Back in the late 80s, I worked in the wonderfully false world of television. I was only on a regional news programme team but even there a fat bloke with a beard and glasses, not to mention a strong regional accent, was hardly the stuff of on-screen material when there were young, fit, and relatively handsome individuals queuing up to do the job. But one day a story came along that called for my expertise and all of a sudden my five minutes of fame began to take shape. One of the backroom boys had bought a car that was a real lemon. A trader had it flagged as "car of the week" and it was showing a mere 26,000 miles. Trouble was, that should have been 126,000 and the car was a heap underneath the recently perfected gloss. The car was returned and he got most of his money back but there it was in the showroom again as car of the week. It was decided I should go along as a "customer", find out about it, pretend I wanted to buy it, and then the trader would be confronted. The film crew needed to use a car to hide in that wasn't that obvious and I had a Volvo 480 coupe on test. The cameraman squeezed into the back, with the sound man in the front and the reporter driving. They parked opposite the showroom and recorded as I did my stuff, suitably wired for sound. Then I looked across the road behind the trader and could hardly contain myself as the reporter and crew all tried to emerge from the two door car in unison to maintain the element of surprise. Thankfully, we got the story, it made good telly, and two weeks later the trader had disappeared, only slightly more slowly than my brush with fame. And if they had been using the 480's modern equivalent, the C30, to do the job today it would have been just as chaotic because the design of the front seats is still hopeless. They are difficult to slide, they catch the seat belts, which drag forward on a rail to entangle your legs, and the seats then lock forward and sliding them back again is far from easy. On the plus side, the C30 is a four seater, like the 480, and has plenty of retro chic from the even earlier 1800 ES combined with modern features. It has all the necessary Volvo styling cues - the typical grille adorning the front, the pronounced shoulders half way up the body, and tall lights set vertically on the tapering tail. But this coupe is no sports car, far from it. For that reason I chose the 2.0 litre, 135 bhp turbodiesel for test. This car is a cruiser and the best cruisers are diesels. When combined with the standard six speed manual gearbox, the C30 will achieve up to 47 mpg, which means it can go a good distance on the contents of the 55 litre tank. In the gears when on the move, rather than from a standing start, the car feels brisk and it will certainly forge ahead in traffic. Merging in on the motorway is simplicity itself. Whether or not potential buyers will find it attractive enough to stump up the £19,295 list price of the SE spec test car (£20,520 with leather and metallic) remains to be seen. But, in its defence, it is almost entirely likable. Volvo wants the C30 to appeal to younger buyers, maybe couples with no kids, but I'm not sure the marque is ready for that market, or that market ready for the marque. Maurice Hardy Annette's View In some ways, the new Volvo C30 is taking the place of the old Ford Capri in the Ford line-up. In most forms it's an attractive image car rather than a sportster and if it's purely the shape that catches your eye you can have it on the road with a 1.6 litre petrol engine for less than £15,000. When the Capri first appeared, engine sizes went as low as 1.3 litres and the car could be overtaken by old ladies with zimmer frames. The Volvo has a greater degree of urgency and can be had with a variety of petrol and diesel engines that include the five pot turbo petrol motor from the superb Focus ST (it's a genuine Volvo engine borrowed by Ford and not the other way round). The dynamics of this car are good if you remember that for the most part its appeal is not for sporting drivers, more those approaching middle age and wearing flat caps as they nip to the golf club. The ride is competent and smooth, cosseting almost, and handling is respectable. The boot, accessed through a small glass hatch, is reasonably large and can be increased from 364 litres to 1,010 litres by folding the rear seats. I thought the rear load cover was a curious affair. But the clear and simple fascia is a delight and perfectly informative. Car: Volvo C30 2.0D SE Does it fit your ego?... 0-62 mph: 9.4 secs Top speed: 130 mph Bhp: 135 @ 4000 rpm,br> Torque: 236 lb ft @ 2000 rpm ...and your wallet?... Price: £19,295 Urban: 37.2 mpg Extra urban: 61.4 mpg Combined: 49.6 mpg CO2 emissions: 151 g/km Insurance Group: 12 Best bits: stylish body; good economy; competent cruiser.