So yesterday, I got a call from David. This isn’t uncommon. David and I end up talking a bit on the phone almost every day, like high school besties in 1988. I don’t really like talking on the phone, generally, preferring the asynchronicity of text so I can do other stuff, but this is now sort of a ritual with David and me that it’d feel weird if he didn’t call. Anyway, today he called and was all excited about seeing a car he didn’t recognize, spotted in a parking lot in Frankfurt, Germany, where he currently is as he participates in the German Car of the Year award. I think he’s a judge, not a contestant, despite the concentration of oil in his veins. “It’s a Volvo, but it has pop-up headlights?” he told me, excitedly. “What is this?” I took a moment to pause and savor this moment vicariously, the moment where someone sees their first Volvo 480. It’s an important moment.
I had David send me the picture you see up there so we could, perhaps, share the Volvo 480 realization moment with a larger number of people. While I’m sure a large portion of our readers already know about this wedgiest of Volvos, perhaps some don’t! And they deserve joy, too.
The 480, built from 1985 to 1995, was Volvo’s first front-wheel drive car! Ever! It was also Volvo’s first true shooting brake – as in a two-door wagon with a clearly sporty character – since the Volvo 1800ES, and like the 1800ES, it had an all-glass hatch. This car was designed by Volvo’s Dutch subsidiary, in the old DAF factory, and was one of Volvo’s most radical and stylistic changes ever.
It was like someone swapped the brick Volvo designers had been using as styling inspiration since the early 1970s and replaced it with a doorstop or a wedge of cheese before anyone noticed, and then, bam, we had the sleek 480.
The 480 used inline-four engines from Renault, and never really got a particularly powerful one to back up its sleek looks, with power ranging from 95 to 120 hp or so. They were generally seen as pretty engaging to drive, though, and had a character not normally expected of Volvos of that era.
Interestingly, the original goal wasn’t to make a sporty Volvo, it was to make a fuel efficient one, with early concept work known as the “MPG car.”
Here’s one being tested against a Prelude and Golf of the era:
…and since we’re watching videos, here’s a commercial from the Netherlands for what I guess is sunscreen that has one in it, along with a kid TPing an attic:
Oh wait maybe it’s for a whole drugstore? I don’t know, what am I, Dutch?
An interesting styling detail of the 480 is the front grille. I had David check this out when we were on the phone because I like it. According to stories I’ve heard, after the car was designed, it was realized that it did not have the traditional Volvo grille with the diagonal bar that mounts Volvo’s logo, the old alchemical symbol for iron or Mars or male-ness.
This story, sometimes repeated by legendary designer Peter Horbury, notes that somehow over six years the Volvo management didn’t notice the car didn’t have the traditional Volvo grille. Maybe because the 480 was designed by John DeVries in Holland, away from their scrutiny?
This is all quite odd since a number of early design prototypes did have the traditional Volvo badging, in various places, in various ways, but none of these were adopted for the final design.
Anyway, they stuck one on at the very last moment, and it’s under the bumper, in an area where most cars of this design tend to put air intakes they want to hide. But, in this case, that’s where the Volvo slash-and-badge is, way down low.
These were supposed to come to America, too, but never actually did, something that usually seems to get blamed on weak dollar at the time. That’s a crappy reason to deny innocent Americans of a cool Volvo, if you ask me.
There were even prototypes of a convertible!
It kinda reminds me of those Mercury Capris, but with a roll bar and somehow cooler.
Well, there you go. Now you, just like David, know something about the first FWD, pop-up light Volvo, the 480! What a fantastic way to start a day!
I was in Italy 94-95 and there were a couple of these around. They looked so cool! From the wheel of the 93 Integra I brought over with me they seemed a lot slow though, but the looks kept me curious. I was talking with my landlord about them and it turned out he had a friend who had bought the one I saw most, but I was advised against asking about it because the owner “could not stop complaining about it if you let him get started”.
I love the design of the 480. I love how much it shares in design with P1800 and my current car C30. They’re clearly a family of cool, sporty Volvos.
As a fellow C30 owner, (I own a 2011) I have to ask you, do you get comments from total strangers about how cool your car is? I still do, and in fact I was at the car wash the other day and the wife of the car wash owner made a bee line over to my car asked me “Is this a new model, I love it” I then explained to her that no, it’s not new, but in fact 12 years old! she was astonished.
