Buy Volvos. They’re boxy, but they’re good. We know they’re not sexy. This is not a time to be sexy anyway with so many new diseases around. Be safe instead of sexy. Volvo: boxy but good. From the 1990 Dudley Moore flick Crazy People.
Boxy, but good. This is what many, many people have thought of Volvo for many years. What non Volvo enthusiasts may not realize though is that Volvo has a rich history of building sexy, fun to drive 2 doors. 122. P1800. 142. 242. Ok, so from that group only the P1800 could be considered sexy, but they all share something in common. They are all incredibly fun to drive!
The Volvo C30 was designed by Canadian, Simon Lamarre with the P1800 in the forefront of his thoughts, but the fun factor embodied by all those other hot 2 doors were also heavy influences. Here in The Garage, we too have been influenced by those cars of old. One friend of The Garage owns one of the nicest P1800’s in existence. Another races a 122s with a genuine Trans Am history, while yet another owns a 142 that was the original poster child for Targa Newfoundland. We, like many other Volvo enthusiasts have lamented Volvo’s lack of a 2 door since the 242 left Canadian shores in 1984. Enter Lamarre and the C30, a fun to drive hatch that embodies the spirit of Volvo 2 doors from days gone by. Continue reading →
The 2008 Volvo XC70 has received a few lukewarm reviews, but OutDrive.ca thinks that’s a matter of context. Determined to put the all-wheel drive in its natural setting, and Sweden not being handy, OutDrive.ca headed to the interior of BC to find out.
Long time readers know that I have a huge soft spot for the cars that are built by the descendants of Uncle Olaf, yet it has been a very long time since I’ve driven a new Volvo when it was new. When the C30 was announced in the Fall of 06, I fell in love with the shape almost immediately. The fact that the shape was penned by a Canadian was just an added bonus.
I picked up the not so little 4 seater this afternoon and very quickly fell in love. From the grippy cloth seats to the way the controls fall easily to hand, this car fits me like a glove. Not to mention that the 2.4 liter 5 cylinder sounds like an Uber Quattro and the 5 speed transmission is buttery smooth. This isn’t the boosted version, but who cares? It makes the right noises, squirts through traffic with ease and just feels COOL.
Later in the week, you’ll get the full report. I’ll give you the hint already that it will be pretty positive.
Oh yeah…the 3 hockey bag test is on hiatus for this one!
You can’t make this stuff up! Volvo has on the payroll a team of trained smellers. This group of eight proboscis savants were chosen because of their normal sense of smell and have been charged with guiding the designers in their choice of materials and production methods, paying particular attention to the interior of vehicles in development.
The interior of a Volvo contains many different materials that contain smelly chemical substances. While most of these substances remain locked in the material, small quantities can evaporate, creating that new car smell.
The panel monitors these substances and the smells they may cause in the cabin.
The panel consists of two teams of four people who undergo a careful selection process to ensure that they don’t demonstrate an acute, or above average, sense of smell and do not differ appreciably from each other.
Following this morning’s news that Chrysler is hitting hard with sales incentives, Volvo has announced that they too are interested in keeping Canadian consumers in Canadian showrooms. Unlike some other manufacturers however, Volvo is offering cash incentives to all new Volvo buyers. That’s right, even on financed or leased vehicles.
To give you an idea, a base S40 in Canada retails for $31,495. Subtract the $3,250 in savings and that comes to $28,245. Still not quite as thrifty as the US price of $24,365 but it is a good start and is close enough that it will keep many buyers from making a run for the border.
Get all the details, including all the deals after the break Continue reading →
There used to be a joke in Florida that if the car in front of you didn’t move when the light turned green, you didn’t know if the driver was dead or just asleep. While this rather lame attempt at humour was a commentary on the number of retirees living in the sunshine state, snoozing drivers is a very real world problem. If fact, according to Volvo & NHTSA there are about 100,000 accidents caused by driver fatigue in the US alone each year.
Adding to a growing number of safety design firsts, Volvo is introducing it’s revolutionary Driver Alert Control on several 2008 models. Rather than actually monitoring the driver, the system watches for erratic driving behaviour such as lane wandering. DAC uses a camera mounted between the rear view mirror and the windshield that measures the distance between the car and road markings. Using these measurements, the system can tell when the car is being driven in an uncontrolled manner. It then warns the driver to smarten up though a combination of auditory and visual warnings.
The system also makes a Lane Departure Warning system possible that alerts the driver of possible unintended lane changes. The LDW system also works with a camera to monitor the vehicle’s position between lane markings. How does the system know that a lane change was intended? Quite simple really, the driver used a turn signal. This system might actually have the spin off effect of teaching drivers to use their signals so they don’t hear a warning.
The downside to all this techie stuff is that it still relies on cameras, meaning that if there are no road markings or the weather affects the camera’s view the system doesn’t work. This means that in inclement weather or on unmarked rural roads the system is just along for the ride.
All the technical details follow in the Volvo press release Continue reading →
The last few days have been a bit challenging, as Mamma G has been quite sick. We spent today at the hospital, only to receive a diagnosis that involved a pair of shrugged shoulders. I wanted to write when we got home, but didn’t really know what to write about. I thought it might help if I found some cool photos to look at. One of the first places I looked was Positive Ape Index, the house of Coop. He always has something cool going on. What I found was this driveway full of Coop’s toys.
It seems that Coop had a rough day a few days ago too and he found some solace in the enjoyment of his cars. Lately, I’ve spent a fair bit of time envying other people’s rides. Whether it’s the work of our west coast guy Aaron Von Minden, or Coop or any of the many other fine characters I come across in my work here in The Garage. Maybe it has something to do with my impending 40th birthday and some of the identity issues that I’ve had lately. Continue reading →
Every now and then, something cool right under my nose escapes me. Classic Rallye Canada is one of those things. It took a post from Classic Rallies way over in Jolly Olde to wake me up.
Classic Rallye Canada is a road rally that is open to any car built before 1978 and will take place on the roads of rural Quebec in September. This is actually the second attempt, following an aborted effort last October when insurance problems arose for international competitors. This is a TSD rally, meaning that cars do not require performance or safety mods and helmets are not required unless one wishes to take part in the optional lapping at Mont Tremblant.
We’ve been putting some thought towards a Volvo 242 GT here in the Garage, but that would still be too new for this event. Maybe we need to find some willing sucker partner with a cool older car and put together an entry. Hmmmm.
When most people think of a vintage Volvo the image of a boxy but good 140 or maybe even a 122 if their memory goes that far back. What many don’t realize is that the Swedish icon has a history that dates much farther back than the Sixties. In fact, Volvo’s roots date back to April 1927. The first Volvo actually rolled off the line on April 14th, 80 years ago today!
Volvo has released a brief history of their brand over the decades. You can read it after the break. Continue reading →
