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In a world of flat panel computer monitors and television screens, Volvo's flat-panel center stack fits perfectly. It was introduced with the S40 and is carried over here. With a brushed aluminum face, and a horizontal information screen over a vertical column of black radio and climate control buttons, with four knobs at each corner, it couldn't be cleaner. But the real advantage is that there's a storage bin behind the panel. The panel is unique to Volvo. Our C70 was equipped with Flextech upholstery, which comes standard, after being specially developed and introduced with this car. It's a stylish synthetic material with a wetsuit-like feel, and at first touch, we like it better than leather. Its quality is way beyond cloth, and it feels as nice as leather against the skin. The front bucket seats are ergonomically shaped and very comfortable, and slide forward with the touch of a button to ease the boarding of passengers into the two rear seats. There are a number of good storage compartments in the cabin, some of which are lockable to be used when the car is parked with the roof down. Other compartments can be locked with a separate key, if the car is left with a parking attendant, for example. The trunk gets crowded with the top down. Those golf clubs have to slide under the roof, so there's an electric mechanism called Load-Aid, which lifts the roof sections and window glass 8 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 a buyer gets his choice between a temporary small spare, or a compressor bottle with sealant, which will plug a quarter-inch hole for 120 miles at 50 mph. The nose may be five inches shorter than before, but because those inches were lost forward of the windshield, there's no loss of front legroom; in fact, there's one inch more. Seven-tenths of an inch of legroom has been lost in the rear seats, but that's still 1.5 and 1.9 inches more than the Audi A4 and BMW 3 Series, respectively. We drove a Dynaudio-equipped car for about two hours, and, unlike other expensive sound systems we've tested, the Dynaudio is vividly 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.
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