courtesy of times online:
And this brings me nicely to the door of the Volvo C70 T5 SE Lux. Possibly the most disappointing car in the history of the universe.
Like so many new cars these days, the Volvo C70 has a hard metal roof that slides electrically into the boot. That sounds great but there is a problem: the boot has to be at least as long as the roof, and because of that no car maker has managed to make a car of this type look right.
Certainly you should never operate this roof in public because it will cause those in passing cars to lose concentration and crash. And pedestrians to think youre showing off. But whatever, it means the car looks sensational with the roof up and, dare I say it, even better when its down.
The steering is absolutely lifeless when youre going in a straight line and horrid when youre accelerating, braking or going round a corner. Powerful front-wheel-drive T5 Volvos have always had torque steer but this is something else. This is diabolical.
You can hold onto the wheel if you like, but frankly you may as well hold onto your knees or your passenger for all the good itll do.
Eventually I got used to it, in the same way that eventually you can get used to a headache. But I never had the confidence to open up the C70, to see what those 220 brake horse powers could do.
This was properly annoying because Volvo plainly has the ability to make this car work. They have the stylists and the engineers. But they built this car using parts from other, lesser Volvos. You can therefore think of it as supper made by Gordon Ramsay using only ingredients he could get from the 24-hour petrol station.
Volvo is owned by Ford these days and I cant help imagining what this car would have been like if theyd accessed their daddys parts bin. It could have had rear-wheel drive from a Mustang or a Jag. A V8 engine. Some Aston Martin steering. It could have been wonderful.
But it isnt. Volvo, plainly, has watched a television recipe for making a convertible. And then tried to copy it without going to the shops. Ingenuity got them to the table with something well priced that looks great. But I doubt youll want to dig in.
verdetto:
Rating 4/5
Verdict Clever and appealing, but a bit like flat-pack furniture, not quite complete
CitazioneCertainly you should never operate this roof in public because it will cause those in passing cars to lose concentration and crash.
;D ;D ;D