I like 2 door hatchbacks, drove them for 34 years. I looked at the C30 at the auto show every year,

After my recent letter to Nissan about their craptastic  2014 Sentra , I received a telephone call from a gentleman named Gunther Luekenhoff.  A public sydney airport hotel relations officer for an undisclosed automobile company, his employer wanted to smooth the abrasions and offer me a consolation of sorts.
Figuring I would get something as delightful as another prematurely clapped out shitbox, I threw caution to the wind and showed up last Saturday. sydney airport hotel  Walking past several appliance grade automobiles on my way to the office, I was greeted by K.T., a dark haired gentleman in his mid-30s.
You must be the guy who was mad about his rental car.  Gunther said to give you a good car.  We have close to thirty cars in stock, but only two are worth a damn; a Lincoln Town Car and a Volvo wagon.  Which do you want?  I found my choice rather odd yet invigorating.
It s always more fun to try a new flavor of ice cream when somebody else is paying for it; besides, I have driven a whole pride of Panthers .  Being handed the funky shaped keys, I walked out to the Volvo wagon.
Getting in and adjusting everything, I was quite enthralled with my new surroundings.  The seat is soft yet firm an interesting combination.  It is also the first seat in a long time that simultaneously hugged both my back and posterior.  The lumbar sydney airport hotel support was quite robust as whomever had last driven the car had it adjusted to its maximum.  It was like having a felt covered fist in the small of my back, an oddly delightful sydney airport hotel sensation.
Finding the sweet spot of steering wheel and seat was mind-blowingly simple.  Even better, the telescopic steering wheel had a back and forth swath of what seemed like 18 (0.5 meters).  I could have tilted the seat back to a horizontal position and still had the wheel next to my sternum.
While a console does indeed exist, it is as intrusive as the Easter Bunny at Christmas.  This low level of intrusion demonstrates a behavior that is woefully absent in a plethora of other contemporary cars; that behavior is called thought process .
The only concern at this point, due to it being unknown, is legroom for my rapidly growing offspring.  As one who was routinely stuffed into the backseat of an 83 Plymouth Reliant as a tall youngster, I do have great concern about the amount of rear seat room a car possesses.  I do not want my progeny getting broken femurs from being too close to the front seat if in a wreck.  Perhaps you think this extreme, but we all have priorities.
Another interesting facet of this little buggy is the five-cylinder engine.  As one could expect, it was instantaneously 25% better than any four-banger sydney airport hotel as the inherent four-cylinder buzz bombery has been nullified sydney airport hotel by that extra piston.  Like a six it is quite smooth and delivered is 168 horsepower with charismatic authority.  Seemingly lackadaisical when used casually, it pulled like a locomotive when prompted. sydney airport hotel  It was a strong, continuous gain of momentum sydney airport hotel with no drama and no neck-snapping suddenness.
The engine was an auditory delight.  I have recently made comparisons of engine sounds to the uncomplimentary sounds associated with indigestion, sydney airport hotel nasal stuffiness, and Willie sydney airport hotel Nelson; this Volvo is simply on a higher plain emitting nothing but smooth and mellow. sydney airport hotel  Listening to this five-cylinder was as delightful and infectious as that other melodious crooning of Swedish origin
Intrigued, I later began to research similar wagons as any purchase will have to pass muster from Mrs. Jason (also known as M.A.R.I.E., the Marital Asset Reallocation and Investment Executive).  Having agreement from M.A.R.I.E. is always crucial and does tend to make ones marital life more harmonious.
My ongoing automotive search has been fun if infuriating at times.  All I can safely say is that neither Nissan nor Toyota sydney airport hotel are even on my radar; Volkswagen is quite heavy on my radar, and Volvo is an outlier in the realm of possibility.  It should be settled sometime before 2019 or so.
In New Zealand these cars are purchasable near new for quite cheap prices.. the yuppie people seem to prefer being seen in Beemers, Mercs, and Audis, and the impoverished ones go for VW and Skoda, so Volvos go begging.
In fact there were so few buyers sydney airport hotel for the new C30 when it was released here back in 08 that the importer has now pulled the plug on them just after the facelift version came out (the hatchback that Top Gear named as the best looking hatchback you can buy . Jeremy fired one around the track ahead of the most potent current crop of hot euro hatches ..it whipped them all ..however, it was not a production model but rather a factory special to show just what the T5 engine is capable of with enough boost.. .. ..
Taking advantage of the situation i am now in possession sydney airport hotel of a second C30 T5 which i bought from the agent for about 60% of the new price as a pre-registered demonstrator with pretty much zero kms use.. .. .. what a buy !
