Used Car of the Day: 2012 Volvo C30 R-Design

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

I know, I know, we've been Volvo heavy the past week or so. Sorry about that, but our forums keep filling up with cool Volvos.

Like this 2012 Volvo C30 R-Design.


It's black-on-black, apparently in good condition, and has 83,500 miles on the clock. And yes, it's a manual.

It has blind-spot alert and keyless entry.

The 80K-mile service has been done, and this includes replacement of items such as the timing belt, camshaft seals, VVT solenoid seals, accessory belts, water pump, oil-pump seal, idler and tension pulley, PCV check valve, oil and filter, and coolant and reservoir.

Mods include a cold-air intake, a dual-port blow-off valve, and some adjustments to the interior suede.

The car has been involved in a minor incident and has some door dings and things of that nature.

Click here to see this Dallas-based car.

The ask is $11,000.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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3 of 15 comments
  • Corey Lewis Corey Lewis on Mar 08, 2024

    I don't trust these to be reliable. Any time I've looked into them, I found tales of owners who loved the car but dumped it because it was almost constantly broken and parts were expensive!

  • EAM3 EAM3 on Mar 09, 2024

    My wife absolutely adored her 2002 S60 T5 and kept it for about 12 years/130K miles. I loved the car too but it was becoming a money pit - and every part was expensive. Still has the best OEM seats of any car I've ever driven. When these C30s came out, I was so tempted to get one but the cost of upkeep on our S60 put an end to that idea.

  • Redapple2 Front tag obscured. Rear tag - clear and sharp. Huh?
  • Redapple2 I can state what NOT to buy. HK. High theft. Insurance. Unrefined NVH. Rapidly degrading interiors. HK? No way !
  • Luke42 Serious answer:Now that I DD an EV, buying an EV to replace my wife’s Honda Civic is in the queue. My wife likes her Honda, she likes Apple CarPlay, and she can’t stand Elon Musk - so Tesla starts the competition with two demerit-points and Honda starts the competition with one merit-point.The Honda Prologue looked like a great candidate until Honda announced that the partnership with GM was a one-off thing and that their future EVs would be designed in-house.Now I’m more inclined toward the Blazer EV, the vehicle on which the Prologue is based. The Blazer EV and the Ultium platform won’t be orphaned by GM any time soon. But then I have to convince my wife she would like it better than her Honda Civic, and that’s a heavy lift because she doesn’t have any reason to be dissatisfied with her current car (I take care of all of the ICE-hassles for her).Since my wife’s Honda Civic is holding up well, since she likes the car, and since I take care of most of the drawbacks of drawbacks of ICE ownership for her, there’s no urgency to replace this vehicle.Honestly, if a paid-off Honda Civic is my wife’s automotive hill to die on, that’s a pretty good place to be - even though I personally have to continue dealing the hassles and expenses of ICE ownership on her behalf.My plan is simply to wait-and-see what Honda does next. Maybe they’ll introduce the perfect EV for her one day, and I’ll just go buy it.
  • 2ACL I have a soft spot for high-performance, shark-nosed Lancers (I considered the less-potent Ralliart during the period in which I eventually selected my first TL SH-AWD), but it's can be challenging to find a specimen that doesn't exhibit signs of abuse, and while most of the components are sufficiently universal in their function to service without manufacturer support, the SST isn't one of them. The shops that specialize in it are familiar with the failure as described by the seller and thus might be able to fix this one at a substantial savings to replacement. There's only a handful of them in the nation, however. A salvaged unit is another option, but the usual risks are magnified by similar logistical challenges to trying to save the original.I hope this is a case of the seller overvaluing the Evo market rather than still owing or having put the mods on credit. Because the best offer won't be anywhere near the current listing.
  • Peter Buying an EV from Toyota is like buying a Bible from Donald Trump. Don’t be surprised if some very important parts are left out.
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