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Volvo Car Company

The car company Volvo was founded by two people named Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson. Their first car, the 1944cc Volvo Jakob was in production by late 1927.

Gabrielsson was born in 1891 and studied economics, and was a sales manager for a Swedish bearings company named SKF. Larson was four years older and had worked for the car company White and Poppe in Coventry, England before joining SKF in 1917. In 1920 he left the company and was working as a technical manager for AB Galco.

The project they had was to build a new car more suited to the Scandinavian weather as the US imported cars failed to standup to the task. Gabrielsson who had the finances to back the project paid for 10 prototypes to be built, with bodies styled by Swedish artist Helmer Mas-Olle. A company called Pentaverken who were marine engineers built and supplied the engines, and SKF was very impressed to fund the production run of the first thousand cars, built at Lundby, near Gothenberg. As SKF were so happy with the work that had gone into the car they allowed the partners to use one of the company's patented names “AB Volvo".

The new Volvo Company wanted to build 500 cabriolets and 500 saloons but only 205 of the steel-bodied open cars were made, compared with 721 of the closed fabric-bodied PV4 models.
In 1929, a three-liter straight-six was introduced, designated the PV650, and this had an eight year production run until 1937. The engine capacity was increases to 3.2 and 3.6 liters and they made a few long wheelbase chassis for specialist coachbuilders. The PV36 of 1936 bore a similarity to the Chrysler Airflow.

But the Volvo Company was also producing a 1.5 ton trucks and a complete range of taxis that were known as TR's. The trucks actually outsold the cars until the beginning of World War II.

In 1932 the Volvo Company was making a small profit and was now making vehicles f4rom its own factories. They were building over 900 cars a year, although demand got a bit smaller due to economic in the mid 1930s. SKF relinquished control of Volvo with a stock flotation in 1935, and at the same time Volvo took over.

As Sweden was a neutral country during world war II Volvo was able to keep production going but only on a very small scale, they built 2,834 cars in 1939 but during the war that was more like 99 cards. The 50,000 Volvo was a truck, built in 1941.

In 1942 Volvo created a stylish PV444Volvo's first post war car; it had coil springs for rear suspension and independent front suspension. This car gave Volvo a foot hold in the American market and for the first time the Volvo car outsold the trucks.
This brung major investment programs to Volvo and saw several types of the PV444 produced, this also included a light commercial and estate models.

Around 500,000 units had been built and this included the PV544 which had been made until 1965, the PV210 estate car was also in production until 1969. Volvo in 1958 created the 3 point safety belt, considered the most important safety feature of all time, later it became known as the seat belt.

The company's next model was the sexy erotic P1800 coupe which was all styled by Italian coach builders Ghia and was finished off by a company called Frua.
On this model at the start the bodies were made from steel by a British firm and all the parts where put together by Jensen which were based in Bromwich UK.
But after a few years in 1963 Volvo moved all production to Sweden where the cars where made until 1973.

Gabrielsson retired from work in 1956, he still remained chairman until he died in 1962. Larson past away in 1968, but they had already started the production of the P120 series. The 121 saloon was known as the Amazon

The 100,000,000 car to be rolled off the production line was an Amazon in 1966 also the 140 series was made public. The six-cylinder 164 appeared in 1968 and by 1970, the Amazon was phased out.
The 144s were updated to become 240s in 1974, and a further facelift produced the 244 saloons and 245 estates, which also now include diesel and turbocharged options.

By 1983 production had reached over 5 million cars, and now included the 760 series, launched in 1982. These cars were powered by 2.8 liter V6 diesels, or turbocharged 2.3 liter fours, a spacious estate was made in 1985.

In the 80s Volvo launched several new models and one of them was the extremely popular 240, the 740, the 760, the 940, and the 960 later the S90.

Volvo launched a new car, the 850 in 1992 but it was different to other Volvo due to its front wheel drive and its five cylinder engine. They also launched a sport 850 T5 with a turbo charged engine, the performance was amazing and it was the first car to have side air bags.

Volvo in the late 1990s had dropped the long numbered names and made its car range bigger. The new S/V40 range was a joint production by Volvo and Mitsubishi. The range series was much more up to date and stylish.

In 1999, Volvo was bought by Ford.

Volvo Car Insurance Models

240 260 340 360 440 460 480 740 760 850 940 960 C30 C70 Cross Country S40 S60 S70 S80 S90 Torslanda V40 V50 V70 V90 XC70 XC90