Dumpy Weekend Edition: The Volvo 300-series is a different box on wheels

The Volvo 300-series was born from a Dutch design, the car that was supposed to become the Daf 77. The daffodil bloomed in a Swedish glasshouse, as Volvo bought a large percentage of the Dutch manufacturer’s automobile division in 1973 and brought the car to the market by 1976. It was still a very much Daf design underneath, with the Variomatic CVT system the company pioneered. The car managed to be built until the 1990s, and in that time it matured quite a bit. The stance in this shot is incredible, as the car seems to lean on its knocking knees. And everything has a brown hue to it. Not forgetting the interior, of course. Was there supposed to be a clock or a rev gauge in the place where it says Volvo in the cluster? By the late 1980s, the car looked quite a bit heavier. The wheels were still the size of pennies, of course. But the saloon version looked completely balanced. From this angle, I can’t say the car doesn’t look good. The 360 even had a Volvo-derived engine instead of the smaller Renault units.