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A cool car for active people, to suit their lifestyle
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Exciting design and exhilarating driving characteristics for younger customer group
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Several options to adapt C30 to one’s personal taste
The all-new Volvo C30 comes blowing in like a fresh breeze. It is a car that aims – with its sporty design, two doors, four individual seats and a glass tailgate – to give a young and dynamic group of customers “a Volvo of their own”.
“The Volvo C30 is a cool car for active people, and aims for a group of young singles, or couples, with an intense urban lifestyle. These people prioritise excitement in design and driving characteristics on their list of ‘wants’, and this car is designed to suit their taste and lifestyle,” says Michelle Naudé, marketing manager of Volvo Car South Africa.
During the development phase of the C30 project, the Volvo Car Corporation organised customer clinics in a number of European countries. People living in urban areas with accelerating careers and an intensive lifestyle were invited to judge the car’s design and technical content.
“Volvo has focused primarily on singles, or couples without children who see the car as an entertaining tool for keeping up with their intense lives. When they buy clothing, home furnishings, or electronic devices, design and brand are very important factors – and they choose cars in the same way,” says Naudé. This rings very true for the South African market that the C30 will appeal to.
These are customers who move between their homes, the office, meetings, the gym, and to their favourite spots around town at a fast pace. This group prioritises exciting design and exhilarating driving characteristics, and for the most part there are not more than two people in the car.
Lifestyle rather than age
It is important to point out that this is a question of lifestyle rather than age. When the children grow up and move out, you also have time and money for an active and fast-moving life. Therefore, says Naudé, Volvo believes that next to the great part of younger customers, a considerable share of the C30’s volume will be bought by so-called ‘empty-nesters’.
Another appealing possibility, of course, is that the C30 will be the second car for families with children.
The Volvo C30 will also appeal to consumers who are image and brand conscious, individualists that want to show they have arrived.
In one of Volvo’s customer clinics during the development of the C30, one of the participants said: “Finally, a new exciting challenger in the segment, probably my first Volvo.” That is exactly what we wanted to hear, and important in our quest to increase Volvo’s sales in South Africa and globally, especially in a younger customer group, says Naudé.
Several options for personal taste
The possibility of adapting the car to their personal taste is high on the wish list among the intended buyers.
A specially designed body kit with larger exhaust pipes is available fully colour coordinated or in dual tone. To further personalise the car, the body kit can be combined with a lowered sport chassis and 18″ wheels. The body kit is available in many colours to create a wide range of possibilities for exciting personal combinations.
Styling items available for the interior are a sport steering wheel and sport gear lever with aluminium inlays, brushed aluminium pedals, and specially designed C30 carpets.
The Volvo C30 will be introduced with, for example, an entirely new colour: Cosmic White Pearl. Equipped with the body kit in brown Java Pearl, the car strongly resembles the Volvo C30 Design Concept.
The centre stack is available in four different versions. Completely new is the Virtual White inlay, inspired by the modern, glossy surfaces of the worlds of sport and computers. The same material is also used in the doors. A striking version with surf-patterned aluminium is also available as an accessory, and has been inspired by the C30 Design Concept.
Room for 4 only
The Volvo C30 does not claim to be a full-sized family car. It is specially suited to its target group. The new C30 is purposefully designed to have room for four adults only, thanks to the two separate seating positions in the rear seat, with generous head and leg room.
The rear seats are slightly centred to provide a feeling of space and a good forward view. It also makes communication between front and rear occupants much easier and quite social.
Dynamic front and fast silhouette
The design of the production-ready model is in tune with the Volvo C30 Design Concept that was launched at the Detroit Motor Show in 2006. The front retained its dynamic character, with the angled headlamps and the low, wide grille.
Viewed from the side, the distinct wheel housings in contrasting materials, and the sloping roof give the new C30 a fast silhouette, which is further enhanced by the extreme boat-shape of the side windows. This is created by the narrowing roof and the wide shoulders.
The shoulders at the rear are powerfully rounded and are accentuated by the horseshoe shaped lighting pattern of the tail lamps, and the glass tailgate. The spoiler at the upper edge of the tailgate is available in two different versions.
The C30 is an attractive car, with design features to suit its younger role and place in Volvo’s model line-up. “Volvo Cars prides itself in its design philosophy to keep things clean and functional, yet beautiful. In the C30 we have combined these attributes with the need of individual expression in a younger customer group,” says Naudé.
“The result is a sexy, modern, safe car that stands out – a car that you can enjoy and strongly identify with.”
