Jul 17, 2003

Volvo Wagon Hits 50

No, this isn't a tragic auto crash story. This month 50 years ago, the first Volvo wagon rolled off the assembly line in Gothenburg, Sweden, and since that time the Volvo wagon has become an icon, a cliché and a synonym for Yuppie suburbia.

"Even in Volvo's most advanced and stylistic models, the company remains true to its core beliefs," said Vic Doolan, president and CEO, Volvo Cars of North America. "Both the V70 wagon, and its go-anywhere cousin the XC70 all- wheel-drive Cross-Country variant, offer American car buyers exactly what our colleagues hoped to bring to the world market half a century ago."

Volvo's first wagon, a humble beginning indeed, resulted from an excess of chassis for the company's popular PV444. Constructed of legendary Swedish steel, world renowned for its strength and durability, the frames were already in demand by companies that constructed rugged utility and delivery vans on the sturdy Volvo chassis. In 1953, with 1,500 chassis remaining after production plans of the PV444, the founders of Volvo proclaimed, "We will build our own," and the result was the famed Duett.

The Duett was named for its dual purpose as a flexible, fast, yet durable van during working hours and a spacious, stylish, comfortable passenger car during leisure time, and it would be the platform from which all successive Volvo wagons would evolve. Volvo design philosophy mirrors true Scandinavian design principles where form and function are combined to create a wagon for all seasons. From its wide footprint to its boxy shape, the Volvo wagon has always been built to maximize usable space, and that approach continues to this day, though today's hi-tech 300 horsepower V70R is light-years away from the Duett's 44 horsepower.