Volvo Revives The Wagon With Three Different Powertrains

I had a similar thought last night, how do kit car mfgs and low production marques such as Spyker operate from a legal standpoint? If you only produce X units/year are you exempt from some or all the ridiculous gov't regulations? If this was the case, perhaps someone could spin up a small automotive concern and build a small amount of units per year by hand, say 240s. Heck you could charge as much if not more as any other European "luxury" car and I'd wager you'll sell every one per year.

@28-Cars-Later They could build modernised 240s and make a good amount of money selling them as fleet police cars and taxis here in the US.

@Ryoku75 I don't see fleets interested in expensive but durable vehicles, they seek to get X miles from a car in Y time for as little money as possible. Outside of aficionados, I could folks who appreciate fine engineering and those who want to maximize their new car purchase as your primary audience in a modernized 240 venture.

@28-Cars-Later I live in ex-Volvo country, the pacific northwest. I say "ex" because the Volvo demographic all moved on to Subaru when Volvo lost its collective mind. Every ex-Volvo'er I talk to pines away wistfully for their old bricks. Some talk about their toughness, others the comfy seats, and most frequently -- the fact that you could actually SEE OUT OF THE DAMNED THING. VW made major cash with the "New Beetle", and lets be honest -- the original Beetle was a terrible car. How long did it take people to forget the bad memories? I find it difficult to believe that Volvo, a company which is unfortunately getting more niche by the day, wouldn't at least consider doing something to pull on people's nostalgia strings.

As an ex-owner of an old Beetle I can't argue that it was a poor car, but unlike the New Beetle it had a sense of build quality to it, the headlights worked (almost every New Beetle I see has a light out), and if the engine was acting up you could fix it, or outright replace it, in a day. Not to mention the gas mileage is identical to the newest Beetles. That being said Volvo did try to tug at peoples nostaligia with the P1800-inspired Volvo C30, and are still at it with another P1800 inspired concept car. I assume thats the only design that the English designers have any remote interest in since it too was English. As far as I can tell Volvo simply wishes that we'd forget the 240 series, they fear it'd make them "lame" to reproduce a boxy model often associated with grocery moms and professors in its day, plus theres no way they could build another 300k-500k capable engine with todays performance expectations.

@Ryoku75 The problem with running away from your past is that it is almost impossible (ie, "there are no second acts in america...") For the bulk of people who even still have an impression of Volvo, it is of 240 bricks and old, fridge box 740 wagons. Volvo should kiss the ground and be thankful that their brand association is the NE professorial set. IE -- pragmatic, highly intelligent, stably employed. Why not embrace it instead of running away? Or put another way, does the world need another lease-queen douchemobile that falls to pieces after 3 years, and/or bankrupts the second owner of the car? Don't BMW and Audi have a lock on this market?

@fozone Excellent. Another user name to watch for in the Recent Comments.

@28-Cars-Later "you could actually SEE OUT OF THE DAMNED THING" Aiiieeee! My People gather! It is glorious to have Internet!

@fozone "does the world need another lease-queen douchemobile that falls to pieces after 3 years" Perfect. And the answer is /so/ no. Take head Volvo.