Our Chicago Volvo dealer loves a good celebration, especially one that involves the Volvo brand! Volvo's first post-war model is celebrating its 70th birthday this September. This vehicle is unlike any other, and is rich in Volvo's history. Contact our dealership today, and browse our new and pre-owned inventory to see how Volvos evolved over the last 70 years. Source: Autoweek
The Volvo PV444, a model that revitalized the company and became a resounding sales success in the immediate post-war years, is celebrating its 70th birday this month. The PV444 was actually one of the few European passenger cars to be designed and engineered during the war, and it was first shown to the public at the newly built Royal Tennis Hall in Stockholm alongside the PV60 in 1944. Volvo had existed for just 18 years at that point in time, and while the PV60 was a pre-war, four-door sedan design that had been in gestation since 1940, the PV444 was meant to be an all-new, two-door sedan. The two cars were dubbed "Volvo's Doves of Peace" at the exhibition, and over the course of 10 days some 148,437 visitors saw the new Volvos firsthand.
Despite the fact that a team of 60 designers and engineers had been working on the PV444 for at least two years, the prototype shown at the Tennis palace was a non-running example, with the first wooden mockup being completed just months prior. Volvo's founders, Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson, approved the design, and by the time the prototype was shown tot he public, 2,300 sale agreements were signed. The next three years would see the design undergo rigorous testing, with the first production version of the PV444 rolling off the assembly line in March 1947.
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