CAR REVIEW: QUESTION: What image does the name Volvo conjure up? If your answer is Big Estate Car, you're 10 years out of date. Or so Volvo would like to think.

Didn't you know that in recent years Volvo cars have been a familiar sight on the racetrack?

Not Formula One, of course, but the more down-to-earth British Saloon Car Championships, where cars similar to the ones ordinary people drive show exactly what they can do.

One of the Volvo road cars which benefits from this sporting activity is the C70 the sporty Coupe version of the Swedish maker's S70 saloon.

The company reckons the C70 offers buyers a rarity in the coupe market a car they can justify buying with their head as well as their heart, because it combines style with the familiar Volvo characteristics of substance, safety and common sense.

For these and similar reasons, I've respected Volvos for a long time.

But I can't get on with the C70. When I first drove it two years ago I wrote:

"I can't work out the point of this coupe . . . it seems to lose much of the practicality and good sense you usually find in this Swedish marque, and adds one or two disadvantages . . .

"Why bother to take a thoroughly sensible saloon and change it until life becomes difficult?"

The answer to that is that some people who love the Volvo experience and the plethora of Volvo gadgetry to boost safety and comfort, want it wrapped up in a sporty, glamorous coupe.

All C70 Coupes have driver and passenger airbags, anti-lock brakes, side-impact protection, side airbags, air con and Volvo's whiplash protection system which cushions the upper body and head in a rear-impact collision.

You also find leather upholstery, cruise control, alloy wheels and a three-disc CD player.

The trade-mark plastic clip on the windscreen to hold your shopping list is missing, but the front seats are heated.

There are three engine sizes, which make short work of accelerating, starting with a 2.0-litre light-pressure turbo. This, the 2.0 T, delivers 163bhp and will get from standstill to 62mph in 9.2 seconds.

A 2.4 turbo unit (2.4 T) boasts 193bhp, a maximum of 143mph, and takes 7.8 seconds to reach 62mph.

My test car was the flagship T5, which has 240bhp, 155mph, and reaches 62mph in 6.9 seconds, and with the addition of Volvo's GT pack.

Very powerful, and it is easy to find yourself travelling at high speed very quietly and very smoothly, all helped by Volvo's safety ethic.

It is blissfully peaceful at 100mph, and it's a good job that the speedo is right in the middle in front of you, because nothing else suggests you are doing such a speed.

It also tells you the time, petrol level (and how many miles you've got left), temperature and revs. In the right ratio, you can hit 70mph using only 2,000 rpm.

But it's not for me. The words Sports Coupe and Volvo don't sit happily together. Literally because my main gripe was the seating. Not just in the back, where you might expect a two-door coupe to be less than accommodating, but even in the driver's seat.

Clearly, Volvo doesn't think there's a problem. It says the C70 "proves surprisingly practical. Not only can four adults be seated in relative comfort, but the C70 has 370 litres of luggage space."

Apart from that last statistic, I can't agree. Comfort? Forget it. Naturally, the sitting position in a sporty car with a lower roofline is lower and more laid back than in a saloon, but despite two handles down the side to adjust the seat, I could not lift it high enough, nor get the angle right, and I felt to be sprawling on the floor.

Eventually I managed to improve this, but not a lot.

It also means that if the driving seat is pushed back far enough for comfortable legroom, the rear-seat passenger has very little legroom. It seems stupid in a such a long car.

So does the inconvenience of access to the rear. Other coupes arrange things so that when you flip the seat-back forward, the whole seat is freed to slide easily so passengers can get in or out. No such help here, and sliding the seat forward can be arduous.

Come on, Volvo, what's happened to your usual concern for good sense?

And there are one or two minor niggles: it's frustrating to find that the rear-view mirror is, frankly, too small. It takes only a minor change of position by the driver to throw the view out of play, and this isn't helped by the shallow rear window.

Maybe it's me. Try it for yourself and see what you think.

By Paul Rollinson

Volvo C70

T5 Coupe

Body: 15ft 6in by 6ft two-door four-seat sports coupe

Power train: 2319cc 5-cylinder 240bhp engine driving front wheels through auto gearbox.

Performance: 0-62mph in 6.9 seconds, top speed 155 mph.

MPG: urban 21, extra urban 37, combined 29. Tank: 15 gallons

Price: £27,995 (£29,595 with GT pack).

Insurance: Group 16.

Servicing: Every 10,000 miles.

Warranty: 3 years/60,000 miles, 8 years anti-rust.

Your local dealer:

MRG Volvo, Methuen Park, Chippenham, SN14 0GX

(01249) 443300.