You've one? Any annoyances that appeared after a while of owning the car?
For £350 Stage 1 remap you can have 260bhp+ and 400Nm of torque.
I have a 2011 Facelift model, in auto. So it is slower in a way to a manual but in reality my gear shifting is not fast and in an auto it means the car just go through the gears without any input from me meaning I can hit silly speed way too easily (as opposed if I am in 3rd gear, it can only go so fast without shifting). I originally wanted a manual originally but due to the circumstances at the time didn’t give me much choice because everything else in this car ticked all the boxes and since then I have come to really like this car in auto because it can be a great long distance cruiser. I often do 150miles journeys in it and it’s just so easy, if you are a type of person who just want to relax and cruise, consider the auto, don’t rule it out.
They can come well equipped if you can find them too, mine have follow me home headlights, electric memory seats, heated seats, light and rain sensor, parking sensors, cruise and auto folding mirrors and xenons. I have seen ones with blind spot detection too but those are very rare. Don’t bother getting one with the Nav, it was dated when it came out and it is ridiculous now. Dynaudio upgrade would be good if you can find one, as is R-Design, it will make the car looks much nicer, as is the body matching skirting and bumper.
In terms of performance, you can do the Shark remap or the official Volvo Polestar remap (£800), which you will get a little blue badge to stick on your car. 30mpg is my average for fuel; Tax is £305 a year. The innards shares a lot with the Ford so should be cheap if you go to an indy. I get mine serviced at a local Volvo Specialist. Tyres are not stupid size so prices are good, Michelin PS4 is £130 a corner.
Only gripes are boot size (if it matters), only seats 4, it literally have 2 back seats, no middle seatbelt, but they are full size normal seats, same as the front seats. P.s. find one with the hard boot lid if possible, it’s a £350 part from Volvo, they also come with a “curtain” which is crap looking. Not a deal breaker as they can be bought separately. I had to get mine separate, was not a reason to reject the car for something I can resolve afterwards, albeit a £350 fix. The exhaust is quieter, it doesn’t do the clap clap thing, you can hear the turbo whin and hissssss though. The suspension absorb bumps on the road better than you expect, so I would say the ST would corner better but the C30 is more comfortable. Overall it is comfortable, reliable and really quick when you want it to be. Plus it has a better badge prestige if you care for that sort of thing.
On the road hardly anyone will know what engine it is underneath because I’ve seen some 2L Diesel with dual exhaust and R-Design body kit too. So the only way to tell is the T5 badge. There are not that many of these on the road to begin with so a T5 is actually hard to find, there are currently no facelift model T5 for sale on Autotrader. Good or bad it doesn’t come with the street cred or sigma of the Focus ST. I have no doubt the ST is a better handling car but the C30 is a more comfortable, weirdly it sits lower and the car is more underrated and more rare certainly.
