The C70 is a nice car but I wouldn't consider it if money is an issue. Parts for Volvos are usually more expensive than most Japanese vehicles, that's if your doing maintenance yourself, if not, expect to pay even more.. The car has a turbo inline-5 which sounds like fun but it's not exactly fuel efficient, you will also pay more in registration (in QLD at least) as to them it's a 6 cylinder so an extra ~$200/yr as opposed to a 4 cylinder. You might not be able to drive it at anyway as it's turbocharged and in most states turbo cars are restricted for P platers. You could be able to receive an exemption based on the power to weight ratio of the car if your state allows it but I doubt it.
IMO for your first car just buy a cheap japanese 4 cylinder. If it's an automatic make sure it's got a good transmission preferably made by AISIN, don't get caught out buying a Japanese car with a piece of shit JATCO or General Motors automatic. In general most manual transmissions are pretty solid, doesn't really matter who manufactures them. Parts are cheap and easily available. Walked into repco and bought an axle assembly, front control arm, axle seals, steering tie rod and tie rod end all of which were in stock for $300 the day after an accident and had the car running 2 days later albeit with a completely buggered alignment. Rego and insurance are as cheap as they can be and the car is dead reliable. (08 mazda 3) This is opposed to buying parts for the Volvo I own where I have to either order them from overseas, pay a premium and wait a few weeks, or drive 30mins to a Volvo wreckers where sometimes I can't even get the part I need and just have to live without a spoiler or functioning ABS and cruise control.
Always make sure to bring someone with you who knows what to look for when buying a car. NEVER take the sellers word on the condition of the vehicle. Volvo makes good cars but they're not ideal as a first car... unless it's a 240. GREAT first car if you can find a decent one and know how to fix basic things.
Your first car is your first car. I had my heart set a 5spd man volvo 850 LPT wagon that I saw for 8k but dang common sense got to me and I bought a mazda 3 thinking i'd never get to own an 850 . Yet here I am with a volvo 850 t5 sedan that i bought for $300 with full dealer service history all the way up until 40,000km ago. The car has 360,000km on it and the engine and transmission are still solid.
Got a bit off topic there but yeah hopefully this was useful, buy a good jap 4 cyl and have some fun, it'll probably grow on you more than you expect.