"Volvo is ending production of its estate cars... The Swedish carmaker will be switching to manufacture SUVs alone." (The Guardian, Aug 3, 2023)
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Muffy Aldrich
Muffy Aldrich, Editor of Salt Water New England: The Modern Guide to The Thing Before Preppy, and a 12th Generation New Englander. Since 2010.
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Sad day. I thought the new XC90 redesign looked great and would have staying power. Too bad the gravitational pull of SUVs is so strong.
ReplyDeleteShoot, I meant to write "V70/XC70 redesign," not XC90. Even though I drive an XC90, I fully acknowledge it isn't nearly as cool as the wagon.
DeleteShame, even if it's not the Volvo it used to be.
ReplyDeleteHopefully just in the UK and not soon here...
ReplyDeleteMy dealer said it was going to be in the too!
DeleteWhat drives this — among other factors admittedly — is the fact that SUVs have evolved into the "good-enough" car.
ReplyDeleteThey excel in nothing. However they get good enough mileage, have good enough room for people & things, have (for now!) a good enough price, provide a good enough measure of road safety (especially for women), etc., etc.
Are there any other road safety measures for women than men?...Please, don't get me wrong, I am not a feminist. Driving for over 25 years and never heard something like this before.
DeleteIt is a bizarre comment. If a vehicle is involved in an accident, what difference does it make, from the standpoint of safety, if the driver and/or passengers are women, or men?
DeleteWe have had a Volvo wagon (245DL), various other SUVs including Suburbans and Tahoes, and our current 2023 BMW X3 with M package, which replaced a 2027 X3. The new bimmer is IMO much better than good enough. It is a kick in the butt to drive and as comfortable as any Benz or Lexus we have had. My wife is short and insists on the improved visibility she gets from SUVs. Her brother has a new Volvo sedan, and she sits quite low in it. I, too, am unaware of any different road safety measures based on gender.
DeletePardon...2017
DeleteWell, if it's good enough for women, it's good enough for me! Wowza.
Deletefor much of history, many things have been designed with the average man in mind. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/27/business/car-safety-women.html and https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/nhtsa-report-newer-cars-appear-significantly-reduce-gender-disparities-crash
Delete@anonymoi at 6:20 and 7:09 AM — Sorry I was unclear. To clarify, I have heard from many women, not all of them short in stature, who feel safer in a vehicle that surrounds them with more metal AND lets them sit up higher so they can see the road better and the vehicles around the one they're driving. This fits the SUVs more than the standard sedan.
DeleteNot all women feel this way, but enough that if you were to talk to a car dealer, he/she would confirm that statement which isn't always expressed aloud.
Thank you for clarifying your point courteously. Women have also told me they prefer the ride-high-off-the-ground quality of an SUV. (7:09 AM)
DeleteAll else equal I think that having a strong reputation for safety (as Volvo does) is a greater selling point for women than men.
DeleteThe end of a most superb tradition! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteSad, but Volvo as it once was is long gone, absorbed into the Geely empire and now insanely focused on becoming a battery electric only future. The automotive future is increasingly grim.
ReplyDeleteFor UK drivers who want the cars, this is bad news. They’re still available for the rest of the world, for now at least.
ReplyDeleteour family had increasingly negative experience with Volvo, repair-wise, and eventually looked elsewhere.
This news makes me miss my long gone 1976 244DL (in monkey vomit green) even more.
ReplyDeleteKind Regards,
Heinz-Ulrich
End of an era. My 1992 240 DL Wagon runs like a sewing machine. Town use & daily beater only. Only SUV I have owned are Suburban's & finally a Land Cruiser. Riceburner aka" Hirohito's Revenge" trumps BMW, Mercedes, & Range Rover SUV'S. No need to put on the dog.
ReplyDeleteYou never want to be stopped behind a minivan or a RX 360. Corollary, you will be run over by a Range Rover or G Wagon. I have an aversion to small SUV'S. Go big or go home.
It is kind to say owners of 6,000lb+ SUVs are tone deaf.
DeleteYes, it is kind. Others might say they are shameless, or obscene.
DeleteWell, there's always Subaru.
ReplyDeleteA windfall for Subaru.
ReplyDeleteRented Outback in New Mexico, closest thing to a 240 Wagon.
ReplyDeleteLet's not get ahead of ourselves and our love of the Swedish estate car...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.carscoops.com/2023/06/volvo-has-gone-crossover-crazy-but-theyre-not-giving-up-on-wagons/
That would only be exciting news if one would want an electric car.
DeleteFunny that you think we will still have a choice in 5-10 years.
DeleteIt's hard to beat a station wagon. The swiss army knife of family transportation, normal roof height so you can put your christmas tree on the roof rack, or a canoe. Decent gas mileage and handling of a car not a truck, and flip down the rear seat and plenty of room for whatever.
ReplyDeleteI drive a 2020 Volvo Estate V60. I love this car. It is a perfect car for me. Except we've had the dash go dark. It happen when I was out-of-town in the middle of a family crisis and I had to drive more than 70 miles without any idea of the speed I was driving. I need more reliability than this.
ReplyDeleteMy experience has been that electronics and the various sensor systems that have proliferated over the past 20 years aren't Volvo's strong suit. The physical build quality is great, but the computer systems tying it all together less so.
DeleteOh, my. I like Volvos, and always have. I've had two of them (a 122S and a 142). But I think that they may have always been a wee bit overrated. When I had the 142 I test-drove a Ford Crown Victoria. While it wasn't "preppy," it was clearly a better car in several ways: better ride, quieter, more comfortable, more room, more power, less expensive (IIRC), and police-car tough. Since the Chinese have come into the picture, I will never buy another Volvo. Just a thought . . .
ReplyDeleteAfter more than 12 years of privately used Volvo, the next will certainly be a Subaru Outback. Even though we really never had any problems with our V70. With the new models, the price / performance ratio is simply no longer right for me.
ReplyDeleteI'm not commiserating. I did that when the Chinese bought Volvo years ago. That was the really the end of Volvo as we all knew it and for that reason I would never have another. I do believe that they will reintroduce another estate wagon for the European market, as wagons are popular there, particularly models made by German manufacturers, which is who Geely has targeted as competition since taking over the company..
ReplyDeleteI drive a 2010 Volvo C30 that I bought when it was 10 years old. The C30 is the smallest car Volvo ever made, I believe, and it is so much fun to drive. My car has 154,000 miles on it, and since Volvos have been known to last for well over a million miles with regular maintenance and great care, I expect I will never have to buy a Volvo SUV.
ReplyDeleteSad, yet not shocking to those that pay attention to the auto market.
ReplyDeleteI really want to commiserate but as a city dweller (i.e. prefers a small car) who has also gone to an EV, how can I with a straight face? I was clearly not in line either to give them any business for a traditional estate car, so it would be an easy copout for me to simply wish other people would buy them. Not unlike the demise of the huge V8 Country Squires a generation ago.