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Volvo planning Golf rival, 'breathtaking' C60 coupe

Despite just having refreshed nearly its entire portfolio, Volvo is still in the middle of a big product offensive. Vehicles like the C30 hatchback and C70 convertible have been given the axe, but a brand-new platform is being developed in addition to the Scalable Platform Architecture (SPA) that will underpin larger vehicles. According to Automobile, this means some very interesting newcomers may be on tap for the brand.
Volvo, in collaboration with Geely, is said to be working on a new platform about the size of a Volkswagen Golf that will likely spawn both a sedan and hatchback. Automobile reports that while the automaker's new scalable architecture is quite flexible, it cannot be stretched (or rather, shrunk) to accommodate a smaller vehicle.
Instead, SPA will be used for the company's larger offerings, starting with the V40 on the small end. (Though to our eyes, the current V40 looks plenty Golf-sized to us.) A new XC40 is apparently in the works, as is an S90 flagship, and new versions of the XC60, XC90 and S60 will all be coming based on this new flexible architecture.

Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.

Junkyard Gem: 2012 Volvo C30 T5 with 6-speed manual

Every year, fewer new vehicles are available in the United States with manual transmissions (though the ancient five-on-the-floor still exists… for now). American Volvo buyers preferred three-pedal setups in their cars later than some, though even they had mostly fallen out of love with manuals by the time the 1990s dawned. Still, some stubborn holdouts kept demand for the once-beloved gearbox technology alive here, until Geely-owned Volvo axed the manual transmission for the U.S. market after the 2013 model year. The final three-pedal Volvo sold here was the C30, and I've found one of those rare machines in a New Orleans car graveyard. The C30 was a cool-looking two-door hatchback that borrowed some styling influences from the the beloved 1800ES shooting brake. The biggest problem with it in the United States was that two-doors and hatchbacks in general no longer enticed many potential buyers into signing on the line which is dotted. The U.S.-market 2012 C30 came with a 2.5-liter turbocharged straight-five engine rated at 227 horsepower and 236 pound-feet, and owners could buy the Polestar Performance software upgrade to increase those numbers to 250 horses and 273 pound-feet. That made for a respectably quick machine with its curb weight of just 3,200 pounds. The six-on-the-floor manual was base equipment; if you wanted the five-speed automatic, the cost was $1,250 more ($1,711 in 2024 dollars). This is a base T5 model, so its MSRP was $24,950. That's about $34,159 after inflation. The C30 was discontinued after the 2013 model year, after many years of underwhelming sales numbers here. This one looked to have been in very nice cosmetic condition when it arrived here, so we can assume that it suffered some costly mechanical malfunction. There's more to life than a Volvo. That's why you drive one. There was an English-language version of this ad, but I prefer the Swedish one. The previous commercial dared to show a manual transmission, but the car in this ad has the slushbox. Is it ugly or is it beautiful?