{"id":4483,"date":"2025-07-16T17:53:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T22:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intermarque.org\/?p=4483"},"modified":"2025-07-17T15:05:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T20:05:13","slug":"spotted-abroad-swedish-wedge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intermarque.org\/index.php\/2025\/07\/16\/spotted-abroad-swedish-wedge\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotted Abroad: Swedish Wedge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

– By Colin McFadden – I recently bought my first Volvo, a slightly scruffy 2008 C30. Like any good sicko, \u201cfirst Volvo\u201d means I almost immediately started thinking about \u201csecond Volvo\u201d and \u201cthird Volvo\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volvo\u2019s back catalog is full of cars on my \u201cgosh I\u2019d like to own one of those someday\u201d – the gorgeous P1800 or 1800ES, the \u201cI hear you like torque steer\u201d 850R Wagon, and even the stunning last generation V90 wagon (blue, with a roof box please). Top of my list is the \u201cnever sold in the US\u201d Volvo 480.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s kind of a wedge! It\u2019s kind of a box! It was sold with a bunch of weird engines! It wasn\u2019t even built in Sweden! More than quirky enough to put on a \u201csomeday\u201d list. The 480 was built for almost 10 years, from 1986 – 1995, and around 75,000 were built in that time. None were officially imported to the US – even though it was federalized, market conditions meant Volvo never saw a business case. The 480 was the first car in the \u201c400\u201d series, later spawning the 440 and 460, neither of which made it to the US. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This tan car was spotted parked on the street in Florence, in remarkably good condition for a street-parked car in Italy. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While it was marketed as a \u201csporty\u201d car, contemporary reviews were somewhat skeptical. Lotus ostensibly helped<\/a> with the suspension (the claims of Lotus working on cars in the 80s and 90s always feel lightly sourced), but disappointing engines (from Renault) and bad build quality (they were outsourced to DAF<\/a>) meant it was mostly unloved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That history means they\u2019re quite a rarity in 2025. Of the roughly 22,000 that were brought to the UK, less than 100 are still on the road. The YouTube channel\u00a0AutoAlex Cars<\/a>\u00a0recently featured a surviving British 480 Turbo in a lovely video. Very few have made it to the US under the 25 year rule – only two have crossed the\u00a0auction block at BringATrailer<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Spotted in the UK: One of 250 Volvo 480GTs built in 1994 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The blue car featured here was spotted at Caffeine and Machine<\/a> in the UK. The GT badging implies it\u2019s a late car, built in 1994 as part of a batch of 250. GTs weren\u2019t available in blue, so this car has likely had a respray (or a badge upgrade). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that\u2019s the Volvo 480. I would desperately like to own one. For now, it\u2019ll have to stay on my \u201csomeday\u201d list. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

– By Colin McFadden – I recently bought my first Volvo, a slightly scruffy 2008 C30. Like any good sicko, \u201cfirst Volvo\u201d means I almost…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4488,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-out-and-about","category-spotted-abroad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intermarque.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intermarque.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intermarque.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intermarque.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intermarque.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4483"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/intermarque.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4510,"href":"https:\/\/intermarque.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483\/revisions\/4510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intermarque.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intermarque.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intermarque.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intermarque.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}