I bought my 2009 Volvo C30S 2.4l 5 cylinder automatic in 2012 for around $25,000AU with 46,000km on clock. This is the most luxurious kind of car I have ever owned.
I traded in my 2010 Mazda BT50 utility on it. The reason I did so was complex. The Mazda BT50 Utility is a brilliant machine indeed and is the only vehicle I ever owned that gained in value. That aside, I bought the Volvo because it was cool, beautiful, understated, rich with leather and it had the glass boot door that I've always wanted since I was 17 at school and Volvo brought out their coupe that Roger Moore tooled around in The Saint TV series.
A glass boot...wow. This design incorporated a lot of what the English gentry called 'the Shooting Brake'...where a Brake is a kind of horse drawn wagon that gentlemen used to go shooting /hunting in.
Anyway, it was a kind of romanticism purchase for me because my Maths teacher in 1969 had the original Volvo of the same DNA, and I always wanted one onwards from 1969...so, in 2012 I bought one...well, it's descendant, the 2009 Volvo C30S.
It is downstairs now in the carpark and looks great.
I'm selling it, trading it in on a Skoda Yeti, because 1: I am getting pretty old now and I have begun to realise now that ever year I live I will grow one year older. This may seem obvious to others but it has only recently dawned on me, the individual and cool and stupid person I have ended up being...
thus: what I find difficult is climbing out of the fucking low line cool sexy understated car. This is one thing, but when I look a bit forward in time,I realise that it will get a bit harder each year. I don't have many car purchases ahead of me.
Anyway, the review:
3 door Volvo C30S Sports Coupe, seats 4 pretty comfortably.
2.4l Swedish 5cyl petrol engine running best on RON 95...although it will run on standard fuel quite well.
Technology: Whatever was leading edge in 2009 Northern Europe: Pretty damn good.
Performance: Fast as you want to drive it. Cornering: amazing and certain. Braking: Brilliant. Safety: Outstanding. Reliability: Breathtaking.
Fuel usage: Twice as much as a Toyota Corolla.
Servicing Cost: Not bad if you don't use Volvo Service Centres and you only get it serviced once a year. Who the fuck needs pollen filter upgrades? I like pollen.
All in all, out of 10, I'd give it a 8.1. A Real World Car...it's quite brilliant. You can treat it well or badly and it doesn't mind a bit. It's very strong.
A price for a new 2015 model would probably end up close to $40,000 which is a lot more than I would ever pay for a car on Earth. They lose value fast in Australia.
I'm trading it in on a Skoda Yeti with an engine half the size and a big glass roof, basically because I get tired of cars as time goes by anyway; and I have always liked Skoda; and I think the Yeti is a good choice; and because I can. At 61 it is nice to look forward.
I will have to remember that in the Yeti, as in most other new cars in my range, that, unlike in the Volvo, I may have to apply the brakes before taking a 45 degree turn at 200kph.
Well done Volvo. Please keep making really fucking good cars.
Roll on.
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