Volvo C70: Watching the raindrops bounce off your windscreen on a wet February morning could lead you to consider the Irish convertible owner to be something of an eternal optimist. They're the type of people who at half-time on Saturday were upbeat about an Irish comeback against the French.
Yet, just as the Irish did resurrect some form of pride before the final whistle, there is some logic to the purchase of an open-top car on this supposedly wet isle. According to Met Éireann, two out of three hourly observations will not report any measurable rainfall. The average number of wet days - days with more than 1mm of rain - averages about 150 days a year along the east and southeast coasts. So getting a convertible is not as crazy as it may first seem.
Yet there's a vulnerability about driving around in a car cloaked in a cloth roof. That's why the hard-topped convertibles are proving so popular. They epitomise the "two cars in one" principle to which all convertibles aspire. These factors must put a certain spring in the step at Volvo, the Swedish marque that has continually proved its worth to US parent, Ford.
So the new C70 is a welcome arrival. The hard-top is a very appealing feature, but there's more to it than simple practicality: the car looks great with the roof up and smart with the roof down.
Indeed the very act of putting the roof up and down is mesmerising, even for those with no interest in mechanical engineering. Watching all the parts flip and fold and listening to the whirring sound of the motors can attract crowds of onlookers. A week with the car and we never tired of showing it off.
This technology has been around for a while and, as with all advanced engineering, there were some early teething problems on the cars that first introduced it to the market. Thankfully these gremlins are mostly ironed out at this stage, though we did have one problem with our C70's roof.
On Sunday night, doing our umpteenth demonstration of the fancy folding mechanism, it was only when we got out to admire the sleek lines in convertible mode - and in truth do a bit of gloating - that we noticed the bootlid which flips up to accommodate the folded roof parts was not shutting tight. We had not noticed it before because we'd spent previous occasions controlling operations from the driver's seat. Before getting out, we'd always put the roof up; this is Ireland after all, and leaving an open-top car unattended is where optimism ends and stupidity begins.
However this time we noticed the passenger side of the bootlid shut tight, but the driver's side had a gaping hole through to the innards of the boot.
There was near mutiny from our passengers when they spotted the problem, and they were certainly not prepared to travel the 60km home on a damp Sunday night with the roof down. Once up and locked into position again, the order was that there was to be no more demonstrations of the fancy folding roof until we were safely home.
This sort of incident would certainly dent the ego and optimism of convertible owners and plant a seed of doubt every time you put the roof down: will it go up properly again or will you need an umbrella to get home?
In terms of performance, the new C70 is more of a cruiser than a sports car, even with a 2.4-litre entry-level petrol engine. It may seem large when compared with entry-level versions from competitors, but it does have to carry the extra weight of the roof's electric and hydraulic motors. The Volvo is, unsurprisingly, the heaviest in its class, but only by a dozen kilos or so; not much, given that its competitors have cloth roofs.
While it cruises comfortably at 120km/h on the motorways, the take-off acceleration could never be described as sprightly. Our test car came with Volvo's five-speed Geartronic automatic transmission. If buying the 170bhp version, it's best to opt for manual and work the gears, reserving the automatic gearbox for the T5 220bhp version.
The C70 is based on the same platform as the S40, and that means its handling is both sharp and precise. Volvo has managed to increase the torsional rigidity of the chassis to ensure the car sits nicely into corners without concern about the rear-end doing its own thing, even with the roof down.
Two important factors are at play in all convertibles in this class - rear seat legroom and boot space. Of the former, the seats do look particularly tight and although an adult can just about fit, it's quite snug back there, particularly with the roof up. Headroom is at a premium, making the rear seats the preserve of those under 5ft 9.
As for the boot, obviously when you fold away all that metal, there's only a limited amount of space left. It does have a good depth, and it can certainly accommodate a weekend suitcase and a few soft bags in convertible mode, but it is a bit tight loading them in when the roof is down.
In this mode the actual space on offer is 200 litres, smaller than its competitors. Roof up, however, and the boot is bigger than even its soft-top rivals with over 400 litres, well able to accommodate golf clubs and the like.
In terms of pricing, the C70 is competitive, particularly given the good specification levels on offer. However, be sure to add on €485 for the rear windbreaker if you plan to spend any time in open-top mode as there's considerable wind noise without it.
Where the C70 may face its stiffest test is the fact that, with the entry-level 2.4-litre unable to sell itself as a performance version, buying decisions will be based more on image than power. While the C70 certainly has the right look, it's up against some stiff competition in terms of brand competition. The likes of the 1.8-litre Saab 9-3 convertible and the 1.8-litre Audi A4 cabriolet may steal some of the C70's thunder.
For us the big question is whether potential owners see the car as a genuine rival for the likes of the Audi, BMW or even the Saab, or see it more as a rather fancy - and expensive - version of the S40. The fact that this may put off current C70 owners will not cause much upset at Volvo, given that sales here were never sparkling, to say the least.
Undoubtedly others will follow Volvo down the hard-top convertible route. Yet for now at least, Volvo has a head start and the optimistic convertible owners can take some succour in its ability to cater for all meteorological eventualities.
