Topless Volvo teases mind and soul

Topless Volvo teases mind and soul

Blending eye-catching design, safety, and value for money, the Volvo C70 Convertible epitomizes the open touring cars of the 1930s with its smooth refined ride, wood grain panel trim and body hugging leather seats.

If a car can become a classic in its own time, the Volvo C70 Convertible is surely it. Regularly attracting customer epithets such as ‘spectacular styling’ and ‘faultless handling’, the Volvo C70 has emerged a classic family sports tourer since its launch almost six years ago.

Epitomizing the expression of Scandinavian design purity, the Volvo C70 Convertible provides a vision of inspired athleticism synthesizing power and grace. The Volvo C70 Convertible was designed by a team under Volvo’s renowned British-born head designer Peter Horbury charged with creating an accomplished, usable touring car for today’s era.

“Open-top motoring is about pure indulgence, yet we also wanted to provide room for four adults in a soft top that wasn’t claustrophobic with the hood up and that provided enough room for the golf clubs,” recalls Peter Horbury, who today heads the Ford Premier Automotive Group design.

The sum of all their efforts was the front-wheel drive Volvo C70 Convertible, which – despite its spacious luxury feel -- still provides the thrill of pure driving pleasure and wind-in-your-face enjoyment.

“With its sporty elegance, top performance and host of comfort and pleasure enhancing features, the Volvo convertible is a beautiful automobile with an air of classic timelessness reminiscent of the open touring cars of the 1930s,” says Peter Horbury.

Thanks to its quiet, refined ride, few who have savoured the experience disagree that the Volvo C70 Convertible is a nice place to be, especially when touring in the grand style with the family. The intelligently laid out cabin and large, comfortable seats with multiple seat adjustments help assure an excellent ride, especially over long distances.

Music buffs are also treated to a ride of their lives thanks to the C70 Convertibles audio system, probably the most sophisticated on the market with up to 14 loudspeakers and four amplifiers pre-fitted in the factory to ensure high quality. An exciting optional extra is the world’s first in-car Dolby Surround Pro Logic system, with a built-in amplifier for a central speaker.

Topless ease

For those who believe top-down touring is not an option but the be all and end all of letting the breeze blow away life’s stresses, releasing the hood is the easiest thing in the world. At the touch of a button the fully automatic, insulated cloth top folds seamlessly below the rear cowl. There are no unsightly bulges or protuberances. Instead, a slim hardcover tonneau clamps down securely over top, leaving a smooth, sweeping form that looks great from any angle.

Volvo is Latin for ‘I roll’ and the C70 Convertible delivers exhilaratingly on that promise with a powerful and well-balanced chassis and engine.

The Volvo C70 Convertible for 2003 received a boost in horsepower for both the light-pressure turbo and high-pressure turbo models. The light-pressure turbo jumps from 190 horsepower to 197. High-pressure-turbo models increase to 242 horsepower, up from 236. A 5-speed automatic transmission is the only gearbox offered on light-pressure models, while the high-pressure C70 Convertible comes standard with a 5-speed manual.

Safety

The Volvo C70 Convertible proves its beauty isn’t only skin deep by providing a plethora of occupant safety protection features. Three-point seatbelts and head restraints at all seating positions, side impact protection system (SIPS) with enhanced side impact airbags, and WHIPS whiplash protection seats as standard equipment are but part of the C70 Convertible's safety story.

The C70 Convertible even provides rollover protection with Volvo’s unique ROPS system, an integrated safety system that provides pretensioning seatbelts and automatically deployable rollover bars in the event of a rollover accident.

And, because by nature Volvo’s soft-top tourers are also family cars, the 2003 Volvo C70 Convertible comes standard with the ISO-fix baby seat attachment system, making Volvo the first carmaker in the world to install the system.

Pride and joy

With its sleek lines, great shape, power and grace, the Volvo C70 Convertible will almost certainly enter the history books as one of the most exciting touring cabriolets of its generation, on a par with the finest of pre-war touring cars from the 1930s.

Helping make the Volvo C70 Convertible an object of pride and joy to be treasured by its owner is the fact that the vehicle is made in its own exclusive factory – the Volvo Car facility near the harbour of Uddevalla, which nestles on Sweden’s attractive West Coast.

With fewer than a total 30,000 vehicles made since its market launch in 1998, the Volvo C70 Convertible is on track to ultimately become a collectors item once production ceases as expected in 2005 to make way for a replacement. The relative rarity of the C70 Convertible assisted by Volvo’s reputation for reliability should also help keep residual values high.

Touring

If ever a car was designed to enjoy blue sky motoring along the serpentine roads of southern Europe or California or just driving home from work along city streets, the Volvo C70 Convertible is it. With its exceptional agility, superior road holding and supreme comfort, the Volvo C70 Convertible provides pure style, is fun to drive, gives everyday practicality with room for a 4-person family, and as one customer noted: “The Volvo C70 Convertible is a great place to be after a tough day at the office!”

For more information, please contact: Christer Gustafsson, +46 31 596525

Date of issue: 23 May 2003

Dept 50210/dn