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- The most beautiful hump in automobile history
- Volvo PV 445 Duett – the beginning of all station wagons
- The PV 444/544 series received a farewell party
- Volvo P 1900 – so beautiful and so unsuccessful
- More horsepower per cubic centimeter than US power sedans
- Volvo 240 – a Swedish success story
- The demand for the PV 445 Duet exceeded expectations
The most beautiful hump in automobile history
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The legendary humpback Volvo was considered a dream car for young couples after the war …
Source: Volvo
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… but it was also suitable for families, as this advertising photo from 1953 shows.
Source: PA / imagestate / HIP
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The series, which was developed from 1942, was officially called PV 444. The type designation stood for "Personvagn", for four-seater and for the presentation year 1944. While at that time…wherever the Second World War was raging in Europe, the neutral Swedes were already building a car for the post-war period.
Source: Volvo
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On this poster from the 1940s, Volvo praises the 444 as the "Svensk Skonhet" on, as a Swedish beauty …
Source: PA / IBL Sweden
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… but it was popularly nicknamed thanks to its characteristic rump "Humpback Volvo" path. The first models had a split front and a split …rear window.
Source: ZGB
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At first, the two-door model was only available in black. From 1949 the "Humpback Volvo" then also available in dove gray, later pearl gray, blue and dark red were added. For export, e…s another variant in sea green.
Source: Volvo
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In 1958, Volvo presented the 544 series. It still had the typical hump, but the front and rear windows were no longer divided. In addition, the limousine now offered space for…r five people.
Source: PA / dpa / IBL Sweden
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One of the details inside the car was a flower vase screwed to the dashboard that was rumored to have been built in to help buyers know about the long delivery times… consoling away: The first customers had to spend more than two years on their orders "Humpback Volvo" wait.
Source: Volvo
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The trunk that housed the spare wheel wasn’t too spacious.
Source: Volvo
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the "Humpback Volvo" was among the first cars in the world to be fitted with a seat belt. In addition, it was made of thick sheet metal, which is why it was considered robust and safe…r. The magazine "Classic car market" described him like this: "A car as durable as crispbread."
Source: Volvo
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The humpback Volvo also made a career as a racing car – as here in the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally.
Source: PA / CTK / Jiri Krulis
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Exceptionally without a hump – the station wagon version is called "duet" and came on the market in 1953.
Source: PA / dpa
Designing simple shapes beautifully is a Swedish specialty. The Volvo PV 444 was the first Northern European people’s car to demonstrate how even a hump could be made desirable.
E.r was the eternal Volvo, which did not lose any of its popularity even after more than 20 years of service. First, the hunchback two-door model introduced during the Second World War gave the Swedes affordable automobility, then the PV 444 and 544 models became global ambassadors for the Scandinavian way of life.
There is no continent on which the fastback limousines had not caused a sensation due to their safe and durable construction, but also as surprisingly fast racers in rallies and circuit races. In the fall of 1965, that didn’t stop Volvo from letting the veteran hump built in Sweden and Canada die.
After all, Volvo tried to convey the violent death of its folk hero to all fans as an act of economic desperation. “It became impossible to continue producing the PV 544 without losing our shirts,” the Swedish manufacturer apologized in large-format advertisements. These were overwritten with the wistful words "Farewell, old friend".
Volvo PV 445 Duett – the beginning of all station wagons
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Two in one: With the Volvo PV 445 Duett, the Swedish manufacturer made a name for itself for the first time with a spacious station wagon, the beginning of a long tradition.
Source: Volvo
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The name Duett came about when Volvo claimed in its advertising that the car was actually two cars in one (Bilen som ar två) – work equipment during the day and and in the evening… family car at the weekend.
Source: Volvo
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The duo was technically based on the Volvo PV 444, the famous humpback Volvo that was built from 1947 to 1958.
Source: Volvo
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In contrast to the humpback Volvo, the body of the Duett was not self-supporting, instead it was on a very robust frame that could withstand high payloads.
Source: Volvo
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The genesis of the first Volvo station wagon is bizarre: Since so many vehicle frames had accumulated at Volvo over the years, the then boss of the sch…Swedish car brand to get rid of stock and build their own van.
Source: Volvo
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In the summer of 1952, a station wagon was presented with the front design of the PV 444 sedan, but with an independent rear design.
Source: Volvo
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While the car was a fix for a fix, it became a huge success. It was available in three different versions: As a puristic panel van without rear side windows, a…As a delivery van with a simple rear seat and rear windows and as a station wagon with up to two fold-down rows of rear seats and fully glazed sides.
Source: Volvo
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The car was not only very popular with craftsmen, the PV 445 Duett was also very popular with families.
Source: Volvo
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This was of course due to the loading quality on the one hand, but also to the chic two-tone paintwork, which was not available as an extra for the humpback Volvo.
