The luxurious 164 was a rare bird even at the time, and it offered distinctly different looks.
The Volvo 240 is still a common daily driver in the US, but the same is perhaps less true of a number of its long-lived predecessors. The 240 series that arrived on the scene in 1975 was largely a deep modernization of the 140 series cars, and would probably be considered a facelift by modern standards. The Swedish brand owes quite a lot to the model range that debuted all the way back in 1966, and that included the Volvo 164.
As the luxury model of the lineup, the number 6 in 164 of course denoted the cylinder count, while the 140 series used four-pots underhood. This car’s engine is a 3.0-liter straight-six, giving the four-door a very respectable 145 hp and 163 lb-ft of torque. And it received a unique front fascia as well, one that was compared to a number of British cars of the time. In reality, it actually needed the bodywork to accommodate the straight-six, so it would have received a new nose of some sort, though the choice of styling seemed a bit at odds with the otherwise boxy profile of the car itself.
“The 164 is powered by Volvo’s largest engine. It has a displacement of 182-cubic inches and develops 145 horsepower. Which, when compared to the engine in a Cadillac Eldorado, won’t raise any eyebrows,” ad copy of the time noted. “But then, just like a Cadillac, the Volvo 164 will accelerate from 0 to 60 in less than 10 seconds.”
The 164 arrived on the scene in 1968, a couple of years after sales of the 140 began. It landed at a time when muscle cars ruled the country. But by the time it departed in 1975, the Swedish luxury sedan was perhaps too much of a good thing, as the oil crisis had already set in.
Still, the 164 featured a number of goodies that included power steering, power disc brakes all around, multi-zone heating, two rear window defrost modes, and of course the woodgrain trim.
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“The 164 is about 3 inches longer than the compact Volvo 144,” Volvo pointed out in 1970.
“But it’s also about 3 feet shorter than the shortest Cadillac now on the market.”
We could have probably come close to guessing the minute length difference between the 164 and 144, but the Volvo still looks like it could be six feet shorter than a Cadillac instead of just three. But then again, Volvo isn’t talking about the longest Cadillac that was offered at the time. The automaker also pointed out that its turning circle was about 10 feet smaller than that of the smallest Cadillac, which seems very plausible. After all, the 164 and its siblings were not big cars by American standards of the time, and barely seemed to fit into what was the US midsize car category.
The 164 ended up being a bit of a niche model, with just over 46,000 units produced over six years. It’s easy to see how the 140 dwarfed 164 sales, and the six-cylinder 264 that replaced it in 1975 ended up being a rare item as well.
Keyword: Street-Spotted: Volvo 164