I also had an incident on the freeway in which a Honda sedan was aggressively tailgating me, (which was causing me a bit of anxiety!), and this tailgating went on for 3 minutes then, suddenly the Honda changed lanes and was now in the next lane over now on my Drivers side of my car when the two 20 something male occupants rolled down their windows and yelled “Cool Car Man!” (Honest to god!)
I have had other encounters as well, (all positive) and was just curious if you have experienced them as well.
I would like to nominate the Volvo 480 as a Janus Car candidate. This car arguably has at least three possible faces with the headlights popped up. It’s a cool front graphic, but with the headlights up, it has that uncanny valley effect you often get from AI-generated cars.
“Frankfurt, Germany, where he currently is as he participates in the German Car of the Year award. I think he’s a judge, not a contestant, despite the concentration of oil in his veins.”
So he didn’t submit his van for judging?
The reason it never went to the U.S. was its absolutely disastrous build quality in the beginning. I worked for a well-known car magazine in Sweden, Teknikens Värld, at the time of its debut and the test cars we used during the first years fell apart everywhere, especially inner panels and electronics. Many cars had one headlight popped-up, the other asleep and nobody knew why. I spoke with lots of Volvo people about the 480 and they were truly ashamed of the car’s quality. Volvo 480 as such was a very good idea and a good design and did get much better after a while. Good examples are sought after today – as all old Volvo cars in Sweden are doomed to be, sooner or later.
So, between this and the Renault Alpine GTA, how many other cars were federalized for North American sales that never materialized?
Would the Chevrolet Orlando count? It was released in Canada but not the USA but it looks like it was federalized? The Autopian did an article on one.
I think the second gen Mazda 2 sort of qualifies. Mazda certified it for the North American market, but they never brought it over themselves. A decontented and redesigned version did make it here as the Scion/Toyota Yaris iA though.
Never heard of these, but now I lust after one of those convertibles.
These were interesting, but the previous 300-series Volvos were more interesting IMHO.
The 300’s were engineered by DAF and Volvo, then Volvo purchased all of DAF cars. They had a rear mounted transaxle, de dion rear axle/suspension, some models even had a torque tube instead of a driveshaft, and a pretty radical CVT design.
What made the CVT interesting was that it was an evolution of a DAF design (Variomatic) that had a CVT belt for each rear wheel. I feel like a variation of this design could potentialy be used today (with lots of modernization)
Check out this cool video on how it works in action from below with the cover off:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHlGM6P8IA8
The downside is that the Volvo 300’s were about as stylish as a Swedish Chevette.
A bit of a clarification: The earlier DAFs (through the 55, excepting the 46) with a belt for each rear wheel have swing axles and the only differential action arises from the independent behavior of the two parallel sets of Variomatic belts and pulleys. This works remarkably poorly, sometimes disastrously poorly, when making sharp turns at very low speeds such as when moving away from a standstill on a surface which doesn’t facilitate tire slippage.
The later DAFs and DAF-derived Volvos (the 66 onwards) with Variomatics and de Dion axles instead have a more-or-less conventional differential which is driven by both belts (or, in the case of the DAF 46, its one belt) which eliminates the low-speed problem at the expense of also eliminating the beneficial aspects of what had amounted to limited-slip behavior from the earlier design.
The last of the DAF-derived Volvos (some of the 300 series and the 480) took things a step further, so to speak, by eliminating the Variomatic entirely.
Very interesting! Thank you.
You’re welcome! The video you included above shows the later version with the rear drive pulleys feeding into the differential, with the driveshafts to each wheel then coming out of that differential. It’s a view from the rear of the car.
In contrast, here’s the earlier setup, shown from the front, in which the rear drive pulleys are completely independent of each other, with each one directly driving its own wheel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFndpKhbPlA
haha I love how you can just have these units opened and operating? Cool in concept, but I can see how this probably wasn’t the most reliable thing back then.
It won’t happen, but it would be cool if the original design (w/o a diff) could be applied to fwd applications where the steering rack would also have an input on how much torque and speed for each wheel providing an lsd effect. Kinda like what Honda did for the last gen SH Preludes (which was optional IIRC).
