CarBrandLogos archive · Volvo · 1974

Volvo240

Nineteen years in production, and a crash-safety benchmark for a whole industry.

Photo: OSX · Public domain

The story

A defining chapter in Volvo history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Volvo 240, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

1975 Volvo 245 DL wagon -- 09-05-2011 front

Origins

The 240 was not a new car so much as a thoroughly reworked one. Volvo took the 140 Series body, grafted on MacPherson strut front suspension and rack-and-pinion steering derived from its VESC experimental safety vehicle, and added substantial crumple structures at both ends. Jan Wilsgaard's squared-off shape did the rest. The car that emerged in 1974 was upright, plain and immediately recognisable, and it stayed that way for nineteen years.

1975 Volvo 245 DL wagon -- 09-05-2011 front · IFCAR · Public domain

Design and engineering

Its reputation rested on the crash structure. American regulators used the car as a reference point when setting out what a safe passenger car could look like, and buyers who bought on that basis found the rest of the package matched: rear-drive simplicity, red-block four-cylinder engines from 1.8 to 2.3 litres in petrol form, a range of estates that could swallow furniture, and a general refusal to wear out. Volvo also built a diesel and, in the six-cylinder 260, a more expensive version with a PRV V6.

1976-77 Volvo 265 DL in Greenwich · Mr.choppers · CC BY-SA 3.0

In production

Because it changed so little, the 240 became shorthand — for architects, veterinarians and academics in America, for the Swedish middle class at home, and later for anyone who wanted an old car that would simply keep starting. It also went touring car racing, where the boxy 240 Turbo took European honours in the mid-1980s and made a nonsense of its own image.

1978 Volvo 262 Coupé Bertone · Sudenius;cropped by Mr.choppers · CC BY-SA 3.0

Legacy

By the time the last one left Torslanda in 1993, 2,862,573 had been built across Sweden, Belgium, Canada and Australia, and the front-wheel-drive 850 had already been on sale for two years. The 940 was the nominal replacement, but the 240 was really replaced by its own afterlife: it is the Volvo that fixed what the word means for most people.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1974–1993

Units built

2,862,573

Engine

collapsible list

Designer

Jan Wilsgaard

Technical specification

The 240, in detail.

Production: 1974–1993; 2,862,573 produced
Class: Mid-size car / Executive car
Body style: 2/4-door Sedan (automobile); saloon (242/244/262/264) ; 5-door station wagon; estate (245/265)
Layout: Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive
Engine: collapsible list ; title=Petrol and diesel engines ; Petrol: ; 1.8 L Volvo Redblock Engine#B17; B17 Straight-four engine; I4 ; 2.0 L Volvo B18 engine#B20; B20 I4 ; 2.0 L Volvo Redblock Engine; B19/B200 I4 ; 2.1 L Volvo R
Transmission: 4-speed Manual transmission; manual ; 4-speed manual with overdrive ; 5-speed manual ; 3-speed Automatic transmission; automatic ; 4-speed automatic
Designer: Jan Wilsgaard
Assembly: Sweden: Torslanda (Torslandaverken) ; Sweden: Kalmar (Volvo Kalmar Assembly; VKA) ; Australia: Clayton, Victoria; Clayton (Volkswagen Australia; Motor Producers Ltd) ; Belgium: Ghent (Volvo Car Gent; VCG) ; Canada: Halif
Manufacturer: Volvo Cars