2006 Volvo V70 2.5T

The V70 replaced the Volvo 850 wagon in the 1996 model year (the S70 replaced the 850 sedan). Compared to its predecessor it was much more rounded at the edges, with the company's traditionally staid boxiness bowing to aerodynamic realities.

That first generation ran for four years before getting replaced in the North American market by the even more rounded second generation of V70, which in turn received a mid-cycle refresh for '05.

The second generation of the V70 utilized Volvo's P2 platform, which had a transversely-mounted engine powering either the front or all four wheels.

The base motor for 2006 was a normally-aspirated 2.4L DOHC inline-five making 168 SAE net horsepower. The optional upgrade was a turbocharged 2.5L version of the same engine, featuring variable valve timing on both camshafts and cranking out 207 horses. With the standard five-speed automatic gearbox, these would do zero-to-sixty in a shade under seven seconds.

The Lunar Gold Metallic example in the photo was snapped in December of 2024 using an Olympus OM-D E-M1X and an M. Zuiko Digital 12-200mm f/3.5-6.3 zoom lens.

1998 Volvo S70 T5

Unveiled in Europe for 1997 and in the US market the following model year, Volvo's S70 was the more aerodynamic-looking successor to the preceding 850, softening the sharp edges of its predecessor's styling.

It was available here in two levels of sportiness: S70 or S70 T5, with the latter sporting a turbocharged and intercooled 236hp 2.3L version of the transverse-mounted Volvo DOHC 20V inline five cylinder.

The Mystic Silver Metallic example in the photos was snapped in October of 2025 using a Canon EOS 7D and an EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM zoom lens.

2022 Volvo C40 Recharge

This all-electric Volvo C40 was based on their XC40 Recharge Pure Electric BEV crossover SUV, (itself the all-electric variant of the regular XC40, which was originally available as a regular internal combustion vehicle, but now even the base version in the US is a mild hybrid.)

It shares a platform with not only the XC40 but also the Polestar 2 electric car. The difference between the C40  and its XC40 progenitor is that the latter is a typical boxy five-door compact SUV while the C40 sports a zoomy fastback roofline for its rear hatch.

The C40 is only available in an all-electric dual-motor format, with separate motors for the front and rear wheels. Tallying up the output of both motors, it has 402hp, and sprints to 60 in 4.2 seconds on its way to a 12.9 second quarter at 108 miles per hour. Top speed is governed to 115, and for a lardy little truckette that weighs in at 4,763 pounds, batteries included, it even manages to circle a skidpad at 0.82g, which was IROC-Z territory when I was a kid. Range is supposed to be 228 miles.

The only car I've ever owned that would come close to those acceleration numbers had a fire extinguisher strapped to the transmission tunnel, five-point harnesses, required ether to be squirted down the carb throats in order to crank on any morning cold enough to need a jacket, and idled like a paint mixer. (Probably had about the same range, too.) This thing, on the other hand, is invisible in the Fresh Market parking lot; just another grocery getter.

This Onyx Black example was photographed in July of 2022 using a Nikon D7100 and the excellent 16-80mm f/2.8-4E DX zoom lens.

1965 Volvo 122S Wagon

The five-door station wagon version of Volvo's 122S (sold elsewhere as the Amazon) debuted on our shores as a 1963 model.

It was powered by Volvo's 1.8L overhead valve inline four, with a pair of sidedraft SU carbs and an 8.5:1 compression ratio, producing 90 SAE gross horsepower. Transmission choices were initially either a 3-speed or 4-speed manual gearbox, although starting in 1967 the Borg-Warner BW35 three-speed auto, previously only available in the sedans, was offered in the wagon, too.

The front-engine, rear-wheel-drive Volvo 122S was no bolt of lightning. Road & Track tested a 1966 122S sedan with the Borg-Warner slushbox and recorded a zero-to-sixty time of 15.8 seconds and a 20.6 second elapsed time in the quarter mile with a trap speed of 67 miles per hour, with the car eventually wheezing all the way to 90mph. But they were way ahead of their time in occupant safety, build quality, and features like standard front disc brakes at a time when those were still bordering on racing exotica.

The tailgate was a clever two-piece arrangement. The glass hatch folded upward while the tailgate itself folded down. If you were carrying an oversized load, the license plate holder was hinged along the top edge so that it could be folded down to where it was visible with the tailgate lowered.

Base price on a Volvo 122S wagon for '65 was $2,860, which is just shy of $28,000 in current dollars.

This one was photographed in July of 2024 using a Nikon D700 and 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6G zoom lens.

1981 Volvo 240 GLT Turbo Wagon

By 1981, Volvo had been selling their buttoned-down, sober Swedish sleds in the US for a couple decades. Unless you were into niche motorsports like ice racing or rallying, they weren't generally anybody's idea of sporty cars, either, but for the '81 model year, the Swedes slipped a cheater card into their hand.

Starting that year you could order the four cylinder in your 200-series Volvo with a turbo bolted to it. The turbocharger took the B21F 2.1L SOHC four cylinder from 107 SAE net horsepower and bumped the output nearly twenty percent, to 127 horses (and becoming known as the B21FT in the process.)

That 127 horsepower figure may seem paltry to modern ears, but anything with a three-digit total was doing okay there in the worst part of the Malaise Era. It handily outmuscled the 116hp 2.8L inline six in a Toyota Celica Supra and the 118hp 255 cubic inch V-8 in a Mustang Cobra.

