Volkswagen Scirocco vs Volvo C30

Shahzad Sheikh
24 May 2009

Volkswagen’s new Scirocco is not really a hot hatch. If it was, it would be a Golf. Let’s dismiss that notion straightaway – the new Scirocco is physically lower and wider than a Golf. Sure it shares technology with its famous and eminently practical sibling, but then so do all Volkswagens. Let’s call the racy new car a three-door coupe – VW will like that, it’s very new-niche.

When you start looking for rivals for it, however, your options narrow pretty fast. But there is one, the Volvo C30 which is also a hot hatch that isn’t really, if you see what I mean. Technically it’s only a two-door in fact, with a piece of glass on the back that happens to open.

So whilst VW has drum-rolled its new categorisation-defying Scirocco into the Middle East and dared people to pigeon-hole it, Volvo has simply waved a dismissive hand its direction with a ‘been there, done that’.

The little Volvo, also dubbed a ‘sports coupe’, takes the signature face of the rejuvenated marque – strong, sturdy yet new chic – and mates it to an avant garde body that combines the typical strong-shouldered look, with a tapering body swept backwards until it rather abruptly ends in a styling nod to the 1800 ES from the 1960s.

On paper the news gets even better for the Swedish car maker when you start to compare the C30 T5 against the Scirocco – a 2.4-litre five-cylinder engine which puts out 227bhp and 236lb ft or torque. That’s an advantage of 0.4-litre, 30bhp, 30lb ft and a whole extra cylinder. It’s even slightly cheaper.

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