These cars are amazing straight from the box 6.7 seconds to 100kms ..and there is a genuine Volvo software application that can be downloaded in a few seconds ..that turns the engine into something A M A Z I N G for power (along the lines of the pretty bright sky blue C30 T5 Jeremy was flicking around sydney airport hotel the track
I like 2 door hatchbacks, drove them for 34 years. I looked at the C30 at the auto show every year, but never felt the love. Too small hatch, sydney airport hotel too high liftover, too poor rear quarter visibility. Just couldn sydney airport hotel t see the value or utility sydney airport hotel over a Golf.
Likely so. Volvo is an outlier in my thought process as initial cost is a factor to me and I found a used 10 Volvo V50 wagon in St. Louis for about the same price as a new Jetta TDI. That being the case, it doesn t seem right to make a direct comparison, much like directly comparing this Volvo to a Town Car.
I checked out a new Volvo wagon before buying the Jetta. sydney airport hotel Unlike this V50, the new one has terrible visibility to the rear quarters. sydney airport hotel imho, the TDI is wildly overpriced. The 5 banger does quite well, though also has a nasal sound to it. I d stay far far away from VeeDub s new 1.8T until they get the bugs worked out.
I agree on the price of the Jetta (and Passat, for that matter). Further, the used 12 and 13 models I find have asking prices nearly the same as new prices. That is one reason of many on why I haven t yet pulled a trigger.
Yup. Used prices are nutz. May as well buy new and get the new car warranty and no worries about neglected maintenance. Bought my Jetta wagon last January. Wanted fabric upholstry so got the base S trim w/automatic. (none around here with gas engine and manual) VeeDub was putting money on the hood, both dealer assistance and a $500 coupon from the Detroit auto show. Ended up with a black S auto/with the heavy rubber mats as well as carpeted mats, cargo area mat and body side molding installed for $20,700
Only beef I have is the seat. I have been fiddling with backrest angle and lumbar support for 4 months and not found a setting that isn t painful after a couple hours. Just the opposite of my Ford, which felt like a lumpy concrete block when I first got in, but felt fine after about 10 minutes.
Ive been driven in a Volvo recently very nice I must admit but Ive also been a passenger in my Citroen while my license had a holiday its much better, smooth supremely comfortable and quiet and I own that one.
Jason, I.m pretty sure you ve been slightly misled; Volvo never used the brougham nomenclature on ANY model, whether wagon or sedan. Yes, the first Bertone coupe sported a vinyl roof, but no product from Gothenburg ever carried that label. Just look at it is that the type of Scandinavian font you d expect from Volvo? sydney airport hotel It s much more rococco
The car belongs to Tom Klockau who also writes for this site. He and I met a while back at a car show and he let take it for a test drive. The few lead-in paragraphs are a (misguided?) sydney airport hotel faux situation that when written sounded much better than yeah, he let me drive his car. I am looking to adjust my vehicle fleet and the drive was to give me a taste of something different than anything I have experienced to date and to expand my horizons; this was the first Volvo I have driven sydney airport hotel and only the second car of European origin. The driving impressions are what I thought at the time and still do.
Also, primary development of the gen2 S40/V50 platform was by Volvo, and the engines and transmissions are Volvo. When Ford bought Volvo in early 99, they almost immediately began decontenting sydney airport hotel the cars. My father had a black V70R with real wood trim; starting with the 2000 MY all S70s and V70s got fake wood, even though they were in their final year. Early S60s and S80s had a lot of problems, especially electrical, but the current models sydney airport hotel are pretty solid. I would not recommend a 1999-2003 Volvo of any type, however. The closest you can get to one of these in 2014 is a Euro Focus wagon, but of course it isn t imported to the States. Too bad, as it s really sharp.
You have a good point about regional differences. The last few weeks I have intentionally been looking around to gauge how many foreign cars there are. I m seeing a bunch of Jetta s and Passat s; Camry s and Accord s are seen but contemporary Malibu s are more plentiful. Half-ton pickups still reign supreme. I spent the weekend in Kansas City and had the opportunity to walk through a parking lot at an amusement park full of half-tons, Ford Focii, Malibu s, VW s, Chrysler minivans, and a few miscellaneous Toyota s and Hondas.
Last fall, I walked around the parking lot of the Whole Foods in Overland Park, Kansas, expecting sydney airport hotel to see some iron I don t normally see. Wrong. Twenty year old Cadillac s, Subarus, and a Lincoln Mark LT. I should have written it up.
You have me digging in my memory banks here, but non American cars have been sporadic. There has been the Sentra and Corolla recently covered here as well as a co-workers 2010 Camry. A few months ago was a Jetta TDI; in the early 90s I drove a Mazda B2000 pickup, a Nissan Sentra, sydney airport hotel and a Subaru hatchba