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Volvo Cars, or Volvo Personvagnar, is an automobile maker that was founded in 1927 in the city of Gothenburg in Sweden, as a spin-off from roller ball bearing maker SKF. It was owned by Volvo until 1998, when it was acquired by the Ford Motor Company.
SafetySince the 1960s Volvo cars have had a reputation for safety in crashes, rather than speed or handling ability. The Volvo design team invented both the 'safety cage and crumple zones' concept, where passengers are protected in a strong 'safety cage' and the energy in a crash is absorbed by destruction of the 'crumple zones'. Volvo also invented the easy-to-use three-point seatbelt. Both are now standard in all cars and responsible for saving millions of lives. Volvo also was the first company to produce cars with padded dashboards starting in late 1956 with their Amazon model, negating the need for air bags long before their introduction. In 2000, Volvo introduced its Whiplash Protection System (WHIPS), a safety device to prevent injury of front seat users during collisions. In 2004, Volvo introduced the BLIS system, which detects vehicles entering the Volvo's blind spot with a side view mirror mounted sensor and alerts the driver with a light. Much of Volvo's safety technology now also goes into other Ford vehicles, such as the Aston Martin DB9. By the mid-1990s there was little to distinguish Volvo from some other manufacturers (notably Renault) on safety when put through tests such as EuroNCAP as other manufacturers caught up when they realised the marketing potential of safety. However, Volvo is still considered a leader of innovating safety technology, although it now faces stiff competition in this field. Even today, the Volvo S80 is held by many to be the safest mass-production car in the world. AcquisitionsIn the early 1970s Volvo acquired the car-making division of the Dutch company DAF, and marketed their small cars as Volvos before releasing the Dutch-built 340 series, which went on to be one of the biggest-selling cars in the UK market in the 1980s. Volvo, as one of the largest truck manufacturers in the world, took the initiative to sell its automobile manufacturing in 1998 in order to fully focus its efforts on the market for commercial vehicles. Ford, on the other hand saw advantages in acquiring a profitable prestige midsize European automobile manufacturer, well renowned for its safety aspects, as an addition to its Premier Automotive Group. The buyout of Volvo Cars was announced on January 28, 1998 and in the following year acquisition was completed at a price of $6.45 billion USD. Volvo now consists of two parts:
The Volvo™ trademark is now jointly owned (50/50) by Volvo and Ford. One of the main promotional activities for the trademark is the sailing contest Volvo Ocean Race, formerly the Whitbread Around the World Cup. There is also a Volvo Baltic Race. Car models
For a time, Volvo used a three number system for their cars. The first number was the series, the second number the number of cylinders and the third number the number of doors. So a 164 was a 1-series with a 6-cylinder engine and 4 doors. An exception to this rule was the 780, which came with turbocharged inline 4 and V6 gas engines, also inline 6 diesel engines, but never an eight cylinder as the 8 would suggest. Similarly, the 760 often was equipped with a turbocharged inline 4 cylinder. The company dropped the meaning of the final digit for later cars like the 740, but the digit continued to identify cars underhood on the identification plate.
Today, the company uses a system of letters denoting body style followed by the series number. S means saloon, C means coupe, V means versatile or estate, and XC means cross country or all wheel drive. So a V50 is an estate ("V") in the smaller 40/50 series.
Volvo concept carsEngine types
GearboxesExternal links
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