Hello!

I have a teenage girl who will be driving in couple of years, and I'm already starting to look for a car. Being the age she is, she grew up watching 'Twilight Saga', and she's mentioned that she likes Edward's car... so here I am.

I'm from the Toyota/Lexus/Honda world, where I drove my last car to 200k miles with zero problems (but was turning into rusty dust), and one before that, 350k miles with ABSOLUTELY zero issues. I have only one experience with an European car, which my parents had a Merkur Scorpio (Ford Granada Scorpio in Europe, I believe) in the late 80's and the car was a pure nightmare.

I have no knowledge on Volvos other than my high school girlfriend's mom had one, (creamy yellow wagon... that's the exterior color... and.. never mind) that my GF took with her for college. that thing had rust holes on the floor board, but still ran like a champ... and boy did we have some memorable moments... lol.

So I'm here trying to do a little research on C30. I will try to find out what platform it's made on, (someone told me it's a Focus chassis? can that be true!!??) how reliable it is,(again, my standards are pretty high) and etc, etc.

I rather stay within my comfort zone and stay Japanese (used WRX Hatch?) but I really love my daughter and like to get her something she wants for once... I mean, this girl scrubbed my toilets, mowed lawn, shoveled snow, tutored her 2 younger siblings for years to get her iPad/iPhone, gets straight A's... and yeah... I won't feel an ounce of guilt spoiling her on a car.

So I'd like to absorb what I can here, and if I do end up getting a C30, I will try to contribute here as well.

Thanks everyone!!!

 

Yep, it shares the platform of the Focus and Mazda 3. Volvo calls it the P1 platform.

I wouldn't expect any car nowadays to last 200,000 miles without a single problem.

 

Well, I guess I was being a little unrealistic when I said 'not a single problem', but I've had some really good luck with the last 4-5 used cars I've purchased, all of them being Toyota/Lexus/Honda/Nissan, although my current DDs are showing signs that the newer Toyota/Lexus aren't bulletproof as they once were in the 90's. (another reason why I'm expanding my horizons)

I'm still bit nervous about dipping into uncharted territory for me, (European)
but I do understand that the Volvo isn't like VW or BMW when it comes to reliability and maintenance.

 

Cars today are WAY more complex. More things to go wrong means higher odds that something will.

P1's had problems with front struts leaking, clogged sunroof drains and compressor clutches.

 

struts don't bother me... clogged sunroof drain, that's something I'm new to, although I think the car I owned in high school, an 84 Mustang had rust all around the sunroof, probably for the same reason. AC compressor clutch sounds like a pain. None of the three, I don't think is a show stopper... I may start searching for one real soon. (manual)

Thanks ES6T!

 

You can clean the drains and cut the elbows so they never clog again yourself for free. There are also people who de-shim the compressor clutch as a temporary band aid fix. I'm sure there are some posts about these fixes.

 

I just wanted to make sure that C30s don't suffer common major things... like the oil gelling issue with VW 1.8 Turbos, etc. (which is a show stopper for me)

I found a low milage C30 Polestar, with a reasonable price less than an hour from me but boy, that blue.... lol.