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Link to Whole Article: (http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/11/autos/volvo-240-curse.fortune/index.htm)
Quotes:
I call it the Curse of the Volvo 240. The simple, homely car was an enormous success, but Volvo has spent years trying to forget it.
Introduced in 1973, the 240 was the ur-Volvo, with the front grille of a Peterbilt and the rear compartment of a Mayflower van that ingested enormous amounts of cargo. Huge front and rear crumple zones headed its list of innovative safety features.
The 240 came in several model variations, but station wagons accounted for a third of its sales. Its funky functionality made it amazingly popular. More than 2.8 million 240s and related models were sold during its production run.
People developed attachments to the 240 back in the day -- and they still do today.
Oh, I say we are well more than attached to our Volvo 240s, 140s, 164s, 122, 1302, P1800s, and other RWD Volvos, yes?!?!?!?!? =^)
The 240 was replaced in 1992 by the 850 and eventually discontinued. As with the 240, Volvo made the boxy wagon its core 850 model, and the sedan was styled like a wagon with the rear end cut off. During its five-year production run, Volvo produced 1.4 million 850s, but the car never achieved the cult status of the 240.
Whether Volvo can ever shake off its jinx is in question. In the U.S., once its biggest market, it sold just 67,240 cars last year -- half its total in 2004. So far this year, it is running slightly below that rate, leaving it behind traditional laggards like Mitsubishi. Meanwhile, BMW enjoys four times the volume.
I'll add most BMW sedan (saloon), coupe, and wagon (estate) models are rear wheel drive and use in-line six engines. Dunno if the engine are all a matching iron alloy of the engine block and cylinder head, though. Same goes for Mercedes. Yet with the RWD Volvos, the quality remains within the Nordic metal alloy skin.
When I finally find and get that Volvo 164e, with M410 manual transmission, I'll hold onto it to the final breath, and enjoy Nordic quality that was made then as good as anything Teutonic today, imho.
The great Volvo founders and great captains of industry Assar Thorvald Nathanael Gabrielsson and Erik Gustaf Larson may have some dismay if they are aware of what Volvo is now. These two are what captains of industry should be with a civic-mindfulness to do the greatest good while generating (creating) value for all. These two are heroes of mine.
I found this article using the Microsoft Bing search the first time using "Volvo 240" as the search string (no quotes). Bing does not balk when encountering a Web client, in this case, Mozilla FireFoxFace 19.0.2, with that bad old, keep them software coders employed, JavaScript.
Please enjoy and comment.
Volvo "Buttermilk" MacDuff
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Enjoying that clean air, baby!
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