Source: Volvo
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The Volvo PV 445 Duett was the first lifestyle station wagon.
Source: Volvo
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The developers had thought of everything: The scratching of the load compartment floor with boxes or boxes prevented additional wooden strips.
Source: Volvo
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The initial 44 hp became 51 hp and eventually even 68 hp. The Volvo Duett was almost as fast on the road as the humpback limousine.
Source: Volvo
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In the summer of 1960, the Duett PV 445 series mutated into the Duett P 210, because the basic PV 444 car was further developed into the PV 544. There was also a small visual change: De…The Duett P 210 had an undivided windshield.
Source: Volvo
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The production of the duet was stopped on February 19, 1969, because the car no longer meets the Swedish safety requirements for new registrations.
Source: Volvo
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A total of 101,492 units of the Volvo Duett were produced. And you can still sometimes see the once so popular station wagon in Sweden today.
Source: Volvo
In fact, the production stop for the final version of the PV 544 even came suddenly for some employees. This Scandinavian Volkswagen had been advertised as an entry-level model for the Volvo program in 1966 just a few weeks earlier and designs for the facelift variant PV 644 were already circulating.
Not to forget the recently won sensational victory at the East African Safari Rally, in which a Volvo PV 544 driven by the Indian brothers Joginder and Jaswant Singh outclassed the entire competition of modern supercars despite traditional technology. What the German Volkswagen Beetle succeeded in at best as a fictional film hero "Herbie", the structurally hardly younger "Humpback Volvo" achieved in real life as a sporty high-flyer.
The PV 444/544 series received a farewell party
According to analysts, the production of the 21-year-old PV types could not have become uneconomical. Presumably, the discontinuation of this first mass-produced Volvo had much more mundane reasons.
The designated successor, introduced in 1956 and then produced in parallel by Amazon, could never really replace its hunchbacked relative, and now with the 140 series, the next Volvo mid-range was about to be launched on the market. Which of course also required space in the production halls.
The PV 444/544 series received a big farewell party on October 20, 1965, when the 440,000. Vehicle in special black paint was driven directly from the assembly line to the museum. At the wheel of this very last PV 544 Sport sat test driver Nils Wickstrom, who was involved in the large-scale production of the first PV 444 as early as 1947.
Volvo P 1900 – so beautiful and so unsuccessful
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In June 1954, the first three Volvo Sport P 1900s celebrated their world premieres at what was then Gothenburg Torslanda Airport.
Source: Volvo
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With the beautiful roadster, the brand’s image changed suddenly. Up to this point in time, Volvo was associated with robust people’s cars rather than sports cars.
Source: Volvo
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The then Volvo boss Assar Gabrielsson wanted to change that with the help of the new glass fiber reinforced plastic in the body shop.
Source: Volvo
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The four-cylinder engine installed in the P 1900 had a displacement of 1414 cubic centimeters and 70 hp.
Source: Volvo
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This gave the car, which weighed just 969 kilograms, a top speed of 150 km / h.
Source: Volvo
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The unusually short development time of just two years after which Volvo put the car on the road, however, took revenge.
Source: Volvo
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In 1957, the then new managing director Gunnar Engellau is said to have borrowed a P 1900 over the weekend, and production was stopped on the following Monday. The reason: The A.…Auto did not meet the quality standards that Volvo wanted.
Source: Volvo
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The frame was not stiff enough, the plastic body was not tight and also not properly processed.
Source: Volvo
All other members of the “humpback workforce” were also considered by Volvo when the PV passed. For example through a raffle for the final 26 Volvo PV 544s, some of which then accompanied their lucky winners for more than three decades in tough everyday use.
After all, the unrivaled long life expectancy was a unique characteristic of the first mass-produced model from Gothenburg, which even surpassed the Wolfsburg-based Volkswagen in this discipline. With 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometers), the Volvo PV (= Personvagn, German: passenger car) supposedly only reached the zenith of their performance, while the volume models of many other brands then already completed the fourth regular engine revision.
More horsepower per cubic centimeter than US power sedans
Even the performance-hungry and fashion-conscious Americans fell for the amazingly fast and reliable Volvo straight away when the PV 444 made the big leap across the Atlantic in 1955. At the time, the Swedish “Sports Car in Family Style” was actually hopelessly out of date.
According to Volvo advertisements, the Fastback types were based on the American Ford model year 1941. The Northern Europeans were able to compensate for this skillfully through model-political continuity, which opposed the automotive fashions that were still changing annually at the time.
In addition, there were sporty high-performance engines – according to advertising, the PV 444 with 85 hp offered more hp per cubic centimeter than all large-volume American power sedans. Not to forget the suitability as a family car during the week and a reliable circuit racer for the weekend, which was also a problem for Porsche and MG, which was important in the 1950s.
