Volvo C70 | Shed of the Week
Turbocharged five-pot convertible with a fist-pleasing manual? Don't mind if we do...
There’s classy and quick wafting on offer this week from within the gilded flanks of this Volvo C70. We had one of these a year or so ago. That was another 2007 example, but in that case it was a 2.4 Sport with a not-so-Sporty naturally aspirated 167hp engine in it. If you weren’t fussed about getting any kind of a move on Volvo would even sell you a 138hp version. That must have been spectacularly slow with a five-speed auto bolted on.
Fortunately today’s Coupe Cabriolet is about as far removed from that end of the C70 experience curve as it’s possible to get, armed as it is with the full-fat T5 2.5-litre inline-five, turbocharged to 222hp and stirred up by a six-speed manual gearbox. Technically there was an even pokier C70 in the brochure, a near-250hp Polestar model, but Shed thinks that wasn’t available in the UK so he reckons you’re looking at the speediest CC here.
The luxurious nature of the C70 meant that it had plenty of weight to cart about even if Mrs Shed chose not to install herself in one. 1,736kg was admitted to by Volvo, but even so there was still enough grunt in the manual T5 to deliver a respectable 7.4-second time for the 0-60mph, and it would happily burble along at 150mph if you could afford to keep shoving fuel into it.
The good thing about the full-fat C70s though was that they weren’t much juicier than the lower-powered ones that required diving boot pressures on the right-hand pedal to keep them humming along at a decent lick. The official average consumption for our 217g/km T5 was 31mpg. Underneath the angry crossings-out and clumsy corrections on Shed’s vehicle tax table lies the suggestion that the annual bill for this one will be £430. That feels vaguely affordable at a time when £700+ rates are being levied to legislate powerful old cars off British roads.
The other big enemy for UK-based would-be sheddists, or their cars at least, is rust. Shed’s unscientific overview on Volvos is that they seem to suffer less from this metallic ailment than most other everyday marques, so he will admit to being slightly surprised at the sight of certain phrases on the MOT test certificate that’s just been issued. The C70 that he told us about in the summer of ’24 had a similar set of advisories on its MOT history – lightly corroded rear suspension arms, light oil misting on the shocks, lightly busted CV boots etc – but there were no notes on that C70’s ticket about corroded front subframes or damaged engine mounts. There were on the Sept ’25 MOT fail certificate for today’s SOTW.
Engine mount issues are not unknown on 21st-century Volvos, and in fairness that problem does seem to have been addressed to get today’s shed through the retest a couple of weeks back, but here’s another alarm bell: the MOT on last year’s C70 SOTW wasn’t renewed when it came due in September 2024. Could that be a harbinger of trouble ahead for this example? That’s the trouble with sub-£2k sheds. Even without cruel Government policies not much needs to go wrong for them to be scrapped.
It would be a shame if that grisly fate befalls our golden C70. The mileage is low at 117,000 and it does seem like a lot of car for £1,999. Coolant hoses had a reputation for cracking but otherwise these C70s were pretty trouble-free apart from the stuff mentioned in the last para. Oh, and the roof of course. Hydraulics and/or microswitches were generically problematic for any manufacturer brave or stupid enough to fit them. Even when they were working as they were supposed to they ate up a lot of your luggage space when folded away.
That’s why the only ones you see now are on higher-value tackle from firms like McLaren and Ferrari that can more easily cover the cost of warranty repairs out of their higher profits and whose customers don’t carry much luggage. Also, you were entitled to believe that they’d help you out if and when things went wrong, not something that always seemed to be the case with cheaper electronically-roofed motors.
After a shaming moment in some sort of Peugeot that left him driving home with the steel roof stuck in the halfway position Shed is now very wary of cars with this feature. If he finds himself in something similar now he will always advise passengers to watch out if he’s about to deploy the top. Luckily, when the postmistress is lounging alongside him and Shed is pressing the appropriate button she is always more than happy to keep her head down.
the labour bill was ridiculous, very glad it was a company car at that point. In all nice car but I’d have a regular Volvo of that era over a C70 for obvious practical reasons I wouldn't want this particular one for all the risky rust issues, but having just read the £70k Alpina article nearby, I can't help thinking that a sub let's-say £5k Volvo 2.4 D turbo - with its inevitably amazingly comfy seats - would offer spectacularly more value for money than the Alpina for a dash to the French riviera for a dirty long weekend. And would leave plenty of cash available to live it up during said few days.
Approach the purchase with the mindset that in one years time it will fail and be sold for salvage and the cost works out at £5.47 per day to write down the 2K outlay minus the bid in the b
ks the car breaker pays you.Resist the temptation to put that roof up and cross your fingers for some lady luck and it could just be make it over the finishing line next year. Every year thereafter is a bonus.
Ignore the colour which should have been called dog vomit gold and it's a risk worthy shed offering.
Tip for shed: If you pinch the postmistress nose she'll pop up for air and eye contact.
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