I was invited along to the What Car? awards last night. It’s always a good bash.

The format remains the same – winners in car categories are handed out gongs – but the presentation is much slicker than when I was up on stage handing out the awards. All good fun.

I found myself sitting next to Nick Connor. Nick is the sales director at Volvo. It was good conversation. Volvo is doing well at the moment. The company’s R-Design trim has really hit the right note with business buyers and consumers alike. The C30 coupe – it’s a three-door Audi A3 sized car – has gone from plain anonymous to stand-out motor.

“It’s true!” laughed Nick. “I took a Volvo C30 home one weekend and it sat on the drive without any of the neighbours noticing. The next weekend I took an R-Design version: and they were all out asking what the car was!”

Nick told me that Volvo are looking at some interesting ideas for small businesses. Such as 18-month contract hire leases to give small businesses more flexibility. The other is a flexi-rate. You can alter your payments midway through the term by either going up in price and getting a bigger Volvo; or down in price to something smaller.

It sounds like a good idea. Small businesses need that flexibility in contract hire deals. Especially at the moment when sales can falter, and income streams change. The last thing you need is a car that’s a real drain on cash flow. But you still need a car. This would be a good way to take the pressure off the cash flow, but still provide the wheels.

Good, innovative thinking.

So who won the top prize? It was Ford on the night, the Fiesta scooping the What Car? Car of the Year. Mind you, Volvo came away with a prize too: best SUV for the Volvo XC60.

Dinner table talk with Volvo’s Nick Connor