{"id":76406,"date":"2024-09-01T12:03:40","date_gmt":"2024-09-01T16:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=76406"},"modified":"2024-09-01T12:03:40","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01T16:03:40","slug":"junkyard-gem-1976-volvo-244","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=76406","title":{"rendered":"Junkyard Gem: 1976 Volvo 244 DL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Volvo did well enough selling the PV444\/544<\/a>, Amazon<\/a> and 140<\/a> in the United States, but it was the Volvo 200 Series<\/a> that really launched G\u00f6teborg iron into the American big time. Introduced here as a 1975 model<\/a>, the 200 stayed in production for nearly two full decades and remains the most instantly recognizable Swedish car ever made. Here’s an early-production 244, found in a Denver-area car graveyard<\/a> not long ago.<\/p>\n

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The 200 Series could be considered an update of the late-1960s-vintage 140 Series, since it’s essentially the same car from the A pillars back. The main difference between the two is the MacPherson strut front suspension in the 200 Series.<\/p>\n

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Volvo went through several naming systems<\/a> for U.S.-market 200 Series cars over the decades, with the initial one being the easiest to decipher: a three-digit number followed by a two-character trim-level designation. The first digit in the number represents the series, the second represents the number of engine cylinders and the third the number of doors. There were six-cylinder 262s<\/a>, 264s<\/a> and 265s<\/a> sold in the United States from 1976 through 1981, powered by the same PRV V6 engine that went into the DeLorean DMC-12, so it’s incorrect to refer to all 200 Series Volvos as 240s.<\/p>\n

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This car is the best-selling member of the 200 family, with a four-cylinder engine and four doors. This is a fuel-injected 2.1-liter SOHC straight-four, rated at 98 horsepower and 110 pound-feet; the 1975 240s received the 2.0-liter pushrod engine from the 140.<\/p>\n

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There were two transmissions available in the 1976 240s: a four-speed manual or a three-speed automatic. This car has the automatic.<\/p>\n

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Even thought it’s a base DL model, this car’s first owner paid an extra $456 for air conditioning (about $2,580 in 2024 dollars), on top of the $500 premium for the automatic transmission ($2,829 after inflation). That pushed the cost for the car up to $7,551, or $42,717 in today’s money. You could get a swanky new 1976 Buick Electra Limited four-door hardtop<\/a> for just $6,852, but those sensible Volvo buyers knew it was worth paying a premium for genuine Scandinavian safety and build quality.<\/p>\n

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European-market headlights were strictly f\u00f6rbjuden<\/em> on American roads during the early Malaise Era<\/a>, according to federal safety regulations, so Volvo had to install these unsightly sealed-beam rigs on their cars here. A few years later, the U.S.-market 200 Series Volvos went to somewhat better-looking quad-rectangle sealed beams<\/a>, finally getting modern composite headlights<\/a> for the 1986 model year.<\/p>\n

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This car’s owner or owners took good care of it over its close-to-half-century life. The interior looks very good for its age.<\/p>\n

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The paint is faded but there’s no rust-through anywhere.<\/p>\n

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I still find plenty of 244s and 245s in Colorado and California junkyards<\/a>, including quite a few well-loved machines with more than 300,000 miles on their odometers<\/a> (and one with better than\u00a0600,000<\/em> miles<\/a>). If you’re looking for a Volvo 200 Series project car and you don’t insist on a two-door<\/a>, head west and you’ll have no problem finding a solid one that needs a forever home.<\/p>\n

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This car didn’t break any mileage records during its life, unless the speedometer cable broke decades ago and it really drove a couple of million miles.<\/p>\n

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This is the first Volvo I’ve seen with “wire wheel” hubcaps.<\/p>\n

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No catalytic converter, so it ran fine on Vitamin Pb-fortified gas<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

So many sensibly Swedish features, for people who think<\/em>. 87% of Volvo buyers are college-educated \u2026 the other 13% are just plain smart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Volvo did well enough selling the PV444\/544, Amazon and 140 in the United States, but it was the Volvo 200 Series that really launched G\u00f6teborg iron into the American big time. Introduced here as a 1975 model, the 200 stayed in production for nearly two full decades and remains the most instantly recognizable Swedish car […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76407,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-concepts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/76407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}