These operate in the open by design. In the video you included it’s possible to see where a plastic gravel shield normally is attached beneath the unit (by the row of three retained nuts along each side and, not visible, tabs at the front) and in the video I included a removable section of the trunk’s floor has been lifted out for access, but Variomatics are by no means enclosed units. Even with everything in place it’s possible to look under the car and see the belts. As for reliability, I’ve found them to be, ah, mostly reliable:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/47930382816_30c36833fc_c.jpg
The fundamental problem with the original version is that the differential adjustment of the belts and pulleys only works when the pulleys are rotating, and the reaction time of the system is governed by how fast they’re rotating, so at very low speed they simply can’t keep up with the differential requirements of a sharp turn. The stresses can become enormous when, for example, backing slowly out of a head-in parking spot while cranking the steering wheel hard unless the car is on a loose surface so that the tires themselves can slip. There would be similar issues with a front wheel drive setup trying to turn at very low speeds.
This is why I love this website. Someone mentions an obscure component on an already obscure car made by an obscure brand (DAF) and it’s like the Bat Signal goes off and there is always SOMEONE who is basically an expert on the particular obscure subject. Thanks for the info, super interesting!
Kinda like the chrysler turbo I/II info that another commentor basically broke down every single difference between them in an earlier article.
I had an audible gasp in the office seeing this car for the very first time on The Autopian website…I might crack open my wallet and buy a cloth level membership because of this.
Mmmmmm, cheese.
I love the forgotten or under-loved dingleberries on every automaker’s family tree. Always interesting to consider the alternate universe where someone like Volvo took a completely different approach, or had a completely different kind of car make a smash hit.
Oh, come on!! Cheese and dingleberries in one comment. Now I’ll never fully enjoy a cheddar and Branston sandwich in the same way again.
First off, this looks great and I’d love to see one in person. Second, now I want a C30 again. I don’t need to buy a car – mine is doing fine – but I regret not getting a C30 when I was last shopping.
Are they still being made? Someone a block away from me has one and I’m half tempted to borrow it permanently.
No, they are no longer being made. The C30 was sold in the USA from 2008-2013 model years.
The guys on Flipping Bangers did one of these not too long ago (watched in on MotorTrend channel). I think they look pretty cool. Very much the opposite of “square and boxy” Volvos of the time.
Yay, David and a lot of us get to be in the lucky 10,000 today!
Big Car on YouTube also has a great segment on this!
The 70s and 80s idea of a fuel saver safety sports car is an awesome one, and so different from the current trend of 500hp school buses.
It sounds lika a bit of an urban legend with that low grille: The Volvo Tundra coupé concept car from 1979 also had pop up lights, a glass hatchback and the grille below the bumper.
A lot of details from the Tundra was used in the Citroën BX, also a Bertone design.
Probably an urban legend, although still an interesting design choice. It looks amazing but… most (every?) markets where this car was sold required a front license plate. So the grille and the logo often end up obscured by the plate, like the main picture of the article shows.
“…designed by Volvo’s Dutch subsidiary, in the old DAF factory…”
In defense of David’s automotive identification skills, he knew exactly what my similarly-sourced Volvo 66 GL was the instant he saw it a couple of years ago.
We used to joke about buying one of these for my brother’s mid-life crisis, as he wrote off my mk1 MR2 and this was the safest car ever to have pop-up lights.
But now he’s finally hit mid-life he has a shiny new Volvo XC40 and all the 480s have turned to dust.
So we’re thinking maybe a C30 instead, but that seems too sensible. plus I just blew all my being-generous money on an old Lotus.
TIL something new 🙂
When I was living in Germany, a girlfriend had a 480. I got to drive it a bit and was impressed. It wasn’t a blazer, but it held its own on the turns. I preferred the Saab 900T I bought while over there, but the 480 wouldn’t have been a bad alternative. Being a big 1800ES fan, the back window called to me right away. She loved that car and was disappointed when she wasn’t allowed to ship it to the states. The Saab, however, did cross the pond, but that’s another tale.
This is news to me!
I’ve never seen those prototypes! Funny how #2 is now the electric Volvo look.
It looks like an elongated Peugeot 205 (which is not a bad thing). Nifty!
They are shockingly awesome in person.
This IS a great way to start the day! Thanks, Torch!
These had a really cool gauge pod and center console setup:
https://s.car.info/image_files/1920/volvo-480-interior-1-889432.jpg
Wow: that dash has all the 80s. I love it