My time with the Volvo EX30 has been like a romantic comedy – here’s why

This is my Volvo EX30, and my relationship with this car over the past six months has been a bit like something out of a 2000s rom-com. You know the ones – a handsome newcomer arrives in town, but the protagonist spends the first few weeks pretending they’re not interested because “ugh, they’re so annoying”.

But eventually, charm and character wins out and the two fall in love and live happily ever after. Sadly, that last part won’t happen for me and my EX30, because Volvo wants its car back in a few weeks. I’ll be sad to see it go, even if it did irritate the daylights out of me at times.

Six months with a Volvo EX30 – things I loved

I’m going to start with the positives, because I’ve really grown to like the EX30 over the last six months.

1. The styling

I think the thing I love most about the EX30 is the way it looks, because it stands out against the sea of bland SUVs out there right now. I’ve actually had two different cars over the last six months, one black and one light grey, and I reckon the latter looks the best.

The lighter colour highlights the little details better, such as the wraparound rear lights and the vents on the bumper. The LED lights look fabulous, and I like the welcome animation you get when you walk up to the car as well.

2. The interior

The interior looks just as great as the exterior. I had the “Pine” upholstery in my first EX30, which is posh speak for light green, and it really lifts the cabin. The woven plastic finish on the dashboard is a cool touch, as are the solid metal door handles.

I also like the clever cup holder solution. They pop out from the centre console, and you can choose between having one cupholder and a storage area, two cupholders or just opening the space up for putting stuff in.

3. It’s lovely to drive

I cover a lot of miles in this car, and it’s been a really comfortable motorway cruiser. You get very little road or wind noise, and the suspension is smooth at speed as well. It can get a little bit jittery around town, but on the whole it’s really comfy.

This is also helped by the excellent seats, which are just supportive enough to stop you rolling around but are also nice and soft.

4. It has a great sound system

The EX30 has a Harman Kardon sound system, and it’s really good. The bass is strong and you get clear, crisp audio. It’s great for everything from blasting My Chemical Romance to listening to true crime podcasts.

Plenty of cars have a good stereo, but what makes the Volvo’s stand out is the fact there are no speakers in the front doors. It just has a sound bar which runs along the base of the windscreen, which makes it all the more impressive.

5. The Volvo app is really handy

One of the things I love about electric cars is the ability to activate functions remotely, and the EX30’s app has come in really useful a few times. Being able to set the climate control to come on before I set off in the morning has been a life saver as the temperature starts to plummet.

You can also sound the horn and flash the lights to find your car in a car park, something I’ve used a few times when I’ve come out of Heathrow airport and forgotten where I left the car.

Six months with a Volvo EX30 – things I didn’t like

I have grown to love my EX30, despite these pretty annoying features.

1. The key fob

It took about half a day with this car to realise that having a key fob with no buttons on it is a stupid idea. In theory you’re meant to just walk up to the car with the key on you, it opens up and you climb aboard. In reality though, this only works properly about 70% of the time.

We had similar problems with our Peugeot 5008 long-termer, but that car at least had an unlock button on the key as a backup. The EX30 has no buttons, nor does it have an emergency key blade. I would either have to dig my phone out to load up the app and unlock the car, or just walk around the car aimlessly until it woke up.

2. The touchscreen

I’m used to driving cars which rely on a touchscreen, and while I do prefer to have physical buttons I can get to grips with a screen-based setup as long as it’s intuitive. However, the Volvo’s system needs work.

A lot of the icons are quite small and fiddly to jab on the move, and I’m still at odds to work out why the climate control functions are spread between two different menus. It just requires a bit too much thought to operate the things which you use the most.

3. The driver attention alert

The Volvo’s driver monitoring system is among the more nagging of the ones I’ve experienced. I’m allowed three yawns before it pipes up and tells me to take a break, which is usually by the time I reach the end of my road. If I took a break every time it advised me to, I’d never get anywhere.

I was driving back from Heathrow airport a few weeks back when the sat nav tried to redirect me to a charging point I didn’t need to stop at, and when I prodded the tiny cross button to cancel it the car had the gall to beep and tell me to “focus on driving”. Thankfully this system is easy to turn off with two button presses.

4. The steering wheel buttons

The steering wheel controls are among the only buttons in the car, and even those are quite annoying to use. They’re basically all one button behind a touch sensitive panel which detects where you’re pushing it.

The buttons are pretty unresponsive to your inputs, and turning the volume down is especially annoying because you can’t do it quickly. You quickly tap the button and it slowly comes down, and if you hold the button it’ll mute the stereo.

5. It’s not very practical

If you grew up in the 00s like I did, you probably know Volvo as a maker of hugely spacious family cars. I was therefore quite surprised to find out that the EX30 isn’t actually very practical.

The rear seats are really cramped, as I found out when my parents visited me and I tried to get them in the back. The boot also isn’t massive, and the front boot is just a fraction too small to fit the charging cables, rendering it pretty much useless. As a single person living alone, it’s still been perfect for my daily needs, but if you need to get kids in the back then look elsewhere.

My time with the EX30 is coming to an end. Having got off to a rocky start with this car’s tech, I’ve been swooned over the last six months by its handsome styling and comfy driving experience. Stay tuned for my final verdict in a few weeks.

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