Price: �27,995
On sale: Now
0-60mph: 10.3 seconds; top speed 127mph
Average fuel: 46.3mpg
CO2: 161
Standard equipment: Power driver's seat, leather upholstery, autodimming rear-view mirror, leather-trimmed steering wheel and gear knob, Nordic light oak trim and 8 speaker 6 x CD/radio system, electronic climate control, 17-inch alloys, dynamic stability and traction control (DSTC), front fog lights, power windows, information centre and cruise control.
Tiscali verdict: 6/10 Worthiest C70 yet. Perky engine, but handles like a hammock.
A four-seat coupe that can transform itself into a convertible in less than 30 seconds, or so the brochure says. So much for literature. I've just been driving one of these for two weeks and haven't had a moment of wind-in-hair joy. I suppose the Great British Winter has something to do with that. Petrolheads are keen to blow on about the joys of cabrioleting through crisp frost and clear blue yonder; the reality of real-life GMT motoring is, as we all know, claggy greased-up road surfaces, brown spray from passing lorries and good, old-fashioned drizzle. Let's be honest - you'd have to be mental to want a cabrio in winter.
Though thats the whole raison d'etre, or whatever the Swedish equivalent is, for this creation: the Volvo C70 is the kind of transformer-car that looks to resolutely hard-topped you have to tell people it actually converts. "Go on," they say, "a convertible Volvo?!" Maybe their scepticism isn't all brand-based: perhaps it's also because hard-topped saloon-shaped convertibles look so much more Milton Keynes than Monte Carlo. You'll have to make your own mind up, but before you call for legislation, ask yourself why Mr and Ms Kid-free should be the only commuters to have a blast of vitamin D.
This isn't the first D-badged C70 I've driven. Volvo already has the D5 which, with a bigger 2.4-litre lump than the new 2.0 found here, belches out 194g of CO2 per kilometre and manages just 38.7mpg. This 2.0D returns a claimed 46.3 on average and reels the CO2 figure down to 161g - proof that Sweden is listening to our greener demands, even if US giant Ford is its keeper.
Of course, for all that green improvement, you'll want to know the pleasure payback. The D5 model served up 178bhp and reached 62mph in a fairly respectable 8.8 seconds, while this alternative has 136bhp - considerably less - and requires 10.3 seconds.
That may sound like quite a handicap, but on the road, you're not exactly punished for specifying the difference - this is a more-than-capable engine. Thanks to the nice spread of six gears that come as standard, it's perfectly suited to the job. At 1721kg, the 2.0 is a tad lighter than the D5, but it's still a hefty beast no less.
Nevertheless, that heftiness does show itself on what you might (liberally) call the "performance" leg. Ok, the C70 has enough grunt to mix it with the top motorway cruisers, but when shown a twisty road and asked to do anything more dynamic than a straight-line routine, it feels... well, it doesn't feel of much at all, the large, armchairish driving seat, numb steering and a lack of enthusiasm from the nose when turning in making it feel distinctly like a bog-standard American fly-drive sedan. No offence hugely intended, America, but US cars have all the handling vibrancy of road-going mattresses - and this C70 does an excellent impersonation of a secondhand Slumberland special.
That said, there's still much to recommend here: the build is fine (there's a little shake over bumps, thanks to the open design), the "floating" dashboard looks cool and comfort is paramount. And you'll have to go a long way to find a finer stereo. There's also lots of storage, even in the boot when the origamied away inside it.
So I'll resist the indictment of a "good if you like that sort of thing" - the C70 is a cabrio that thwarts hood-slashing thieves and is a robust, safe machine; and this option laudably makes 40mpg-plus motoring from one quite feasible. Just don't buy one and expect wind-burn.
