2007 Volvo C70 Review

The front seats slide forward with the touch of a button to ease the boarding of passengers into the two rear seats. There are a number of storage compartments in the cabin, some of which are lockable, useful when the car is parked with the roof down. Other compartments can be locked with a separate key, when leaving the car with a parking attendant, for example.

Volvo's flat-panel center stack fits in a world of flat panel computer monitors and television screens. It features a horizontal information screen over a column of buttons for radio and climate controls. Four big knobs dot each corner, all swathed in sleek aluminum trim. A clever storage bin behind the panel offers a place for a purse. The panel is unique to Volvo. Overall, though, storage space is in short supply.

The trunk gets crowded with the top down, also. Golf club bags have to slide under the roof, so there's an electric mechanism called Load-Aid, which lifts the roof sections and window glass eight inches. There's also a hatch between the rear seats that allows long things like skis to be carried in the trunk, extending into the passenger compartment. There's no room for a full-size spare tire, but buyers can choose between a temporary spare or a compressor bottle with sealant touted to plug a quarter-inch hole sufficiently well to last 120 miles at 50 mph.

In the rear seats, the C70 has more legroom than the Audi A4 and BMW 3 Series (1.5 and 1.9 inches more, respectively).

We found the Dynaudio system vivid and all there. With the top down, as the speed of the car climbs, the volume automatically increases. It doesn't forget to back off when you do.

New for 2007 is a standard auxiliary audio input for iPods and other MP3 players, plus MP3 playback capability from the in-dash CD changer. Sirius satellite radio is also available.