In the past I've always gone down during my spring break, when it's starting to get warm in the more civilized climes of the East coast. I've thus missed the only reason why people really spend time in Florida: winter. However, I was fortunate enough to end up in Florida for a few days in February this year, and Hertz was kind enough to give me a free upgrade to a 2009 Volvo C70 with only 40 miles on the odometer. Needless to say, I took it for a long, long drive.
I got the point of Florida on the A-1-A between Boca Raton and Del Ray. It was 75 degrees, I had sunglasses and a t-shirt on, and I was driving along the Florida coast in a convertible. In February. That... that was nice, to say the least, and it didn't hurt that the car I was in was damn good for the scenario.
The C70 is built on Ford's C1 platform, which underpins the second-generation Ford Focus, Mazda3, Mazda5, Volvo S40, and others, which means you get fully-independent suspension. In a compact car like the Focus, this platform creates a nimble, fun little car. But the Volvo is not compact, nor is it lightweight. This should not be a revelation: it's a Volvo, not a Porsche, and it's supposed to be safe and solid and all those other good Sweedish things.
Balancing this out, however, is Volvo's turbocharged 2.5-liter, 227 horsepower five-cylinder engine, which is also available in modified form in the Euro-only Focus ST and Focus RS. It's a peach of an engine, one that I'd argue is even better than the 2.0-liter TFSI VW/Audi engine that's in the GTI (among other cars). It's enough to propel the C70 to 60 mph in a not-wholly-unrespectable 7.6 seconds.
Of course, 227 hp and front-wheel drive generates quite a bit of torque steer, which makes rapid launches a bit difficult. Performance through the corners is also perhaps a bit of a yawn, in large part because this car weighs 3800 pounds, or about 100 pounds more than my E39 BMW 540i. But it's also not the point of this car: it's a GT car, not a sports car. That made it a magnificent car for Boca Raton, where the concept of a curve in a road is as alien as reading a book.
Now for some of the more practical stuff. The Volvo's biggest draw is its folding metal hardtop, which goes from fully raised to totally down in about 30 seconds. That said, you have to hold a switch the entire time, and the system is a little finnicky. And like pretty much all of these folding hardtops, the windshield had to be stretched so far back that the A-pillar can obscure your view in left turns. More annoyingly, the hardtop takes up the ENTIRE trunk when it's deployed -- I bought a few books at Borders, and it was tough to get them in the trunk. But there are some clever storage compartments tucked in the rear seats, and one in front of the dash, and some cool covers for the compartments in the door panel, all of which are quite spacious. The doors are also intelligently designed: they're very long so as to make getting into the rear seats easier, which would be a nightmare in parking lots since they'd open so wide. But Volvo fitted them with a neat double-hinge system that allows the door to open wide without taking up lots of space. (The mechanism is basically the same as what's on the Renault Avantime, which Top Gear attempted to modify in its most recent series.)
The rear seats, however, are a different story. Volvo says on their website that the car has room for four adults, which implies that they believe the backseat offers room for two. My cousin is 6'3" or thereabouts, and even though my dad and I are both only 5'8", he couldn't put his feet on the floor when sitting in the back seat. He had to lie down. Indeed, even my dad couldn't sit normally in the back seat when I was driving, and my seat was all the way forward. And at speed, those two rear seat belts? Flapping in the wind in a very annoying manner -- I had to buckle them in to make it stop.
The C70 costs quite a chunk of change as well, starting at $39,800. It comes standard with a six-disc changer and excellent sound system, bluetooth, and so on, as well as a proper six-speed manual. Our rental was equipped with the Premium Package (full leather seating and a couple other [small] goodies), which is a $1570 option, as well as a 5-speed manomatic transmission that adds $1250 to the price. That transmission is abysmal, and does everything it can to disguise just how good the engine is, so forget about the dammed thing and keep the six speed. And the fact that this car costs more than a 328i, but doesn't have full leather as standard, is irksome to me, though I actually found the interior a nicer place to be than the E92 328xi loaner I got from BMW of Towson when my 540i was in the shop once.
I find myself reminded of a breakup I went through a while back, insofar as I was initially heartbroken to see the Volvo go, and I swore it was a magnificent car. But then I got some distance on it, and thought about it, and realized it wasn't nearly as great as I thought it was. It's at least $5000 too expensive, the full leather and other Premium Package options should be standard, and anybody who gets the automatic should be shot in the face. And for the next generation the engineers should really figure out a way to make the hardtop at least a little bit more compact.
Volvo is currently offering this car with $4500 off list, and I'm sure you can get them to toss in the Premium Package gratis in this environment. And if you do that, then you'd have a great car for a dual-income couple with no kids, or other people that have no real need for people in a rear seat at the same time the top's down. So long as you live in Southern Florida, Texas, or other climes with long, flat roads. The hardtop and Sweedish factor also make it a viable four-season car, which is heartening.
Still, I can't help thinking that the MX-5/Miata is ultimately a better, and much more inexpensive, choice if you're looking for something that does what the C70 does. As a rental for Florida in late winter, the C70's a great car, provided you are willing to deal with strange luggage arrangements. But would I buy one? To keep in my own garage? Paid for with money that I'd earned? No.
