Gadgetory

the Volvo c30 and omage to their legendary P 1800 es wagon let's see how its come forward many decades as we drive this 2013 our design with the high performance pole star package and check the tech okay here's the defining feature of ac30 it's got this all glass lift gate hatchback that is very much like that P 1800 es I mentioned you also can tell by this little badge and one on the dash we have the pole star Edition and it's also in our design that means it kind of has the badass wheels and bodywork and trim okay first things first if you're around 6-2 or certainly any taller you can just go click out and look at some other video you are never gonna buy this car it's cramped inside I'm six-two and I can't begin to get enough legroom the seat doesn't go back any further nor does it go down any lower it's kind of undriveable to be honest my knees are at 90 degrees or more when I'm driving now for the little guys here's what we have in the cabin Volvo's got this very Spartan design which I normally like but when they execute it at a lower price point like this it starts to look a little cheap huge expanses of featureless molded plastic over here and it just isn't quite rich now let's get the substantial issues this is the head unit you will not get an LCD infotainment unit in ac30 this used to be kind of cutesy retro Spartan lean sort of not anymore now it just annoys me it doesn't show me enough in the right way which isn't to say we don't have a GPS Navi not the Swire on this remote and aim it at this little bump sticking up on the dash peekaboo here comes our little friend we've seen this before on Volvo's a few years ago it was kind of a decent bridge technology now I just hate it it's very slow because it's dvd-based the resolution is not great as you can see you can really pick out the lines in the LCD panel you operate it either the wireless remote that I just used to pop it up which I find to be very odd while I'm driving or you've got this little controller behind the wheel which has a little jog stick and a back and an enter button now in terms of media sources we do much better you've got basically all the modern inputs that you want on this vehicle AM and FM and HD radio enabled on those satellite radio is an option under the mode here you've got your other stuff single slot CD up there standard aux USB works for thumb drives and iPod and as you can see we've also got bluetooth streaming on this guy also standard with hands-free calling a few other cabin ergonomic things on the Volvo or strange this is the key this sharp weird little thing sticking out you don't need to use because there's a puck you can put in here and it wirelessly authorizes from the key fob so why doesn't that thing ever retract this is a little Volvo thing back here the storage hidden behind the control panel it's kind of a signature but it's not a signature I like because I don't like putting things where I can never see them again that doesn't really work for me nor does this upholstery just a matter of taste but this kind of cream color with a hint of seafoam green makes me feel seafoam green luckily it's optional you can just go to black on black as well now the engine rc30 our design Polestar is a two and a half liters sidesaddle inline five in fact every c30 has the same basic engine what happens is you get 227 horse and 236 foot-pounds of torque and the Polestar software and the horsepower goes to 250 and the torque to 273 that's a big jump it's turbo no matter what so the Polestar edition is merely software changes car weighs about 3,200 pounds relatively light for a vehicle these days delivers 21:29 MPG not stellar especially since the car prints fairly small and doesn't weigh a whole lot zero to sixty on a pole star edition is around 5.9 if you didn't have this Hot Rod version and put on about 2/3 of a second more not night and day now the first thing you gotta remember about this car because it's got that sort of weird add-on nav and no real LCD I do not have a backup camera here and it's not too much of an issue because of that big glass back panel but in terms of quarters and you can't really see much now what this vehicle also has they say is the city safe technology which means if you're about to run into a car in front of you up to 31 miles per hour your speed this vehicle will apply the brakes all the way to a full stop now to the performance it's a nice handy little car because it's got a sports suspension that's part of our spec or our design it's also got the Polestar package which really brings on a lot of creamy ready torque it's a fun little motor to rev very little turbo lag in this guy and yet the ride quality remains quite nice it's not excessively harsh even over crappy payment like I'm driving on right now and overall it's a nice handling car it's got a light yet planted feel doesn't feel terribly heavy doesn't feel like it's flimsy it's a pleasant car to drive if I could just get comfortable but I can't because this thing is so okay so let's presume you're under six feet tall and you want to buy a c30 here's how I prices out about 26 4 is your base for this guy and the our design package for this cool look and you're adding 2350 there now the Polestar update is 1300 bucks all it is as far as I can tell is just different engine software that's a lot of money for rearranging the ones and zeros and the engine computer differently but take it or leave it it adds a lot of power and torque and I did enjoy the way power comes on in this car so if this car is right for you it's about 34 grand CNET style right for you is the key you'd buy it because it has a unique look because you like Volvo because you like their city safe technology and because you're not terribly tall or need to carry an awful lot of stuff in this it's a real city car it's got a distinct flavor