Is it a classic? Volvo C30

00s cars Volvo

It’s been a decade since Volvo shut the hatch on the three-door market. The strictly five-door V40 replaced the resolutely three-door C30 in 2013, as Volvo responded to a changing market. 

Finding a new three-door hatchback in 2025 can be like searching for a needle in a haystack; even the three-door Ford Fiesta bit the dust in 2022. SEAT, the supposedly sporty arm of Volkswagen, stopped selling three-door cars in 2018, with the VW Up doing down in 2023.

Officially, the C30 wasn’t a hatchback. Volvo called it a ‘SportCoupé’, a name also used by SEAT for the less practical versions of the Ibiza and Leon, and Mercedes-Benz for its style-over-substance C-Class coupé of the new millennium. Few, if anyone, refer to the C30 as a ‘SportCoupé’, but for Volvo it was a chance to target a younger audience; at launch, it said that three of every four C30s would be bought by a customer new to the brand. Who wouldn’t want a style-led coupé-cum-hatchback with a glass tailgate inspired by the 1800ES of the 1970s and the 480ES of the ’80s? That’s a rhetorical question.

It arrived in 2006, five years after debuting as the Volvo Safety Concept Car (SCC) at the 2001 Detroit motor show. A decade later, several of the safety solutions presented in the SCC had made it into Volvo’s production models, although the see-through A-pillars, once part of the C30’s development programme, were shelved for reasons of strength, complexity and cost.

Like the larger S40 and V50, the C30 was based on the same platform as the Ford Focus. This gave it a head start dynamically, although it lacked the razor-sharp precision of its Blue Oval contemporary. Reviewing the rapid 2.5-litre five-cylinder T5 version in 2006, evo said: ‘You wouldn’t expect a Volvo to handle with the focus of a sportily optimised Focus [the ST hot hatch], and it doesn’t. The steering is lighter, softer, more rubbery, but the responses are still progressive and consistent.’ In conclusion, it said: ‘What is missing is the slightly artificial, nose-heavy feel of the fastest Focus, which is a welcome surprise. The C30 comes across as a more complete car dynamically, helped by a firm but tidily controlled ride and a terrific driving position.’ In other words, a more mature take on the Focus ST formula; less ASBO and more SAHADO (Stay At Home And Drink Ovaltine). Albeit a mug of Ovaltine with a shot of Red Bull; the T5 could hit 60mph in around six seconds and reach a top speed knocking on the door of 150mph.

By the end of production in 2013, around 210,000 C30s had rolled out of the Ghent factory, with one in seven finding a home in the UK. Not successful enough for it to come in handy when scratching your head for the name of five famous Belgians*, but not bad for a stylish SportCoupé with a small boot and the inconvenience of having no back doors. Volvo argued that the individual rear seats would be best served as extra luggage space for young couples without kids, and it had a point. Own something cool before you’re knee-deep in nappies and worrying if you’ll be able to afford the next mortgage repayment.

The C30 lost some of its concept car looks with the 2010 model year facelift, but the glass tailgate ensured that it remained a car you wouldn’t mind following in traffic. Fortunately, it also retained the glorious ‘floating console’ in the centre of the dashboard, which takes us back to the days before Volvo went touchscreen mad. A lot of people buy Volvos for reasons of practicality, safety and reassurance; the C30 was a car you bought for its style, neat touches and petiteness. Unfortunately, the world fell in love with the crossover, which is why cars like the C30 were given their P45. Volvo should have called its replacement the UB40.

*If your list doesn’t include Plastic Bertrand, you’re reading the wrong mag.

This article first appeared in issue 21 of Classic.Retro.Modern. magazine.