Time for a quick dip into the bog of eternal stench that is The Carchive. Today we continue flipping all over the globe for the delight of the several readers who still tune in to this topic.

From 1960’s America we head for 1980’s Sweden, for a car which stretched the very definition of boxy goodness.

“The Volvo 760 GLE is the personification of all the safety, quality and engineering standards which have given Volvo its legendary reputation”

Before this 760 launch brochure was released in 1982 Volvo had been selling cars throughout Europe and America for generations, each of which latched onto the Volvo brand for similarly stereotypical reasons.

People loved the Volvo persona. There was nothing smug or conceited about it, a Volvo was tough, dependable and gave no nonsense. There was little in the way of flash and, realistically, not masses of dash either. The big four cylinder engines were battle proven, and a car designed for harsh Swedish winters ought to be able to handle the worst of what the rest of the globe could offer.

What Volvo had only ever had marginal success with, though, was catering for specific tastes and budgets. It took until the 80s before the core product was supplemented by a cheap, small car and a big, expensive one. Of course, the 760 was the latter, and it was clearly designed to be as imposing as possible. Every single curve was ironed flat and every crease was filed to a sharp edge. If you thought a 240 was boxy, the 760 was in another league. In fact the 700 was initially mooted as a replacement for the evergreen 200, but that idea seemed to get dropped pretty quickly when Volvo realised that they were beginning to draw people in from previously uncharted sectors of the sales map. In the end the 760 ended up replacing only the 264.

It was actually quite handy for Volvo that the general squareness that people expected of their cars aligned quite well with North American tastes at that time, although Detroit was gradually moving away from formal rooflines. In fact, the 760 Sedan shape rapidly began to look somewhat dated. The styling, by old Volvo hand Jan Wilsgaard, wasn’t exactly seen as a wild leap into the unknown, but became enduringly familar. Today, compared with the toy-like current Volvos and the “more rounded” 200’s, 100’s and Amazons which went before. Amazingly, the less contentious longroof wouldn’t be introduced until the ’85 model year.

“The heating element in the driver’s seat comes on automatically when the temperature drops below 14 degrees Celsius”

Now this I did not know. I knew they had heated seats, but I thought there was some degree of choice as to whether your arse got griddled or not, but never mind all that now, it was another pointer towards bits of humane thinking that really showed through in Swedish products, big, sturdy controls and buttons you could press while wearing Arctic Expedition issue gloves.

Extraordinarily comfy seats, too. In the brochure Volvo make a lot of noise about how a relaxed, comfortable driver is an alert, safe one. This thinking was always part of the Volvo DNA and many ’80s and ’90s brochures followed this theme.

“The 760’s engine produces 115kW DIN (156hp) and runs so quietly that you can hardly hear it”

The launch engine for the 700 series was the PRV V6 as found in your Dad’s Talbot Tagora and your Mum’s DeLorean. It was indeed a smooth, quiet, refined lump and well aligned with the expectations of the prestige car buyer, but didn’t prove quite the indestructible force that the old red-block fours would do, and the latter was welcomed warmly when it appeared in fiercely turbocharged and intercooled form in the 185hp-strong 760 Turbo Intercooler model .

In fact, it would be two years after the 760 went on sale that a four-cylinder model that could properly replace the 240 model range would go on sale, though plans for that happening would still ultimately come to nothing. The 740, as it would be christened, would still somehow sit further up the ladder than the 240.

“Quality that lasts into old age”

Ultimately, the ingredients needed for a long lived Volvo would seem to be four cylinders and a manual gearbox. Any Fule Kno that that the majority of 200 series cars found in junkyards are scrapped due to their having depreciated to zero and simply being displaced from family duties rather than through any mechanical fault of their own. They therefore get binned due to fairly trivial issues at the end of their lives, but those lives are long ones.

In a way the 760 doomed itself by virtue of its prestige status. When a posh car isn’t deemed posh enough any more it finds itself on a sudden downward spiraling trajectory, a far more rapid decline into oblivion than experienced by more humble versions of the breed. Of the recent sightings of 700 series Volvos that I’ve made, all have been battered, all have been 740s, and almost all have been station wagons.

You see, even when almost totally used up, a Volvo estate car is still a useful beast of burden. A once-posh sedan rather less so.

(Disclaimer: All images are of original manufacturer publicity materials, photographed by me, with the wrong camera, in my car, in the rain. Copyright remains property of Volvo, who need to be getting on with a bit of Volvoness like in the good old days)