The Volvo C70 is a two-door, four-passenger sport compact manufactured and marketed by Volvo Cars from 1996 to 2013 across two generations.
The first generation (1996–2005) was available as both a coupé (1996–2002) and softtop convertible (1997–2005). The second generation (2006–2013) was available as a retractable hardtop convertible.
Volvo unveiled the first generation C70 at the 1996 Paris Motor Show, followed by introducing it on the European market as a 1997 model, and a year later as a 1998 model in North America. — with 2.0 (sold mostly in Italy), a low-pressure turbo (2.4L) and a high-pressure turbo (2.0L and 2.3L), 5-cylinder, turbocharged petrol engines and manual and automatic transmissions. Peter Horbury designed the exterior and Mexican designer Jose Diaz de la Vega led the interior design team.
The C70 broke Volvo's decades-long styling tradition of boxy, rectilinear designs and was Volvo's first luxury coupe since the 780. According to Peter Horbury, Volvo's design chief from 1991 to 2002, with the C70, Volvo threw away the box, but "kept the toy inside!" "Our vision was to design a convertible that would meet the needs of a family of four looking for comfortable blue-sky motoring in a vehicle also providing stylish looks, performance and faultless driving and road-holding."
In a development program of 30 months and working with a Volvo 850-derived platform, Britain’s TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing) co-designed the car's basic design and suspension tuning with Volvo. Manufacture of the C70 was a joint venture until the two companies experienced disputes that threatened to interrupt production; TWR did not contribute to the second generation C70.
Volvo's first modern convertible, the C70 was manufactured in Uddevalla, Sweden on a separate assembly line from the 70-series sedan and station wagon. The four-seater convertible featured an electrically heated glass rear window, automatic (pop-up) rollover hoops system ROPS, seat belt pre-tensioners, boron steel reinforced A-pillars, front and side airbags, and a safety cage — a horseshoe-like structure around the passenger compartment.
The cloth convertible top, initially available in four colors, was fully automatic, operated by a single, dashboard-mounted button. The top stored automatically under an integral rigid tonneau cover in a system pioneered in modern convertibles with the fourth generation Mercedes SL.
The C70 convertible exhibited two negative traits endemic to convertibles: poor rear visibility and pronounced scuttle shake, a characteristic whereby the structural design of the bulkhead between engine and passenger compartment of a convertible suffers sufficiently poor rigidity to negatively impact ride and handling, allowing noticeable vibration, shudder or chassis-flexing into the passenger compartment.
Early special editions featured two-tone leather interior with wood trim and a SC-901 (1998) Dolby Pro Logic I stereo with 3-disc integrated changer unit (via a cartridge) 400 watts of power and 11 high end Dynaudio speakers.
The C70 was introduced to the press in a signature color (saffron pearl metallic) and for the debut marketing, the 1997 film The Saint featured a C70 — recalling the notable connection of the Volvo P1800 and the television series from the early 1960s, The Saint with Roger Moore as Simon Templar. The total number of cars produced with the signature saffron pearl metallic paint was reportedly 145
There was no 2005 model C70 in North America, the 2004 left over models were sold into 2005 there.
72,000 first generation C70s were produced in the seven years up to 2006, fewer than 50,000 were convertibles.
Volvo cosmetically updated the convertible with new clear headlights and rear light clusters for model year 2004.
Of the 72,000 first generation C70s produced worldwide, 26,036 were Coupes and 46,786 were Convertibles. Volvo Cars of North America reported that 24,948 Convertibles were sold in the US, plus 6,465 Coupes. Of those US Coupes, 603 had the 2.3 liter engine with high pressure turbo (T5) and the M56 5-speed manual transmission. It's believed only 135 of the C70 T5M coupes painted "Saffron" made it to the US market.
The second generation C70 model debuted at the 2005 Frankfurt Motor Show, sharing the Volvo S40 platform, designed by John Kinsey and built by Pininfarina Sverige AB — a joint venture between Pininfarina and Volvo (and the first time Pininfarina has manufactured outside Italy). The C70 retractable hardtop replaces its predecessors two models: both the convertible and the coupé, the latter which had been absent from Volvo's lineup since 2003. The retractable hardtop went on sale in the U.S. in spring 2006.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the United States conducted its first crash tests of several convertibles, designating the C70 a "Top Safety Pick".
The three-section hardtop assembly, manufactured by Webasto, raises or lowers in under 30 seconds and includes a global window switch that allows simultaneous raising or lowering of all windows, and a button to power-activate the raising of the folded top stack within the trunk — specifically to increase access to cargo storage when the top is lowered.
Operation of the retractable hard top is possible only when the car is stationary and requires no extra space behind the car while the roof is being raised or lowered but requires a height clearance of six feet seven inches — and requires the driver to hold the console button for the full operation. The top features a fabric headliner that unfurls and is tensioned by wires as the roof moves into place, as well as mesh wind blocker that clips over the rear seats when driving with two front passengers. The blocker has zippered openings for parcel storage and folds in half for trunk stowage.
The trunk lid, which opens both in a rear-hinged mode to stow the folding roof as well as standard a front-hinged mode for luggage loading, is aluminum — while the three roof sections are steel. A trunk divider enables assessment of precisely how much can be loaded with the roof down. Trunk space is 13 cubic feet with the top raised and seven cubic feet with the top lowered.
A hatch in the backrest of the rear seat enables transport of long objects inside the car, e.g., skis. Overall body rigidity is improved by approximately 15 percent when the roof is raised.
Safety systems include a door-mounted side impact protection inflatable which inflates upward when activated. The curtain has an extra stiff construction with double rows of slats that are slightly offset from each other. This allows them to remain upright and offer effective head protection even with the window open. The curtain also deflates slowly to provide protection should the car roll over. This is a unique solution in the automotive world.
The C70 retractable hardtop also features a roll over protection structure (ROPS) with two pyrotechnically charged roll hoops hidden behind the rear seats that deploy under roll-over conditions whether the roof is retracted or not. Volvo featured this advancement in a copy of the "Volvo Saved My Life Club" brochures. There, a woman was able to walk away from an accident after she slid off an ice-covered mountain road and rolled her C70 which then slid more than 30 feet (9.1 m) down the mountain face.
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