2011 Volvo C30 Got Style and Comfort in Spades

The 2011 Volvo C30 lacks the sharp handling of some rivals, but it’s got style and comfort in spades. Sure, the new Volvo C30 got a powerful turbocharged engine and an available sport-tuned suspension, but this Swede is about a lot more than just speed.

Don’t get us wrong — the Volvo C30 2011 actually drives nicely and has more dynamic capabilities than most drivers will care to exploit. But with its chic interior and a classic hatchback design that evokes Volvos of yore, the Volvo 2011 C30 is also the closest thing in this segment to automotive art.

No model in Volvo’s current lineup speaks to the brand’s design revolution quite as much as the 2011 C30 hatchback. With this Volvo C30 2011 model, Volvo has proven that not all of its models need to be boxy and chiseled or that they even have to prioritize practicality.

The Volvo C30 2011 has a design that clearly makes some packaging sacrifices for the sake of being sleek, low, and rakish. And this retro-styled hot hatch looks proud of it. From the front, it’s easy to peg the Volvo C30 2011 specs as a truncated, hatchback version of the S40 sedan and V50 wagon. Indeed, they’re related, but those similarities only do hold from the front.

It has unique sheetmetal all around, and from the rear it’s nothing like those other more conventional-looking models. In back, this 2011 Volvo C30 truly stylish, sporty Volvo looks to Volvo’s 1800ES ‘shooting brake,’ from the early 1970s, for inspiration, with a smaller, rounded, blacked-out hatch opening.

2011 Volvo C30 impresive hatchback-image7

Providing the spring in the 2011 Volvo C30 step is a turbocharged 2.5-liter inline-5 that delivers 227 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque. That’s more horsepower than you’ll find in the Mini Cooper S (172 hp) and Volkswagen GTI (200 hp), but less than is seen in the Subaru Impreza WRX (265 hp). The engine is lively off the line, and is consistently energetic on both highways and side streets.

2011 Volvo C30 torque is impressive, and the mill shines in the middle of its power band. A five-speed automatic transmission with manual-shift capability governs the action. In automatic mode, shifts are smooth and well-timed while the manual mode finds the transmission executing reasonably quick gear changes, but the fun is dampened somewhat by the absence of paddle shifters.

In performance testing, we hustled a 2011 Volvo C30 manual to 60 mph in a fleet 6.4 seconds. 2011 Volvo C30 MPG checks in at 21 mpg city/29 mpg highway and 24 mpg combined for the manual; the automatic has a 21/30/24 mpg rating.

2011 Volvo C30 Interior

Inside, the Volvo C30 2011 has a design that’s unlike the S40, and unlike that of most hot hatches. It’s sophisticated and laid-back—a bit of a necessity, given the lower roofline—and it has the now-familiar Volvo ‘floating’ center stack, a thin panel housing radio and climate controls, with storage space just behind. The interior is obviously sacrificed a bit for the style, and the low roofline.

The 2011 Volvo C30 interior is tight; tall drivers might find themselves surprisingly short on space, as the sunroof cuts precious headroom. And the rear seats—configured more as two separate contoured positions with scaled-down proportions—are snug. The 2011 Volvo C30 cargo space is a bit disappointing, too. You won’t find the 2011 Volvo C30 twitchy or incredibly nimble; overall, compared to what you might expect given the interior it’s tuned to feel like a slightly larger, more mature coupe.