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Junkyard Gem: 1998 Volvo S90

Volvo began selling squared-off, rear-drive-equipped sedans and wagons here starting with the 140 in the 1968 model year, and continued selling those safe and sensible bricks all the way through 1998. The very last Swedish Brick models sold new in the United States were the 960 sedans and wagons, badged respectively as the S90 and V90 during the last couple of years here. We've seen one of those V90s in this series, and now it's time for its corresponding sibling. I found this very clean '98 S90 in a Silicon Valley yard last December. It hurts to see a well-cared-for European luxury sedan get this close to 200,000 miles and not quite make it.  The only body damage I could find appeared to have been inflicted after this car entered the used-parts ecosystem. There's not the slightest hint of rust, of course; this car shows every sign of having spent its entire life in California. The interior is just beautiful, too. This is almost certainly a one- or two-owner car that got every maintenance item done on the dot and spent its downtime parked out of the sun in a garage. Dig this top-shelf AM/FM/cassette/CD player with remote disc changer, a $485 option in the 1998 S90 (about $850 in 2022 dollars). The MSRP on the car itself started at $34,300 (around $60,200 now). So, why is this car in the junkyard? My guess is that some major component (e.g., engine, transmission, differential) failed and a quick comparison between real-world resale value and cost of repair resulted in a call to Pick Your Part. High-end European machinery isn't cheap to fix, and 25-year-old Volvos aren't worth much. While a small but significant fraction of American buyers of the 140, 240 and 740 preferred cars with three pedals, that fraction had shrunk to insignificance by the late 1990s. A four-speed automatic was the only transmission available in the final-year S90 and V90 here (Europeans could get a manual version). Interestingly, Volvo stuck with the old three-digit numbering system (first digit indicates series, second digit indicates number of engine cylinders, third digit indicates number of doors) for internal company use, decades after ditching it on customer-facing surfaces. This car was a 964 in Goteborg. Volvo brought back the S90 name for the 2017 model year, and you can buy a new one right now, but it's neither rear-wheel-drive nor brick-shaped.

Celebrate Volvo's 89th birthday with some neat facts

Volvo, arguably Sweden's best-known non-ABBA export, will celebrate the big 9-0 next year. The company has always operated somewhat under the radar, but it has its share of stories to tell despite an image formed by decades of solid, safe, and sensible cars. To celebrate the occasion, here are five lesser-known facts about Sweden's last remaining car brand. 1. It opened North America's first foreign car plant. Idyllic Halifax was a small fishing city of about a quarter-million in the early 1960s when Volvo arrived and became the first import brand to build cars en masse in North America. American consumers on the East Coast developed a fondness for the Volvo Amazon line in the late 1950s, leading Volvo to seek out a plant in the Americas. Halifax ponied up incentives, allowing Volvo to take advantage of a pact eliminating tariffs on cars built and exported between the United States and Canada. Volvo built cars there until the end of 1998, when it said its facility was no longer viable compared to larger factories in Europe. That brings us to The Netherlands, where Volvo bought a quirky, innovative automaker that once sold a car called the Daffodil (which was actually its luxury model). 2. You can thank Volvo for CVTs – even though it doesn't use them. Volvo wasn't interested in picking flowers. It wanted the automotive arm of truck manufacturer DAF, which would include its assembly plant, its Renault engines, and the first mainstream application of the CVT gearbox. Volvo acquired DAF's car business over the course of a few years in the early 1970s and, in typical Volvo safety-oriented style, it slapped big bumpers and head restraints on the little DAF 66 and rebadged it as the Volvo 66. The Dutch assembly plant would grow to include a partnership with Mitsubishi in the early '90s. Today, it operates as NedCar and builds Mini Coopers for BMW. Volvo is no longer involved in NedCar or DAF (which sold its CVT division to Bosch, by the way), but its acquisition of DAF helped ensure the success of CVTs. Ironically, even though Volvo's investment helped make CVTs mainstream, the Swedish automaker's affair with them was brief, and today it utilizes only conventional automatics. 3. The Swedish carmakers were pals. Over its 89 years, Volvo has been closely connected to a number of automakers – most notably Ford, which ran the company for a decade, and its current owner Geely. But Volvo is most closely linked to its longtime competitor, Saab.

Volvo V60 Polestar is one hot hauler

Earlier this year, Polestar jumped from the racetrack to the showroom with its own take on the Volvo S60 sedan. And given the similarity and the proud history of hot Volvo wagons, not to mention the spy shots and teasers, we knew it would only be a matter of time before Volvo's racing partner would return with a similar take on the V60. And that's just what it's done.
Powering the new Volvo V60 Polestar is the same 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six as the sedan, driving 350 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque to all four wheels through a six-speed automatic transmission and Haldex all-wheel-drive system. Hitting 62 miles per hour reportedly happens in the same 4.9 seconds as the sedan, on its way to a stop speed of 155 mph.
The power upgrades come courtesy of a twin-scroll Borg Warner turbocharger, intercooler and overhauled exhaust system. Other upgrades over Volvo's own R-Design model include stiffer springs, Öhlins shocks, 20-inch wheels, Brembo brakes and a full aero kit, not to mention an upgraded cabin from which to command the performance.