the saab 900 harkens back to a period when european cars truly looked european and exhibited certain traits that even revealed the country in which they were built and designed. the saab 900 is an unconventional vehicle that clearly could only be swedish and a saab. i really wish we could have enlightened european automotive design once again…. it seems currently everything is designed by a computer which waters everything down to some lowest common denominator formula…. it is a sad day indeed when a hyundai is hard to discern from a mercedes.

(photo courtesy of clive bullian) next to subaru, the volvo wagon is the unofficial car of the people’s republic of portland. with the pacific northwest being the unofficial scandinavia of the usa, it makes sense.

this vehicle represents a time when “foreign cars” really did look foreign. the saab 95 was a 7 passenger wagon built in trollhättan sweden and was a variant of the saab 96. i remember my friend steve lodefink had a pristine white saab 95 a few eons ago that he bought from a homely boeing engineer in seattle…. it was a beautiful looking specimen. i vaguely recall it languishing in a repair shop for a lengthy time after the acquisition…. now that i ponder, i believe it was more of an instance of incompetent mechanics and not a faulty lemonish car, though mr. lodefink would have more to say on that subject .

Volvo launched the PV544 in 1958, but it wasn’t an entirely new design. The PV544 was a development of the earlier PV444, which was originally launched in the 1940’s. Differences included a one piece windscreen, bigger windows all round, a new interior with a padded dashboard and a collapsible steering wheel, and new lights. The engine was a four cylinder unit, which produced up to 95bhp in it’s sportiest tune. Seatbelts were standard on all Volvo’s (which was unusual for cars in the 1950’s) Many were exported to the United States, where the car was seen as a Swedish alternative to the Volkswagen Beetle. Volvo ended production of the PV544 in 1965, after producing over 200,000 cars.