Suddenly it's Sweden 1987! 1972 Volvo 1800ES and 1986 Volvo 240GL

Only 8,077 copies of the Volvo 1800ES were ever built, and most of them seem to have been sold in Seattle. I've spotted five to date, the four pictured below and a white one in Ballard I'm still hoping to photograph.

Breaking Bad fans will note this '86 Volvo 240GL is the same car Walter White stole for his drive from New England to New Mexico.

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1960 Volvo PV544 and 1965 Volvo PV544 Sport

Seattle loves old Volvos. In 1944, Volvo introduced the PV444, a remarkably modern car with unibody construction and coil spring suspension. Deciding not to mess with a good thing, this car remained in production virtually unchanged for more than twenty years.

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1959 Volvo PV445

Seattle loves old Volvos. In 1944, Volvo introduced the PV444, a remarkably modern car with unibody construction and coil spring suspension. So it was a bit of a surprise when nine years later they launched the PV445 as a design from the automotive stone age, with ladder frame chassis and leaf spring suspension. This design was so primitive it stayed in production only sixteen years. Hey, it's a station wagon, not a sports car.

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1964 Volvo 122s station wagon

Volvo exported about 4,000 of these per year from Sweden. Apparently most of them came to the pacific northwest United States, given the number that are still around.

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1965 Volvo 1800S

   

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1972 Volvo 1800ES

I'd never heard of this car, much less seen one before moving to Seattle. Yet I've seen more than one of these in the city. The final edition of Volvo's classic P1800 series, only 8,077 Volvo 1800ES models were built between 1972-3.

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