Pauline has been considering buying a new car off and on for the past year, not because there is anything drastically wrong with her car, it’s just that it’s reaching the 7 year age where things start to go wrong. It had come through 40 hours of driving over two weeks with flying colours and not really a hiccup but at the end of it we were reminded of the fact that even though it’s absolutely brilliant in a straight line, turning corners makes it feel like you are pushing a beached whale out to sea. I use the word whale because it’s a black and silver Magna Solara which reminds me of a killer whale.

When my sister Kelly told me she was buying a brand new Suzuki Swift, competitve instinct kicked in, because she’s 9 years younger and has had about 4 more cars than me. I’d been eyeing off a Volvo C30 since it had come out because I’m partial to it’s all glass backside which is a look that divides people in to lovers and haters. Pauline was a hater, I was a lover, but with the use of some positive youtube videos I was able to portray to her how fun the car seemed to be to drive. I suggested we go for a test drive on Saturday to see what we thought.

Expecting a struggle at the dealership, we were impressed by the salesman’s immediate suggestion of the test drive. Other places over the past year that we’d been to had asked us to sign over lungs to get a test drive, but within 15 minutes we were off driving up Mt Gravatt hill. The car we test drove was the base model, which wasn’t the T5 turbo we were interested in, so it’s performance was a little slow for us V6 magna owners. The cornering was direct and excellent however and the customisation of the seating position made you feel in control. Driving it didn’t make you love it though so we were a little disappointed. The salesman suggested he bring a turbo over though to see if that made a difference so we arranged for him to drop over after work for another test drive, this time with the beefier car.

Rocking up on Monday around 6pm, Pauline took it off down the Ipswich Motorway which is the route she would take the car most often. What a difference! This car did everything you asked of it while making a satisfying roar when you hit the peddle – good for all us hoons. It gets to 100kms in just over 6 seconds yet has a comparable fuel economy to the Magna. The difference in this car was that you had fun going round corners while also feeling safe that you were in the hands of years of Volvo accident safety technology. When we got out at the end of it I could see Pauline was hooked and that is a big problem because it means we are going to have to get it. Sadly, I was absolutely hooked too – enough that when the salesman gave me a tattoo that says “I love the Volvo C30” I actually put it on and wore it to work. Sad!

So now we are at the point where we are ready to negotiate and although I’ve suggested we should go and test other cars, Pauline only has eyes for the Volvo so I guess there is no point. Volvo is working hard to change it’s volvo driver image and this is the car that may do it for them. It’s perfect for women with a little bit of sports car in them when they want it on the weekend but you can forget about having kids with this car. 3 doors and only four seats means a child seat would be madness. It’s the alternative to 4WDs for lesbians! But at least it’s got an ipod connection which is all Pauline wants in a car really. I’ll be interested to see how well we can deal him down in price.