Volvo did nicely sufficient promoting the PV444/544, Amazon and 140 in the US, however it was the Volvo 200 Series that basically launched Göteborg iron into the American huge time. Launched right here as a 1975 model, the 200 stayed in manufacturing for practically two full many years and stays probably the most immediately recognizable Swedish automotive ever made. Here is an early-production 244, present in a Denver-area car graveyard not way back.
The 200 Collection might be thought of an replace of the late-Sixties-vintage 140 Collection, because it’s basically the identical automotive from the A pillars again. The principle distinction between the 2 is the MacPherson strut entrance suspension within the 200 Collection.
Volvo went via several naming systems for U.S.-market 200 Collection vehicles over the many years, with the preliminary one being the best to decipher: a three-digit quantity adopted by a two-character trim-level designation. The primary digit within the quantity represents the sequence, the second represents the variety of engine cylinders and the third the variety of doorways. There have been six-cylinder 262s, 264s and 265s bought in the US from 1976 via 1981, powered by the identical PRV V6 engine that went into the DeLorean DMC-12, so it is incorrect to confer with all 200 Collection Volvos as 240s.
This automotive is the best-selling member of the 200 household, with a four-cylinder engine and 4 doorways. It is a fuel-injected 2.1-liter SOHC straight-four, rated at 98 horsepower and 110 pound-feet; the 1975 240s acquired the two.0-liter pushrod engine from the 140.
There have been two transmissions obtainable within the 1976 240s: a four-speed handbook or a three-speed automated. This automotive has the automated.
Even thought it is a base DL mannequin, this automotive’s first proprietor paid an additional $456 for air con (about $2,580 in 2024 {dollars}), on high of the $500 premium for the automated transmission ($2,829 after inflation). That pushed the price for the automotive as much as $7,551, or $42,717 in at this time’s cash. You can get a swanky new 1976 Buick Electra Limited four-door hardtop for simply $6,852, however these smart Volvo consumers knew it was price paying a premium for real Scandinavian security and construct high quality.
European-market headlights have been strictly förbjuden on American roads throughout the early Malaise Era, in keeping with federal security laws, so Volvo needed to set up these unpleasant sealed-beam rigs on their vehicles right here. Just a few years later, the U.S.-market 200 Collection Volvos went to somewhat better-looking quad-rectangle sealed beams, lastly getting modern composite headlights for the 1986 mannequin yr.
This automotive’s proprietor or homeowners took excellent care of it over its close-to-half-century life. The inside seems excellent for its age.
The paint is light however there is no rust-through anyplace.
I nonetheless discover plenty of 244s and 245s in Colorado and California junkyards, together with fairly a couple of well-loved machines with more than 300,000 miles on their odometers (and one with better than 600,000 miles). When you’re on the lookout for a Volvo 200 Collection undertaking automotive and you do not insist on a two-door, head west and you will have no downside discovering a strong one which wants a perpetually house.
This automotive did not break any mileage information throughout its life, except the speedometer cable broke many years in the past and it actually drove a few million miles.
That is the primary Volvo I’ve seen with “wire wheel” hubcaps.
No catalytic converter, so it ran high-quality on Vitamin Pb-fortified gas.
So many sensibly Swedish options, for individuals who suppose. 87% of Volvo consumers are college-educated … the opposite 13% are simply plain good.