This is one of the very first Volvo 240s ever built.
Murilee MartinVolvo built the 240 for close to 20 years, and it will live on forever as the most iconic Swedish car ever made. I’ve documented quite a few discarded 240s (plus the occasional 260) over the years, but the first-year-of-production 1975 models have been nearly impossible to find in recent years. Here’s one of those rare bricks, photographed in a yard in northeastern Colorado a couple of weeks back.
Murilee Martin
I’ve blurred out the serial number on the build tag, but it’s very low. In fact, it’s so low that this car was probably built in the the earliest days of 240 production, during the fall of 1974. According to this tag, the paint is Mörkröd (Caribbean Red).
Murilee Martin
If you think this old-timey pushrod engine looks like what you’d have seen in a 140 or even an Amazon, you’re right. Volvo installed the overhead-valve 2.0-liter straight-four in the 240 just for the 1975 model year, going to SOHC versions beginning in the following year; 98 horsepower, which was miserable but not intolerable in a car that didn’t quite weigh 3000 pounds. You could get a Volvo 164 with a six-cylinder version of this engine through 1975.
Murilee Martin
Just two transmission choices were available in the 1975 Volvo 240: this four-on-the-floor manual or a three-speed Borg-Warner automatic. Other than the AM/FM radio, this car seems to be minimally optioned. Still, the MSRP was quite a bit more than, say, that of a new 1975 Buick LeSabre Custom sedan.
Murilee Martin
I expected to see at least 300,000 miles on the odometer of this near-half-century-old Volvo, but instead it shows a startling 110,123 miles. A close look at the seat upholstery shows much sun-bleaching but not a lot of wear and tear, so I think this car got parked during the 1980s and never moved under its own power again.
Keyword: 1975 Volvo 244 DL Is Junkyard Treasure