To my North American Volvoians: did you know?

Post by **CIK7** » 01 Apr 2021, 20:36

Do my fellow NA 850 sedan owners know that their car has a smaller sister? It's the Volvo 440! I am sure the 440 is what drove Volvo to release the 850. I think the 440 saloon in 93-95 is like a distorted blurry picture and the 850 is like that picture being brought into focus. Let me know if you already knew about the 440. Have you had the chance to experience one? It was a European car I think. Imo the 440 is pretty cool with the 4 seater config.

Post by **Clemens** » 03 Apr 2021, 15:22

The 480 was kinda cool if it was the Turbo model. It looked like an early ancestor of the C30. It was based off the Volvo 460. And little good is to be said about the 460. So the quality was not very Volvo like. The predecessor of the 460/480 was the Volvo 360 which was developed by the Dutch car manufacturer DAF.

Post by **matthew1** » 03 Apr 2021, 16:05

https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/volvo-340-history/

Post by **scot850** » 03 Apr 2021, 17:50

I would say the 480 was the successor to the P1800ES in spirit. Not particularly well built (like the 440/460) with electric door mirrors that liked to go on fire and generally sloppy finishing. My mum had a 440 and hated the thing. Swapped it for a used 240 sedan and loved that.

We also had a 340 that was again awful. Rusting through the seams at less than a year old. Volvo swapped it for a demo 360 with the 4 Cyl. 2 liter engine. I liked that car with the trans over the the axle with rear wheel drive. One of the 2 we had went like stink. Would pull over 90 mph in 3rd.

Neil.

Cookeh · Post by **Cookeh** » 04 Apr 2021, 00:33

480 had nothing to do with the 850. As Neil said, the 480 was designed and built as the 1800ES successor, hence the rear hatch design and it being marketed as a coupe. It only existed as a coupe (they called it a Sports-Wagon in the US but the body style was the same). The 480 was exported and sold in the US, too. The 440/460 was then built on the same platform as brought out with the 480s.

The 440/460 also had nothing to do with the 850 for that matter, they were Nedcar designed and built hatch/compact saloons, respectively. 440/460 did eventually get a late-life facelift to vaguely resemble the Phase2 850s in a bid to try and boost sales, but at that point the 440/460 had already been out for 5 years and had a rubbish reputation. They were built by raiding DAF parts bins and so share a lot of interior options with 80s courier vans and trucks. Hateful.

mdr1220 · Post by **mdr1220** » 04 Apr 2021, 17:20

I like the look of the 480. Anyone know if any are here in the US?

Post by **matthew1** » 04 Apr 2021, 17:57

Only a handful of imports here, and nice samples go for far more than their home market... $16k was the ask for the last one I saw.

Post by **CIK7** » 05 Apr 2021, 20:39

Clemens wrote: ↑03 Apr 2021, 15:22 The 480 was kinda cool if it was the Turbo model. It looked like an early ancestor of the C30. It was based off the Volvo 460. And little good is to be said about the 460. So the quality was not very Volvo like. The predecessor of the 460/480 was the Volvo 360 which was developed by the Dutch car manufacturer DAF.

There were actually different 480 body styles, and one of those looked like a very bad blurry image of the 850 sedan. I know about the early c30 model. That actually appealed to me. I think the 850 lookalike was pretty ugly and prefer the 850.
EDIT: Its the 440 sedan I meant to talk about when creating this thread. Please refer back to my OP.

Post by **CIK7** » 05 Apr 2021, 20:45

mdr1220 wrote: ↑04 Apr 2021, 17:20 I like the look of the 480. Anyone know if any are here in the US?

The 480 hatch makes me think of a pre-2000 Honda Civic wannabe.