An arty farty Volvo C30, seen in front of Volvo shop in Sanlitun embassy district in 2011. The good, or perhaps poor, Volvo was wrapped in a very bright and colorful wrap, looking like a real art car. The bonnet is very busy with a sea and a sun and a sky.
The imagery seemed a mix between Japanese cartoon stuff and pop art. Very flashy for a Volvo. The vehicle was used as a driving advertisement for the shop with a telephone number on the doors, printed on the wrap. Note the little lady in front of the vehicle, having a look as well. ‘C30’ license plate is almost as cool as the wrap.
Talking about the ladies; they were the main customer group for the Volvo C30, which in China was mainly used as a hip-ish city car, just like the Mini. The C30 was imported and thus relatively expensive but that didn’t really hurt its popularity. It remains vert strange that Volvo didn’t develop a successor for the C30, and left the segment to the competition.
The C30 was sold in China from 2006 until 2013. The art car is a post-facelift 2.0 model, powered by a 2.0 liter four pot with 145 hp and 185 Nm. Only gearbox option in China was a 6-speed DCT. Top speed was 205 km/h and 0-100 took 9.7 seconds. Price of the 2.0 started at 298.000 yuan, which, for comparison, was about the same as 4.5 locally made Changan-Suzuki Swifts.