Any C30 owners?

[David]

I used to own two 480s but none at the moment unfortunately. That is unlikely to change any time soon. I'm currently driving a red C30 r-design 2.0d. I was just wondering if there were any other C30 owners on here? You rarely see them on the road where I am, I'd just be interested to speak to other owners.

[Alan 480]

I can confess to having a wine 480 & a black C30, but only an 1800

[edie_fox]

I Used to have a 2013 2L petrol. I would get another ....but diesel. I had an issue with mine. Around 60k when I bought it from Volvo Selekt and I was told a year later that it probably needed a new engine and it was using a lot of oil. (still on the road though)

I enjoyed it and it was a nice break from lots-of-effort kind of driving. Nice change to have the tech for phone/music etc.

Bad points for me were the size of the rear hatch opening; I'm always carting things about!

Keeping the seats forward/putting stuff it he back. This is, again, was space limited and awkward. I had to pick up my friend's child once which necessitated a seat. Urgh, would not want to be doing that every day!

You can't do much yourself; open the bonnet and it's just a big squish of stuff you're not allowed to access! Haha.

Other than that; there are absolutely worse cars out there to have. If I had a more modern car again I'd go for the C30 as at least they have some style still! Price wise, I've kept my eye on them the past year as I was going to get another. The older ones go for for £1-2k and the newer ones tend to be £5-8.5k for a nice, low mileage one. I'd say £5.5k was average for a good, newer one.

[David]

I Used to have a 2013 2L petrol. I would get another ....but diesel. I had an issue with mine. Around 60k when I bought it from Volvo Selekt and I was told a year later that it probably needed a new engine and it was using a lot of oil. (still on the road though)

I enjoyed it and it was a nice break from lots-of-effort kind of driving. Nice change to have the tech for phone/music etc.

Bad points for me were the size of the rear hatch opening; I'm always carting things about!

Keeping the seats forward/putting stuff it he back. This is, again, was space limited and awkward. I had to pick up my friend's child once which necessitated a seat. Urgh, would not want to be doing that every day!

You can't do much yourself; open the bonnet and it's just a big squish of stuff you're not allowed to access! Haha.

Other than that; there are absolutely worse cars out there to have. If I had a more modern car again I'd go for the C30 as at least they have some style still! Price wise, I've kept my eye on them the past year as I was going to get another. The older ones go for for £1-2k and the newer ones tend to be £5-8.5k for a nice, low mileage one. I'd say £5.5k was average for a good, newer one.

Interesting to hear of your experiences. I have a 2l diesel, my second C30 with this engine. I've put up serious mileage on both cars (currently 220k) without much trouble, so far. I don't have children and don't usually carry bulky items so the hatch never bothered me much. I really like the car overall. If I could buy a newer version I would. I think it is such a shame this is likely to be Volvo's last coupe, and maybe the last small car they ever make.

[brinkie]

If an affordable C30 had crossed my path, I would have bought that instead of the S70, and maybe I will in the future. Here's the choice of engines I've investigated, and which to avoid. As the C30 is based on the same platform as the Ford Focus, with most parts having FoMoCo stamped on them, the engines are mostly Ford, too. Only the top spec five cilinder engines are Volvo.

Petrols:
1.6 (100 PS): Yamaha design, noisy, feels underpowered even in the Focus (and in the Focus you even could get further down to a 1.4 engine...)
1.8 (125 PS): Mazda design, needs to have meticulous oil changes (every 10,000 miles, 7,500 miles if you have the Flexifuel engine), otherwise builds up stuck piston rings with subsequent high oil consumption. High mileage 1.8 engined C30/S40/V50 are worth scrap, so if you run across one that doesn't need to top up oil and check petrol level, you could be looking at some serious cheap motoring. They don't have a cambelt, they have chain driven camshafts from an era that these chains will last the engine's life. And there's no turbo to go bad, though they have VVT (again these rarely go bad)
2.0 (145 PS): enlarged version of the 1.8, more powerful, just as economical and (though to a lesser extent) susceptible to stuck piston rings, so check if oil changes have been done every 10,000 miles. Avoid the Powershi(f)t auto box, they are known to die around 150,000 miles.
2.4i (170 PS): five pot Volvo engine, known to last, first appeared in the 850. A bit heavy in front, quite thirsty, but proven quality. And the optional auto box is a Geartronic, which is good.
T5 (220-230 PS depending on model year): 2.5 litre five pot turbocharged Volvo engine, the Holy Grail (Ni!) of the engines in the C30.
Diesels:
1.6D (109 PS): 1.6-16V Ford-PSA DLD-416 engine. Run, don't walk. Worst engine ever in a Volvo. Only sold well because it fell into a favourable tax bracket.
D2 (115 PS): 8V version of the DLD-416, less problematic, but again not the best.
2.0D (136 PS): PSA DW10 engine, which was one of the best diesel engines on the market (700,000 miles not unheard of) before all those pesky anti-pollution measures needed to be taken. The most popular choice in a C30. Avoid the auto box though.
D3 (2.0 150 PS), D4 (2.0 177 PS), D5 (2.4 180 PS) are five cilinder Volvo engines, known for their durability. The D4 was quite popular in The Netherlands because it fell into a very favourable company car tax bracket, but nowadays valued scrap, because diesel (annual tax € 1644 and driving bans in cities are imminent). I wouldn't mind doing a daily drive in them, though!

