You and I have been on a great tear recently, dear reader. For recent daily questions I’ve asked you about your favorite French cars, your favorite Italian cars and your favorite British cars, and you all delivered with all sorts of interesting answers. This week I want to know about your favorite Swedish cars. Sure, there may not be many Swedish automakers, but the ones that currently exist and the ones that used to exist have produced all sorts of fascinating vehicles.
Of course you’ve got Volvo, one of the most innovative automakers of all time that has produced scores of enthusiast darlings, and now its design-forward Polestar spinoff brand. Then there’s now-dead Saab, beloved by architects and nerds the world across. But Sweden has also birthed Koenigsegg, maker of some of the fastest hypercars in the world, and there are a handful of defunct Swedish brands that I’m sure you Jalops would love to tell me about.
My favorite
I’m inclined to be basic and say my favorite is the Volvo 850, as my dad owned a wonderful gold on gold wagon with the rear-facing third-row seat. I could also say the Volvo 740/940 Turbo wagons, which feature in some of the greatest print advertisements of all time. I owned a lowered, straight-piped 940 Turbo wagon that I miss dearly. But I’ve got to pick something stranger for this. Do I dare say the Yamaha V8–powered XC90? Should I be basic and say the V70 R or Saab 900 Turbo? Maybe the amazing Volvo Duett wagons of the 1950s and ’60s, or the ultra-rare fiberglass P1900 roadster?
No, my favorite Swedish car is one that just barely missed out on being sold in the United States, with a design I find really fantastic: The Volvo 480. Introduced in 1986, the 480 was Volvo’s first front-wheel-drive car, a two-door hatchback with pop-up headlights and a sloping glass hatchback inspired by the 1800ES. There’s all sorts of good design elements here, like the traditional Volvo grille mounted low in the bumper, and the driver-focused interior is pretty cool. Most 480s had fairly tame Renault-sourced engines, but there was a turbocharged model that had 122 horsepower.
Volvo
The 480’s pop-up headlights were so it could meet American NHTSA crash-test requirements while still being very aerodynamic, and it was one of the first European cars with U.S.-style 5-mph impact bumpers. But despite annual sales forecasts of 25,000 units, in 1988 the 480’s U.S. market launch was indefinitely postponed because of changing market conditions and the exchange rate. What a shame!
So, reader, what’s your favorite Swedish car? Let me know in the comments below and I’ll round up my favorite answers later this week. As usual, if it’s a car you actually owned you get bonus points.
