Gadgetory

the Volvo c30 is kind of like that friend of yours who has great taste a great career but is an idiot about tech let's check the 2013 Volvo c30 r-type Polestar edition check the tech it helps if you're a lot items got good looks on the c30 fits in there as you can see it's the spiritual descendant of the very cool 1800 ES coupe wagon from back in the 70s not as svelte or stylus as it was in the 70s but then again neither mind you've got the signature all glass lift up back door on this chisel but design that gives you a loading space otherwise the car is really a 2+2 the back seats are cruel if not unusual now normally I start these little tours at the cabin tech here in the head unit but not on this one I got to get something off my chest first starting with the ergonomics first of all what is this rake handle sticking up here that's the emergency brake it never really goes down so it's always in my way when I'm going to grab a shift to thought of that when it's up I can easily rest on it look like Noel Coward getting ready for his Hollywood production shot but that's not why I buy a Volvo then you get to this stalk over here you've got a controller here that I'm going to teach you about later but when you go to use it you bang your knuckle against the white and there go the wipers and when you go to start the car you activate the washers if you can even get to the ignition God's sake and put the wheel down to get the car started there we go but that's not good design people now under the cabin electronics this is not a remote for the rear seat DVD system which there is not one in this car blessedly instead it's one of the ways you can operate that you don't see it that that is actually a pop-up navigation screen check this out you turn it on by reaching around for this inscrutable little controller back here and once you think you have the right button you press it now let's know the groaning sound it makes it's going to give you navigation traffic that's about it nothing else happens on that display you control it with either this little stick and two buttons here or you can also operate it using this thing which is fine because there's no other controller on the dash so your passenger who wants to operate that and by the way this car does not lock out entry while you're driving which brings us to the other screen which dates back to the 80s that's this sort of greenish gray monochrome LCD it's not a pretty thing to look at nor is it a very effective thing here your audio choice is a single slot CD right up there you've got satellite radio that's optional on this car by the way am/fm of course HD radios in here my aux jack is in the glove box along with the USB I can use for a stick or an iPod it's nice to have bluetooth streaming on this car stock of course but very limited metadata I mean what's going on here you could do better and if my final concern is this doesn't look like this Volvo does this nice blue finally Rend your gauge design and this is a different color a different typeface two different everything it just looks like it came in front of the car and that looks like a game out of a third car okay because we've got a Volvo things are shall we say unusual in the front as well it's a 5 cylinder they're one of the few companies that do these in line 5 sitting sideways driving the front wheels is no all-wheel drive on this guy but it is a turbo in all trims 227 horsepower 236 foot-pounds of torque the car only weighs 3,200 pounds so the acceleration is good and the mpg not bad 21:30 with the 6-speed manual that we have you lose one mpg highway now if you saw that little blue badge on the butt and like me thought what the hell is that it says pole star which means nothing well turns out it's an engine tuning chip that Volvo installs factory approve that really improves your performance you now have 250 horsepower and over 273 foot-pounds of torque all without changing mpg or emissions at all most importantly without screwing with your warranty let's go see how that works first thing I notice getting in this car is that it's very smooth that that damn handbrake is in my way that one to shift is annoying anyway I'll get over it but the first thing you're going to pick up on once you get out on the road is how much power this car has it's prodigiously powerful with that Polestar chip in there that isn't the same as being exceptionally responsive the power is kind of in a two position throttle mode either a little power or a lot of power I don't find much in the middle and I hate that the engine is real smooth the whole car is actually very smooth no matter where you put it on the RPM the engine never sounds like it's angry you're growling just determined but where the car starts to let you down or starts to feel like the $26,000 car that it is is when you really get into it in a corner and you get a lot of torque steer or the front end rears up and you get this little pigeon-toed thing on the front tires and they start to lose their grip you get this really embarrassing kind of laundry traction 'less mess in other words Polestar puts too much power into the platform so I think I would skip it as much as I love the fact that it's crazy powerful when you got to overtake like that but the car almost doesn't put it to the ground right okay ac30 is about our $26,000 proposition delivered but you got a long way to go after that twenty five hundred for the art type kit the body kit the wheels the sports suspension you want that 1304 Matic transmission you may or may not want that another thirteen hundred for the Polestar package I think I would skip it it's impressive but not something I want to live with every day finally forty four hundred for the Platinum trim level that you kind of want it has that doping to have system you don't care about but it's got premium audio the glass moonroof the power and heated seats I think you mostly want it more than you don't you