Volvo 240 – a Swedish success story
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The Volvo 240 is to the Swedes what the Beetle was to the Germans. Of course, this comparison does not refer to the size of the car, but to the long construction time.
Source: Volvo
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The angular car was built from 1974 to 1993, longer than any other model from the Swedish manufacturer.
Source: Volvo
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The Volvo 240 was available as a two-door sedan 242, a four-door sedan 244 and a five-door station wagon 245. The type designation is derived from the 200 series, four cylinders and z…white, four or five doors.
Source: Volvo
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At the same time, the Volvo 264 sedan was launched in 1974. It was based on the Volvo 244, but differed from it externally by its rectangular headlights and protruding hoods…nose, larger taillights and six instead of four-cylinder engines.
Source: Volvo
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While American customers preferred the sedan, the station wagon was particularly popular on the European continent.
Source: Volvo
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And that at a time when station wagons were considered ugly craftsmen’s cars.
Source: Volvo
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The 240 series became synonymous with safety. The American road safety authority NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) chose the car in the middle of the year …1970s as a reference vehicle to set future safety standards for passenger cars.
Source: Volvo
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In 1991, an incredible 17 years after its launch, the 240 was still recognized by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)… safest vehicle on the American market.
Source: Volvo
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The reputation of being a boring car disappeared for good when the Volvo 245 mutated into the world’s fastest station wagon: thanks to turbocharging and 154 hp as well as acceleration values …of 8.9 seconds, no competitor could keep up.
Source: Volvo
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In the 1980s, the rather derogatory nickname "Brick" for the angular Swedish car was changed to "Flying Brick". Because the two-door Volvo 242 provided a…on Europe’s racetracks for a sensation.
Source: Volvo
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The successful series even served as a representative vehicle. For example, the Volvo 264 TE, the two letters standing for Top Executive, was used for the state fleet in …Sweden and the GDR used.
Source: Volvo
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The vehicles were brought from Sweden to Italy to the renowned coachbuilder Bertone, who lengthened them by 70 centimeters.
Source: Volvo
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In addition, these vehicles had a special interior, optionally made of leather or blue or light gray velor. There was a third S in front of the back seat…row of seats with two folding seats. Between 1976 and 1984 335 264 TE cars were sold worldwide.
Source: Volvo
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At the end of its life cycle, the Volvo 240 was only offered as a five-door station wagon.
Source: Volvo
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1993 was the end of the Volvo 240: After 19 very successful years with more than 2.86 million vehicles sold, including 177,402 Volvo 260s, production ended….
Source: Volvo
And for the glamor of Hollywood Boulevard or Fifth Avenue, the previously rather mundane PV 444 was also available as a stylish and lavishly chrome-plated California Car in brilliant white paint and with a finely contrasting interior in sun yellow and black. Equipment that made the humpback a show star in Europe too, which has now won even more Concours d’Elegance. A hunched back could never be more delightful.
Actually a miracle, after all, Ford (Taunus) and other vehicle brands with humpbacked fast baking pans were ridiculed for their outdated pre-war design as early as the late 1940s. And also the Volvo PV 444 at its world premiere in 1944 in the royal tennis halls of Stockholm was not acclaimed for its bodywork, but above all for its affordability and as an automotive ambassador of peace for the years to come without war and scarcity.
In fact, however, it was precisely the scarcity of raw materials that delayed the start of series production of the Volvo until 1947 – parallel to the debut of an even more compact Swedish mass-produced model, the Saab 92 with a two-stroke engine and streamlined shape. But far more than the little Saab, the car-hungry Swedes were enthusiastic about the stately looking Volvo with its pioneering front independent suspension and self-supporting body in American aero design.
The demand for the PV 445 Duet exceeded expectations
But that’s not all: with a stylish, two-tone paint job, the Volvo PV 445 Duett station wagon was also able to present itself in the limelight from 1953 onwards for leisure and family use. This with a huge cargo space, as required by tradesmen and freight forwarders, and with a large payload that is unrivaled in its class.
The duet, based on the PV 444, easily handled loads of up to a ton, even if the official maximum payload was well below that. As with the sedan, the demand for the practical Swedes initially exceeded production capacities many times over, resulting in long delivery times.
The affordable Buckel and Duett broke all existing Volvo sales records and were produced in a total of 541,000 units, including the carefully modernized further developments PV 544 and P 210 presented in 1958 and 1960, respectively. Even safety innovations have contributed to this – although, strangely enough, these were otherwise not a sales argument in those post-war years with an unbelievable number of fatal accidents.
In any case, the Volvo PV 444 was the first Swede to feature a safety passenger cell, and even three-point seat belts were standard from 1959. A folk hero wants to protect his people too.
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