If anyone watched "World's Greatest Police Chases" (whatever it's called) on UPN last night, there was a HORRIBLE accident involving a 240. This was I think on a highway in Ohio. They tried to stop Moron #1 in his big GM car (Buick I think) and Moron speeds away, finally drives across the median and across 2 oncoming lanes all the way to the opposite shoulder. Well he didn't make it all the way across, and an oncoming silver (89-ish) 244 tries to avoid- but ends up getting it headon, driver's corners, closing speed HAD to be 110mph. There's an eruption of steam & smoke, you see the 244's trunk up in the air for a second, it spins halfway around and comes down across the highway facing the wrong way. The Moron spins off the road. Closeup later shows the drivers side of the car. Bumper is where the front struts ought to be and the door ripped open. But the lady is alive, conscious, and talking to the officer. Absolutely amazing. Anything else would have surely collapsed a lot more. The roof did not buckle. I don't think the front wheel intruded on the passenger compartment though it was crushed right to the firewall. Really scary, how fast that impact snapped that car around.

In other stories I know of, we had a customer whose 240 definitely did its duty to save her life. Picture this: crossing a busy highway, 4:00PM, sun on the horizon. 1987 245 is halfway across the intersection. Ford F150, approx 45mph... blinded by the sun. "Never saw her" or the red light either apparently. Caught the 245 in the driver's door. MISSED the front fender - only hit the doors. There's no more dangerous hit. This was a 13-yr old car at the time. They had to cut the roof off... in order to remove her without injury. While she did suffer a broken bone, what if it had been a car without the 240's massive door bars? That would have been the end.
The family bought an 850 wagon from us to replace that one. At least she'll get across the intersection quicker.

I also read a statistic, though now I cannot quote the source. The NHTSA apparently did a study of newly-registered vehicles from 1990-1995 in the USA. Apparently the 240 was the *ONLY* vehicle in study in which ZERO driver fatalities were recorded. Again I'm sorry I can't cite the actual study, though I did see this in print. If anyone comes across a copy of that, I'd be interested in reading it. Either way, that is an INCREDIBLE statistic.

I know picking through many a junk 240, I've seen evidence of impressive crashworthiness. We pulled an interior once from a 1985 244 (10+ years ago?) that took a telephone pole at a 45° angle through the left headlight. The battery was smashed vertically so that you could see into all it's plates. The bumper beam broke off outboard of the shock absorber. The front corner was crushed nearly 3 feet. The master cylinder got hit hard enough from the side that the center console bowed outwards towards the passenger. But the driver's footwell had NO intrusion. It didn't cave in on the occupants one inch.
Pretty amazing. All the doors worked too, except the drivers- it had tweaked the door frame just enough to jam it. The windshield had a single crack in it, towards the driver's side, probably from the MC getting rammed through the firewall. There are more, lots more... my friend has a lovely 87 244 now that looks like it collected a low guardrail or something that folded the nose and suspension down on the driver's side. But no damage elsewhere. Volvo takes this stuff seriously!
--
Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 86 244DL, 87 244DL, 88 744GLE, 91 244: 808K total