I mentioned a couple of days ago that I'd seen the tail end of a TV ad for the 850 wagon. Well there's been a lot of ads for the 440 over the last couple of months, including a couple of really neat TV ads.
Firstly though, I saw an 850 wagon last night. Wearing a gorgeous metallic aquamarine sort of colour. I can't describe it very well, but it looked very much like a volvo wagon (ala 240/740) and yet was slightly different. The lights extending up the tailgate frame at the back is certainly different. A very smart looking car in fact, but you'll be seeing them soon enough !
440 ads.
There's been 2 ads on the telly which have really stood out in my mind. Firstly :
Voice over : "This volvo 440 fuel tank will hold 13 gallons"
[dark, moody scene, with 2 people pouring (presumably) petrol into a fuel tank which is lying on the ground. The area they are standing in is surrounded by a 2 - 3 metre diameter trench. Not very wide, but a trench nonetheless. The 2 people finish filling the fuel tank, then retreat outside the circle.
>From outside the circle one of them holds a lighted brand to the trench, which presumably being full of petrol, catches fire, and produces an impressive, but not too large, "wall of flame"]
Voice over : "And an eleven ton fire truck..."
[Bloody great fire truck stood in the background rumbles forward, over the trench on fire, over the fuel tank, and over the other side of the trench. Not a drop of fuel spills from the fuel tank.]
Voice over : "The volvo 440 - # 9,000 ..... etc..."
The other TV add is shot in a simialr dark moody light, and features a long line up cars, and a ramp, visually imply that the 440 is going to jump this whole long line of cars.
Voice over : " Can the volvo 440 jump this line of cars ?"
[Volvo revs up and charges towards the ramp. Just before the top it slams the brakes on and screeches to a halt in less space than you would imagine possible.]
Big Letters : The volvo 440 60 - 0 in 3 seconds.
Voice over : "[forgotten this bit]"
There's been a lot of posters newspaper adds for the 440 as well. There's a big poster around (or was a few months ago) of a roman amphitheatre, crowded with many people, and a volvo 440 in the centre of the amphitheatre.
Big Letters : "The Volvo 440 -
More extras than Ban Hur"
A number of newspaper ads have been highlighting the fact that the 440 is now cheaper than the Ford Escort, Ford's "cheap medium sized car". Volvo's reputation in this country has always been 'Expensive & safe'.
-dylan
barothwe@me.rochester.edu writes...
{ 440's... what the heck are they?
They are the Volvo equivalent of the Ford Escort. They are only available in Europe (of course).
The look somewhat like a 900 series Volvo but not quite as large as a 200 series. Very nice and very Volvo-like.
I brought a bunch of 400 series brochures back with us this spring when we went to the UK.
Brian.
Tedium and drudgery are good for the soul. :- Boober Fraggle
> From barothwe@edu.rochester.me Thu May 13 21:43:11 1993
> 440's... what the heck are they?
The 400 series is the replacement for the 340/360 series. They're produced in holland at the former DAF car factory. There's 3 cars in the range. the 440 which is a hatchback, the 460 which is the sedan, and the 480 which is a sporty effort shaped like a wedge of cheese.
The 440/460 look in many respects like slightly reduced in size 700s. Price wise, they're selling at quite a cheap price, actually being less now than the traditional mass selling, medium size cars here (ford escort, vauxhall astra).
They were first introduced in 1989, and production overlapped with the 300. I believe the 480 came first. The 480 has disk brakes on all 4 wheels.
Initially, they all featured a 1.7 litre engine, with a carb, fuel injection, twin point FI & turbo. The carb variant was somewhat troublesome, and has been discontinued. The twin point FI version was "Too expensive to produce, so they dropped it" - former volvo service manager. Now the range comes with 1.6, 1.8 & 2litre engines, with FI as standard. The 440 seems a bit underpowered, the reviews quote it as generating 89HP from a 1.7 FI engine, which seems really low.
I've driven a 460 and wasn't overly impressed, I think i'll stick with my 360 until i can afford a 740.
-dylan
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One more I'll to answer the request as shortly as possible (as if my postings are ever short). The 440 is made in the Netherlands. It was designed (like the 3x0) and built by what used to be DAF. For the last 12 or so years Volvo of Holland has been making up to 100,000 cars a year. They tried to import the 4x0 to the US in the late 80's, but the exchange rate made the car too expensive for it's size/class market. There is also a more limmited 480 produced by the same factory, this car to me looks a lot like a CIVIC Coupe'. The cars are popular in Holland, England, and Belgium. I have also seen a few in France and Germany, but they tend to be a bit more nationalistic when it comes to chosing a car make/model.
Happy Motoring,
Andre'
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