Early 145s like this are considerably less common than the later 145/245 wagons most people picture when somebody says “old Volvo brick.” This example has been personalized without losing the basic character: bright blue paint, yellow headlights, mesh wheels, lowered stance and a wood/slat roof rack give it considerably more personality than the average surviving […]
The C30 was Volvo’s attempt at a proper premium hot hatch, built from 2007–2013 on the P1 platform shared with the S40/V50/C70 and related underneath to the European Ford Focus and Mazda3. The styling is the real hook: two doors, broad shoulders and that huge frameless-looking glass hatch, deliberately recalling Volvo’s 1800ES shooting brake. Today’s […]
This is the good-spec S60R with a 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-five, AWD and the 6-speed manual. Factory output was about 300 hp and 295 lb-ft, which was serious sedan power in 2004. Volvo’s R treatment was more than badges, as these got the electronically controlled Four-C adaptive suspension, larger brakes, quicker chassis tuning and the Haldex-based […]
The Volvo 780 is what happens when Volvo hands its fundamentally rectangular 700-series sedan to Bertone in Turin and asks them to make it look expensive. The result is still clearly a Volvo, but every panel from the windshield back seems to have spent a semester abroad at an Italian finishing school. Unlike the earlier […]
The Volvo Amazon wagon was already one of the coolest-looking bricks ever fired in a Swedish kiln, but this one has been sliced into a two-door shooting brake. Factory Amazon wagons were four-door estates, so this is not some obscure trim package — this is custom metalwork meant to create the car Volvo never built […]
This next feature is peak Volvo 240. It has an upright greenhouse, rear-wheel drive, hubcaps, acres of tan cloth, and roughly the aerodynamic profile of a garden shed. The 244 designation identifies the four-door version of Volvo’s long-running 200-series, which is powered by Volvo’s B230F 2.3-liter SOHC redblock four.. Naturally aspirated and not remotely fast […]
Hey honey, I’m going to buy a Volvo to replace my current daily driver. It’s boxy and safe. Why does it sound like that? It’s turbocharged, many Volvos were factory turbocharged. Why does it have sticky R-compound tires? Safety. Track-rated rubber will cut at least 20 feet off a 100 mph to zero stopping distance, […]
Our next hooptie is a Volvo 122 (or 122S), better known globally as the Volvo Amazon, and one of the cars that helped build Volvo’s reputation for overbuilt, safe, and durable family sedans. This car comes from the era of Volvos that were bubble shaped before they went full box and the same design was […]
Our next feature is a 1983 Volvo 242 Turbo, the two-door, turbocharged version of the brick-shaped 240—and already one of the most desirable factory 240 configurations before anyone introduced it to a GM parts catalog. It originally came with Volvo’s turbocharged redblock four-cylinder and an automatic, but someone decided that it needed an aluminum-block LS […]
Our next feature is a second-generation Volvo S80 V8 AWD, the wonderfully improbable flagship sedan Volvo built when somebody in Gothenburg decided Swedish safety needed a transverse-mounted Japanese V8. Powering this oddball is Volvo’s B8444S 4.4-liter DOHC V8 (developed and manufactured by Yamaha) that pushes 311 hp and 325 lb-ft of torque into a 6-speed […]