[David]

If an affordable C30 had crossed my path, I would have bought that instead of the S70, and maybe I will in the future. Here's the choice of engines I've investigated, and which to avoid. As the C30 is based on the same platform as the Ford Focus, with most parts having FoMoCo stamped on them, the engines are mostly Ford, too. Only the top spec five cilinder engines are Volvo.

Petrols:
1.6 (100 PS): Yamaha design, noisy, feels underpowered even in the Focus (and in the Focus you even could get further down to a 1.4 engine...)
1.8 (125 PS): Mazda design, needs to have meticulous oil changes (every 10,000 miles, 7,500 miles if you have the Flexifuel engine), otherwise builds up stuck piston rings with subsequent high oil consumption. High mileage 1.8 engined C30/S40/V50 are worth scrap, so if you run across one that doesn't need to top up oil and check petrol level, you could be looking at some serious cheap motoring. They don't have a cambelt, they have chain driven camshafts from an era that these chains will last the engine's life. And there's no turbo to go bad, though they have VVT (again these rarely go bad)
2.0 (145 PS): enlarged version of the 1.8, more powerful, just as economical and (though to a lesser extent) susceptible to stuck piston rings, so check if oil changes have been done every 10,000 miles. Avoid the Powershi(f)t auto box, they are known to die around 150,000 miles.
2.4i (170 PS): five pot Volvo engine, known to last, first appeared in the 850. A bit heavy in front, quite thirsty, but proven quality. And the optional auto box is a Geartronic, which is good.
T5 (220-230 PS depending on model year): 2.5 litre five pot turbocharged Volvo engine, the Holy Grail (Ni!) of the engines in the C30.
Diesels:
1.6D (109 PS): 1.6-16V Ford-PSA DLD-416 engine. Run, don't walk. Worst engine ever in a Volvo. Only sold well because it fell into a favourable tax bracket.
D2 (115 PS): 8V version of the DLD-416, less problematic, but again not the best.
2.0D (136 PS): PSA DW10 engine, which was one of the best diesel engines on the market (700,000 miles not unheard of) before all those pesky anti-pollution measures needed to be taken. The most popular choice in a C30. Avoid the auto box though.
D3 (2.0 150 PS), D4 (2.0 177 PS), D5 (2.4 180 PS) are five cilinder Volvo engines, known for their durability. The D4 was quite popular in The Netherlands because it fell into a very favourable company car tax bracket, but nowadays valued scrap, because diesel (annual tax € 1644 and driving bans in cities are imminent). I wouldn't mind doing a daily drive in them, though!

Thanks for that. Interesting to see all the different variants. I had the 1.8 litre petrol (non-flexifuel) and found it to be really lacking in power and very thirsty. I've had two 2.0d C30's and find that engine much better, decent performance with MPG averaging around 39-42 The T5 and D5 were never imported to Ireland where I am. Most of the C30's sold here were 1.6 petrol or 1.6 diesel, both of mine were UK imports.

[Martin63]

I used to own two 480s but none at the moment unfortunately. That is unlikely to change any time soon. I'm currently driving a red C30 r-design 2.0d. I was just wondering if there were any other C30 owners on here? You rarely see them on the road where I am, I'd just be interested to speak to other owners.

I had 2 from new - a 2007 2 litre diesel and a 2012 1.6 litre diesel. The engine on the second one was only slightly less powerful than the first. Clearly a lot of effort had gone into the diesel engine evolutions.

I loved both of my C30s and would buy a decent condition petrol one. I had both cars for 5 years and they both got close to 100k on the clock

I am surprised that you don't see many - I still see plenty most weeks

[David]

I'm based in Ireland where they did not sell well.

[Martin63]

I'm based in Ireland where they did not sell well.

I was surprised how few I saw in Norway and Sweden - I did see one in the Faroe Islands though!

I think about 220,000 were sold world wide - almost 3 times the number of 480s. I would buy a nice low mileage petrol one if I found one.

[David]

I'm based in Ireland where they did not sell well.

I was surprised how few I saw in Norway and Sweden - I did see one in the Faroe Islands though!

I think about 220,000 were sold world wide - almost 3 times the number of 480s. I would buy a nice low mileage petrol one if I found one.

I'm the same. If I could buy a new one I would.

[DEATH]

i've a 480 Turbo and a C30 T5