Volvo must think it’s on to something with their C30, because they’ve gone ahead and updated it and have been deluging the press with what’s so new and hot about it. On the one hand, the C30 makes sense. It’s sort of like Volvos answer to Audi’s A3, especially the three-door A3 that we, sadly, cannot get here in the states. The C30 comes across as small and sporty and stylish, not to mention a car that’s just begging to have the performance aftermarket have a go at it.

On the other hand, Volvo walks that precarious line between needing to branch out with new products yet not blow off its core constituency. They’ve seemed to be accomplishing this though. I see those enormous Volvo SUVs all over the place, to mention just one break from tradition. So what does the new C30 bring to the table?

Continue Reading…

To promote their Overseas Delivery service, Volvo is holding a contest for anyone to participate to win a free vacation to West Sweden.

To win, simply head over to their Trip Planner, create an itinerary, and you’ll have a chance to win that vacation which will include two round trip tickets to Sweden, a one week car rental (surely a Volvo,) and all the accommodations and activities in your itinerary. Continue Reading…

This is a guest post by James from Car Throttle - your performance car experts!

A favorite genre of many auto fiends is the “sleeper” - a car that looks like grandma’s Mercury but goes like stink. In this day and age of flashy, showy performance - with all the standard body kits, huge spoilers and obnoxious red badging automakers seem to believe belong on performance cars, the sleeper is a dying breed. The streets used to be littered with them, too. Buick Regal T-Types with Grand National running gear and a freaking landau roof, Galant VR-4’s with turbocharged 4G63’s and 4WD stuffed into an innocuous Galant body, heck - even the Fox-body Mustang LX 5.0 was a sleeper, with the thundering fuel-injected 302ci “5.0″ (actually a 4.9L) V8 but none of the GT’s plastic trashy bodywork.

Still, for those that would rather not have any show with their go, there are still sleepers left to pick from - if you know where to look. Sometimes you have to look in the strangest of places, but you can find burly horsepower under the hood of some unassuming cars these days. Let’s take a look at the top ten.

10) Toyota Camry SE V6

“A Camry? Really?” I know, I know. The Camry is the equivalent of the Antichrist to anyone that actually likes cars. But that makes it the perfect sleeper, at least in SE V6 trim. You see, under the hood is a very modern 3.5L 24v V6, which makes a rather considerable 268 horsepower coupled with a 6-speed auto.

Without a doubt, the rest of the car is mind-numbingly boring - but if you’re after velvety-smooth horsepower and strong mid-range in an utterly unassuming wrapper, the Camry SE V6 has got you covered. Just remember to take a No-Doz on long trips… the Camry might’ve misunderstood what “sleeper” means, and when you’re not smoking tires with your torquey V6, it’s likely to put you to sleep. Fast enough to embarrass a V6 Mustang, and good enough for 10th place. Continue Reading…

This week’s review is going to be a departure for us here at Automoblog. This won’t deal with how well a car deals with the grocery run, or whether it looks good while sitting in the driveway. This is a road trip. This is something special.

What kind of road trip is this? Well, it will include yours truly taking a three-day, 1,000 mile round-trip voyage from Columbus, Ohio to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, home of Road America. This will be the ultimate test of comfort, control and efficiency.

But what should we use for this unique adventure? Maybe a comfortable mid-size sedan? Or how about a new crossover sport-utility? No, this is going to take something truly different. As luck would have it, Volvo supplied me with the right vehicle that would complement this unique trip: A 2009 Volvo C30 R-Design. Continue Reading…

Once in awhile, a manufacturer will produce a new vehicle which attempts to create a new segment in the automotive market. However ambitious the company is, most do not seem to make it through their expected lifespan. Remember the Pontiac Aztec, or the Chevrolet SSR? What about the Subaru Baja?

Not all of them are failures though. Take for instance the Volvo V70 XC, Volvo’s idea of taking their regular V70 wagon, mixing in a bit sport-utility DNA, and making a crossover-wagon “hybrid” for the mass market. The XC70, as it is called today, came with an increased ride height, all-wheel-drive, and two-tone plastic trim on the exterior.

Since its inception in 1998, the XC70 has been a popular choice with the suburban crowd, with the rugged exterior of a sport-ute but without many of the penalties associated with owning one.

However, I have never understood the appeal. I felt the added plastic bits ruined the clean look that is a Volvo trademark and the additional ride height decreased the handling while giving the car no real off-road benefits. Then there is the lack of overall space when going with a wagon over a comparable SUV, or to a greater extend, a minivan.

Would a week with the third generation of Volvo’s subdivision wagon change my mind? Or would I think this vehicle should have gone the way of the other vehicles listed above? Continue Reading…

What you see above is a video of Volvo’s S60 concept car. Yes, concept, another teaser of something that Volvo might/will put out to the car market … assuming Volvo is still around making cars.

Volvo, like seemingly every car maker on planet earth today is not selling much. To make matters worse for them, Ford (the parent company) ain’t too happy and is trying to sell the division.

Maybe it’s because Volvo, although still making really solid cars, is making really forgetful cars. Seriously, I see them around, but I can’t tell you the last time I said “Whoa! Check out that Volvo!” They used to have the rep as being boxy, but reliable and safe cars … now, it seems they’ve replaced boxy with ‘pretty forgetful’.

C’mon, how did that happen?

Scandinavians are known the world over for their design sense. Think of Ikea and The Sydney Opera House and whatnot. How can they fail to make a car memorable?

Sure, the S60 has some nice lines, and they’re trying to push this boundary and that preconception, but … what … there’s not a lot of “there”, there. They don’t have the drama and grace of something that would come out of Italy (hey Ford, why don’t you send Ghia to work this?), they don’t have the surface tension of a German car. If anything, the latest Volvos are sort of heading towards quirky, in a French sort of way.

Something must be done, or you guys will be sold off to some Chinese industrial combine, slowly mashed into something that only has the Volvo badge, and little else, then, quietly, scrapped.