Road & Track tested an '81 GLT Turbo sedan and got a zero-to-sixty time of 10.2 seconds and a quarter mile of 17.5 at 79mph, both figures shaving a full second off the time for the normally-aspirated car.

The GLT package also came with sporty Pirelli tires on five-spoke alloy wheels, a tasteful chin spoiler, and beefier roll bars front and rear to bolster a stiffer suspension. Other than the wheels and a couple little "Turbo" badges, there was no external cue to let the Celica Supra or 924 driver in the next lane know he was about to have a really embarrassing day.

This Richelieu Red '81 GLT Turbo wagon was photographed in July of 2020 using a Nikon D7000 and 16-80mm f/2.8-4E VR zoom lens.

1989 Volvo 240DL

You want to talk about a car that's difficult to pin to a specific year model range, it'd be the 200-series Volvo sedans.

They were imported into the USA starting with the 1975 model year and sold, largely unchanged, for almost twenty years, clean through 1993.

The closest you can come is via the headlights, since when they were first imported U.S. automotive regulations decreed that headlamps shall be round sealed beam units in one of two sizes. So the very first 240s sold in America sported dual 7" round sealed beam headlights and went through a variety of dual- and quad-headlight units in both round and square for the next decade.

The Black DL sedan in the photos has composite headlamp assemblies with replaceable bulbs and a center high-mounted stop lamp (CHMSL), aka the "third brake light", in the rear window, both of which mark it as an '86-to-'93 vehicle. We'll split the difference and call it a 1989 for site indexing purposes.

It was photographed in August of 2024 using a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV & EF 24-105mm f/4L IS zoom lens.

1963 Volvo 122S

Initially sold in Sweden as the Amazon, the Volvo 122 was one of the first cars from the Swedish maker to have any sales success in the US. This is a 1963 122S, with the "S" signifying the sportier model, with a dual-carb 1800cc four cylinder motor making 85bhp. It was still no bolt of lightning, with 0-60 times in the mid teens, but the pushrod four with five main bearings was practically bombproof. Volvo B18 motors have put up prodigious feats of longevity.

Volvo will cling like grim death to a styling trend. By 1963 American makers were deep into the rolling Wurlitzer era of "longer, lower, wider", while the pontoon body styling of the 122 wouldn't have looked terribly out of place in the late Forties.

Volvo was ahead of the curve in other ways, though. Three-point shoulder harnesses, at least for front-seat occupants, were standard on the 122 from 1958, a first for a factory production car. The bodies featured extensive rust-proofing, too.

Volvo made the 122 up through 1970, by which point they'd largely been supplanted by the 144 and its ilk, first of the boxy Volvos that would carry on that look for decades after it, too, had become unfashionable.

The upper two photos of the parked car were taken with a Fujifilm X-E1 & XF 23mm f/2 R WR, while the lower was using a Nikon D700 and 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6G, all in September of 2021.

1988 Volvo 780

Volvo is a company historically known for sober-sided, serious sedans and station wagons. Every now and again, though, they let their Scandinavian hair down and offer something a little...coupe-ier, putting a little Italian marinara sauce on the ol' Swedish meatballs.

There was the Ghia-influenced P1800 through the Sixties and early Seventies. Then from 1977 to 1981, they sold the 262C, which was assembled by Bertone in Italy. While most of the body panels were shipped from suburban Göteborg, straight off the 200-series sedan assembly line, the oddly squooshed roofline was all Italian. People were doing a lot of drugs at the time, I suppose. It would explain disco, too. Anyway, they built 6,622 over the five year run, and most went to America.

When the hangover wore off, Volvo teamed up with Bertone again in the late Eighties to offer another luxury coupe, the 780, like the one seen in the photo.

Unlike the earlier coupe, the 780's body panels were all unique to it, and it featured a lower hood and faster windshield than the regular sedans, as well as that very un-Volvo-ly raked B-pillar.

Power was initially supplied by the B280F 2.8L version of the Peugeot-Renault-Volvo V-6. (The same engine as the DeLorean, for those keeping score.) Installed in a 780 in American trim, the PRV motor motor put out 145 SAE net bhp and 173 lb-ft of torque. The price tag was over thirty-five grand, which was seven g's over the sticker on an optioned-out 760 Turbo Wagon.

This was ten grand more than an Eldorado Touring Coupe with a similarly-potent 155bhp HT-4500 V-8. It was also ten grand more than a Lincoln Mark VII LSC, which could be had with the 225bhp H.O. Ford 5.0L. However it was well under the price for a BMW 635 or SEC Benz.

By 1988, you could get a 780 Turbo, with a 175bhp turbo four-cylinder. The rear suspension had been upgraded, too, from a live axle to a modern multilink independent suspension, but these increased the price on the top model to $37,790. That's the equivalent of $102,500 in 2025 dollars.

In the end, 8,518 Volvo 780s of all versions were built by Bertone over its six-year model run, and 5,700 of those were sold in the US, making the Champagne Metallic one in the picture a decidedly uncommon sight.

The top photograph was taken in April of 2023 with a Nikon D3 and 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-D zoom lens, while the lower one is from June of 2025 and was snapped with a Nikon D3000 and an 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G zoom lens.