in its life: four turbodiesels from 1.6 to 2.4 litres and no fewer than seven petrols from a 1.6 to three 2.5 turbos via a couple of 2.0 bifuellers. The range was topped by a short-run 250hp Polestar Limited Edition near the end of the car’s run in 2013, at which point Volvo thought it might as well put out some 108hp electric C30s. 

The one we’ve got here is a 2008 SE Lux 2.4i with the hottest non-turbo straight-five in the range. This offered 168hp at a warblesome 6,000rpm, 170lb ft of torque at 4,400rpm, and that typical straight-five heavy flywheel feel to it which could take a bit of getting used to. Mated to the Aisin 5-speed Geartronic auto, as here, those stats gave Volvo’s 1,424kg coop a 0-60mph time in the mid-eights, a top speed of 134mph, and an average fuel consumption figure of 31mpg. 

Our car has 128,000 miles on the clock and a brand-new MOT certificate in the glovebox showing just one advisory for a deteriorated CV boot. By the looks of it, Volvo went for a ‘modular’ (i.e. cost-saving) approach on the C30’s seating, in SE Lux spec at least, by ramming in the perches from its much larger models. As such, we see that this C30 cabin is composed mainly of seats and not a lot else apart from the thin ‘floating’ centre stack for the HVAC and audio controls. That made it strictly a four-seater, although looking at the pics, even that might be pushing it. 

Shed and the postmistress reckon there’s more leg space in the back seat of his Reliant Robin than there is in this Volvo. On the plus side, the C30’s back seats could be folded down almost flat to create a surprisingly useful loading area, and the vehicle tax for the 218g/km auto is one band short of madness level at £415pa, so in the unlikely event of any active types below the age of 25 reading this, they might want to consider it as an alternative and luxurious sort of bike hauler. And despite what the pressers said about it in the period, the C30’s use of many gen-two Focus chassis components meant it really wasn’t that bad. 

The Volvo SCC concept on which the C30 was (actually quite closely) based was an interesting car. It made its first appearance at the Detroit show in 2001. Imaginatively, SCC stood for Safety Concept Car. That unassuming but accurate name encapsulated a raft of safety tech that was way ahead of its time. There were blind-spot monitoring sensors and cameras built into the door mirrors, adaptive headlights that turned with the steering (admittedly not new but still cool), active lane-keeping, fingerprint recognition, and something called an infrared light enhancer that extended night-time vision beyond the reach of the headlights, er, somehow. Best of all, it had see-through A-pillars made of plexiglass and trellised metal, a brilliant idea to help dozy drivers avoid those embarrassing over-the-shoulder sorry-I-didn’t-see-you-mate type situations that regularly resulted in bikers getting knocked off their steeds in mid-overtake. 

Sadly, that feature didn’t make it to production, even though Volvo claimed at the time that it could have made that happen, hmm. What did make it through to C30 production was the uniquely glassy rear-end style borrowed from the P1800 ES from the 1970s. Nice examples of that car are going for big dollars these days, by which we mean over £40k. Our 2.4 C30 is considerably cheaper at £1,995 and not that much more common than the oldster. A T5 turbo will be 50hp more powerful than the 2.4, but it will also be around three times the price. 

If you want additional, more contemporary cred, Shed thinks that the C30 had a starring role in a movie called Twilight, which Mrs. Shed says is now in the process of becoming an exciting Netflix TV series. Shed is happy to take her word on that. He certainly won’t be watching it. He’s very much hoping, however, that the serialisation will consist of many two-hour episodes because that will give him time for a round trip to the back of the next village’s cricket pavilion plus an hour of unsportsmanlike behaviour in between.