Volvo C70 2006 Review - International

Review by Rick Gaffney

There are over 600 turns and more than 50 single-lane bridges in the narrow roadway linking central Maui to the verdant, pastoral, uniquely Hawaiian town of Hana, making the remote town an ideal location for a roll-out of the new Volvo C70 Hardtop Convertible.

And after wheeling past pastures and farms, flooded taro patches and cascading roadside waterfalls, under a bower of overhanging rainforest foliage, along rugged coastal cliffs with crashing winter surf pounding beneath them, to reach the central Maui plain, we turned left and drove the 60km from sea-level to the 3000m summit of Haleakala volcano, the 'House of the Sun'.

There may be better places to test a new coupe with sporty handlings, the responsive heart of a touring car and the interior comforts of even pricier Euro-sedans, but I don't know where that might be. And what more glorious place could you possibly test-drive a convertible than under an achingly blue mid-Pacific sky.

Soon after our arrival at the swank Hotel Hana-Maui, Volvo staffers rolled up in a fire-engine red version of their newest model and revealed the oh-wow mechanics of the neatly articulated folding hardtop. Realised with the development and manufacturing collaboration of the respected, Italian firm Pininfarina, the top lifts, breaks in three, folds compactly and drops adroitly into the boot in about 30 seconds -- at the touch of a button.

Surprisingly, there is still more than enough room for groceries, luggage, golf equipment and the like. Pop the boot, push a bright yellow button, and the folded hard top lifts up for access to the trunk storage space and tyre repair tools. Press the same button when you are done and everything retracts so you can close the trunk and be on your way. There's even a ski-port for longer items.

Why go to the trouble of building a hardtop convertible? For a company like Volvo that lives by the "safety first" motto it was only natural to seek the further passenger protection  -- both in terms of dynamic safety and security.

The hard top offers the additional protection of sound and temperature insulation from the outside world. Put the top up and the heat of the Hawaiian noonday sun is banished and the roar of passing traffic, construction equipment and everyday cacophony are muted nicely. It then that Volvo's own extraordinary digital signal processed Dynaudio sound-system can the interior with concert hall quality sound.

Looking beyond hard-top one is immediately impressed with the body styling of the Volvo-C70. Carrying-forward from the characteristic Volvo tail-lights, the body is lower and wider than other Volvo sedans and at once a classically modern two-door coupe form, in a wider-stanced, more warmly rounded departure, especially from the older Volvo 'brick'.

While the car looks good it also packed with Volvo's traditional complement of safety systems. Volvo's unique door-mounted Side Impact Protections System (SIPS) couple with hydro-formed steel A-pillars, Volvo's whiplash protection system (WHIPS) and Rollover Protection System (ROPS) bars and a body structure designed to channel forces around the passenger compartment to protect passengers better than ever before.

Built around Volvo's reliable and well proven turbocharged 162kW/320Nm five-cyclinder T5 2.5-litre powerplant, the C70 was highly responsive and had plenty of guts to climb the shortest route from sea-level to 3000m on the planet.

To this driver the standard six-speed manual transmission provided a finer level of control over the twisty test route. However, Volvo's electronically controlled adaptive automatic transmission proved to be a popular choice on the way back to Hana.

The C70 will be launched in Australia with a choice of two petrol engines. Entry-level will be Volvo's naturally aspirated, 2.4-litre five rated at 125kW.

The interior design of the new C70 is an eminently adjustable ergonomic masterpiece, coupled with fine fabric, the unique, curvilinear, burnished stainless steel center console, and enough lush Euro-styling to make any body-type comfortable. Like the S40/V50 series on which it is based, the C70's space-age 'floating' centre console includes very intuitive adjustments for everything from the driver/passenger individual climate controls systems to the sound system.

From the top of Haleakala, it was an extraordinarily clear day and we could see the snow capped peaks of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea to the east and the highest peaks of the islands of Lanai and Molokai to the west. But we could not linger long because the C70 called to us from the parking lot.

We had plenty of miles to go before we slept, and the sleek coupe cabriolet was clearly ready to round all of those 600 turns again.

Volvo has produced a highly attractive, safe, mechanically sophisticated, superbly comfortable, two-door coupe in its new C70. That a convertible is thrown in free is the icing on the cake…