| First Drive | Lower Slaughter, UK | Volvo C30 DRIVe stop start |

Volvo's DRIVe range now features stop-start technology, improving already impressive economy and emissions figures without resorting to hybridisation. In the new DRIVe C30 stop start model you get a good-looking, well built hatchback with an emissions figure of just 104g/km and remarkable combined fuel consumption of 72.4mpg. Environmentalism has never been quite so appealing.

In the Metal

There's no questioning that the Volvo C30 is a great looking hatchback, the three-door machine having a rakish coupé look to its lines. It's the neatest looking car in the Volvo range, its shape nicely accentuated by the contrasting colour possibilities with the bumpers and side skirts. There are no style compromises for your economical motoring either, apart perhaps from the rather odd-looking aerodynamically efficient wheels. Other than that there's just a DRIVe badge on the back to let everyone know that you're intent on saving the planet.

What you get for your Money

You can have the C30 DRIVe without stop start, which emits 119g/km on the official combined cycle. It's available with Volvo's R-Design pack too, meaning if you're more concerned about how you look than headline emissions figures then that's the one to have. For the full-on DRIVe experience though you need the start stop model, which reduces emissions to 104g/km and allows a combined economy figure of 72.4mpg. In Stop Start SE guise you get a 1.6-litre turbodiesel engine with 107bhp and a kit list including climate and cruise control, steering wheel mounted controls and aluminium trim inserts. If you're after aux/USB stereo inputs and Bluetooth you'll need to pay for them, to the tune of around £640.

Driving it

There's little giving the game away that the C30 DRIVe is an economy model. There's a small button on the centre console that allows you to switch off the stop-start system and there's a gearshift indicator in the instrumentation, but that's about as hippy as it gets. Otherwise it's just like any other C30. That means a well finished cabin that's decent on passenger space - and lacking in boot space. DRIVe brings an unexpected bonus for the enthusiastic driver, that being a lowered chassis. Done more for reducing airflow influence than anything else, there is some benefit to the handling thanks to the lower centre of gravity.

Riding quietly - and well - on its lowered suspension and low rolling resistance Michelin tyres, the C30 DRIVe stop start drives with more pep than you might anticipate from a 1.6-litre turbodiesel boasting just 107bhp. With 177lb.ft of torque arriving at 1,750rpm and feeling fit for another 1,000rpm there's no need to rush the C30's engine, it best to work with its strong torque to make progress. It's actually rather enjoyable stroking the C30 along a fast back road, speed maintained not by pushing the engine hard but by exploiting the C30's tidy handling.

In town it's a comfortable, quiet place to be. Especially at traffic lights, where the engine shuts down. An additional battery ensures that the climate control keeps working and the in car entertainment continues to entertain while the engine's idle - and it starts up the second you push the clutch down to select a gear.

Worth Noting

For most buyers the C30 DRIVe with stop start's most important figures are unquestionably the ones relating to its greenness. The other figures stack up too though, it hitting 62mph in 10.7 seconds and topping out at 118mph.

Summary

A car that proves environmental needn't necessarily mean hybrid. The Volvo C30 DRIVe with start stop impresses, if only because it feels entirely conventional. That it looks great only adds to its appeal, as does pricing that's sensible. Environmentalism needn't cost the earth it seems, nor require more than a small supplementary battery.