Swedish car classics: Volvo and Saab through the years

The Swedish car classics come from two makers: Volvo, which began in 1927, and the aircraft maker Saab, which made its first car in 1949. Volvo’s PV444, Amazon, P1800 and 240 became symbols of the Swedish people’s car and of safety, and Saab’s 92, 96, 99 and 900 of individualistic, aerodynamic design. Many of them can be dated by the shape of the body, which follows the development of the car from rounded pontoon to angular wedge.

Facts

Volvo PV444 and Duett

Volvo was started by Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson as a subsidiary of SKF, and the name comes from the Latin for I roll. The great breakthrough came after the war. The PV444 was shown at an exhibition in Stockholm in 1944, thousands of orders came in, and the car went into series production in 1947. It was Volvo’s first car with a unibody and was given a rounded shape with rear wings like a hump.

The PV444 was replaced in 1958 by the PV544, with a one-piece windscreen. The Duett of 1953 was an estate and van on the same basis, with two rear doors, and the name showed that it was to serve both for work and for holidays.

Amazon and P1800

The young designer Jan Wilsgaard drew the Amazon, shown in 1956, inspired by American and Italian cars: softly marked rear wings, small fins and a chromed beltline. In 1959 the Amazon received three-point belts as standard in Sweden, invented by Volvo’s engineer Nils Bohlin, and Volvo let all manufacturers use the belt freely.

The P1800 of 1961 was designed by the young Swede Pelle Petterson at the design studio Frua in Turin. The long bonnet, the sweeping line along the side and the small fins at the rear made it one of the best-known Swedish cars, not least when Roger Moore drove a white P1800 in the television series The Saint. The first bodies were built by Jensen in England.

Volvo 140, 240 and 850

In the 1960s Volvo became more angular. The 140 series of 1966 had dual-circuit brakes and crumple zones, and the numbers stood for series, cylinders and doors: the 144 had four cylinders and four doors. The Volvo 240 of 1974 built on this with large bumpers and crumple zones, was made until 1993 and was built in almost three million examples.

The Volvo 850 of 1991 was Volvo’s first large car with front-wheel drive and a transverse five-cylinder engine, and it received side-impact protection. Safety became the marque’s hallmark, and the straight, vertical tail lights on the estate became part of the design language.

Saab 92 and 96

Saab was founded in 1937 to build military aircraft and wanted after the war to broaden into cars. The Saab 92 went into production in Trollhättan in December 1949. The designer Sixten Sason gave it a teardrop-shaped body without protruding wings, tested in a wind tunnel, and it had a two-stroke engine and front-wheel drive. The first cars were all dark green and had no boot lid.

The shape developed in the Saab 93 of 1955 and in the Saab 96 of 1960, which had a larger rear window and a more powerful engine and was made until 1980. Erik Carlsson won the RAC Rally three years in a row and the Monte Carlo Rally twice with it. The small sports car Sonett II of 1966 had a glass-fibre body.

Saab 99, 900 and 9000

The Saab 99 of 1968, also designed by Sixten Sason, was larger, with a curved windscreen and short overhangs. The Saab 99 Turbo of 1978 made the turbo common in family cars. The same year came the Saab 900, designed by Björn Envall, with a strongly curved windscreen, an instrument panel that curves towards the driver and the ignition lock between the seats. It became the marque’s best-known car and was made until 1993.

The Saab 9000 of 1984 was a large hatchback, developed in the Type Four project together with Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo, with Giorgetto Giugiaro and Björn Envall as designers. Car production later passed to General Motors and ceased after the bankruptcy in 2011.

What to look for

The shapes of the cars follow the development of the period. The PV444 and Saab 92 are pontoon cars, in which the wings have merged into a smooth, rounded side. The Amazon and P1800 have the fins and chrome of the 1950s. The 140 and 240 are the angular boxes of the 1960s and 70s with large windows, and the Saab 900 and 9000 show the wedge-shaped hatchback of the 1980s.

The diagrams below show the body types and the development of the streamlined form. More cars, from the Ford Model T to today’s electric cars, can be found in the vehicles category.

How to recognise it

Exercise

Which Swedish car was designed by Pelle Petterson at the design studio Frua in Turin?