Volvo ponders future of iconic wagon

A family favourite, it was noted for its reliability and longevity, especially the 200 series.

Many Volvo 245 wagons can still be seen on the road even though it is years since they ceased production.

“A squirt of oil, some water, a hammer to beat out rust and lots of gas that's all you need to keep a Volvo 240 going forever,” wrote Staffan Borglund, in Swedish motor magazine Teknikens Varld in 1999.

The Volvo wagon celebrated its golden anniversary in 2003, marking 50 years since the launch of the first fully Volvo-built PV445 in July, 1953.

But a cloud now hangs over the future of the ubiquitous family wagon, aptly nicknamed 'the brick' especially in Australia.

Rumour has it that as far as we're concerned, the wagon might just have a space waiting for it in the big car park in the sky.

Volvo Australia reveals it is yet to make a decision on whether to include a wagon in the new 70 series line-up.

In fact, the fate of the wagon has become the subject of debate at weekly marketing meetings.

The reason is that the Volvo wagon may have finally outlived its usefulness with the advent of off-roaders such as the XC90 and XC70 models.

These vehicles offer the same utility as a wagon but greater versatility at the same time.

Volvo Australia's Todd Hallenbeck said the debate over the wagon's future was an interesting one.

He said the wagon shared the same position in Swedish culture as the Aussie ute did in ours.

From this point of view alone, Mr Hallenbeck said there was a school of thought that the wagon should continue because of its historical relevance.

Of course, Volvo still offers the smaller V50 wagon but it doesn't offer the kind of load-carrying capacity for which Volvo wagons are renowned.

“We're still undecided on the new V70,” Mr Hallenbeck said.

“It comes down to volume and the traditional V70 buyer has migrated over the past few years into the XC70.

“We realise that the V70 is the stereotypical Volvo and it does have a following, but the brand and the product has moved on to the point that the V70 may not be on our model list for 2008.”

To put this in context, the current V70 wagon is priced from $52,950 while its off-road sibling the XC70 costs $4000 more.

Mr Hallenbeck said the price difference is not extreme.

A decision to can the V70 would bring down the curtain on a significant chapter in Aussie motoring history, one that dates back to the early 1960s with the first Volvo wagon sold here, the P220 Amazon.

The remarkable Amazon could carry 490kg, with a load area that measured a remarkable 1830mm in length and 1260mm across, sufficient to accommodate most standard-size wall panels. It was followed by the 145 in 1967 (series 1, 4-cylinder engine, 5 doors) and then the phenomenally successful 245 in March, 1975.

It was the 245 that really cemented Volvo's reputation for building rock solid wagons. It was no looker, with its square brick-like styling, but it was safer than just about anything else on the road and, true to form, could swallow prodigious loads. In Sweden, where it was at one time the most common car on the road, it is perceived as simple, reliable, and “built like a tank”. Abroad, however, it frequently became the butt of jokes. Its owners were pigeon-holed as large middle-class families, antique dealers (to whom the huge trunk was very useful) and those with a nervous disposition about driving (due to the car's very high levels of safety).

The 200 series was so successful that the arrival of the Volvo 700 series in 1982 did not see the 240 cease production, but continue to be sold alongside it until 1993. In fact, even as late in its life as 1991, just two years before the model was superseded, the American Insurance Institute for Highway Safety noted that the Volvo 240 was the safest car on the US market.