• Lots of space up front
• Less in the rear
• Two boots

How much space is there?

The C40 shares most of its interior with the XC40 SUV, and that’s a good thing. This means there’s loads of room up front, helped by the large windscreen and sunroof that flood light in.

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The main obvious change between the C40 and XC40 is the dropped roofline. Despite the chop, there’s plenty of legroom in the back and even headroom’s not too badly impacted unless you’re very tall. It’s nowhere near as spacious as an Audi Q4 E-Tron, though.

Boot space and storage

Storage space is top-notch. The door pockets are huge and easily large enough to take a 1.0-litre bottle of water. The boot is rather small at 413 litres and it has quite a tall loading height too. At least it’s flat, meaning you can slide in heavy items, and there’s enough space for a folding pushchair and other baby accessories.

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The Volvo also has a front boot. It’s only big enough to hold the charging cables, but it’s a neat addition nevertheless.

Is it easy to park?

Rear visibility is poor. Blame the sloping roofline and thick pillars for that. All cars get reversing cameras, but you’ll have to go for top-spec for self-parking.

Safety

• Not tested by Euro NCAP
• Likely to be very safe in a crash
• Safety kit easy to use

The C40 hasn’t been tested by Euro NCAP, and it most likely won’t be. However, the XC40, a car which is nearly identical to the C40, received a full five-stars.

New parents will be relieved to see the C40 has a front Isofix point, as well as the standard two in the back.

Safety systems such as traffic sign recognition and autonomous emergency braking come as standard. And if you fancy jumping up a spec or too you’ll find blind-spot monitoring, cross-traffic alert and Volvo’s semi-autonomous system, Pilot Assist. This is one of the best in the business and is smooth and easy to use. It very rarely jerks you around and will even go from standstill to 80mph all by itself.