The best Volvos ever built?

Volvo Cars’ safety heritage is second to none – but it’s also surprised car buyers and the motoring press with a few curveballs over the years. Here’s some of the models that made history – some that are still making it – and one heralded as the best Volvo yet.
Amazon
One of Volvo Cars’ gifts to the world is the three-point seatbelt, developed by Nils Bohlin and introduced as standard in 1959 via the Volvo Amazon – with Volvo making the IP available for free to other manufacturers. Manufactured from 1956-1970, some 667,000 Amazons were sold, including 73,000 station wagons, cementing Volvo’s reputation for safe, roomy cars that can last a lifetime – there are still 23,000 first generation Amazons registered in Sweden alone.
P1800
In 1961, Volvo Cars launched the iconic P1800, an elegant sports coupe that gained wider fame the following year when the equally debonair Roger Moore took to the wheel in TV series The Saint. A few years later – on Friday 30 June 1966 to be precise – a New York teacher called Irv Gordon bought one for $4,150. By Monday he’d put 1,500 miles on the clock and bought it back to the dealership for its first service. Then he took off again. Over the next 40 years, Gordon covered more than 3 million miles in his P1800. By the time he died in November 2018, the odometer read 3,260,657 – a Guinness world record.
240 series
In 1974 Volvo Cars launched the 260 and the 240 – and over the next 19 years sold more than 2.8 million of them. While the 260 was discontinued in the 1980s, the 240’s popularity, affectionately known as “the brick” due to its angular design, saw it carry the flag until 1993. With a deserved reputation for safety, thanks to crumple zones and large bumpers, as well as durability via the hardy ‘red block’ engine, the 240 remains a cult classic among enthusiasts.
The 480
1986 marked production of the Volvo 480 – a front wheel drive hatchback complete with (very eighties) pop-up lights. Intended to attract a younger driver, its sleek, wedge shaped body, low weight to power ratio and sporty handling represented something of a break from Volvo’s recent past. Over nine years of production some 76,000 480s were sold.
850 T-5R
In 1995 Volvo Cars decided to show what its then boxy models could do. The 850 series had already introduced a transverse engine, Volvo’s now renowned Side Impact Protection System (SIPS) and semi-independent rear suspension, giving it passive rear steering and a tight turning circle. For the 850 T-5R, Volvo collaborated with Porsche on a limited edition 243bhp version that was decidedly quicker. Only 6964 were ever made, but the 850 T-5R made such an impression that Volvo quickly followed up in 1996 with the 850R.

XC90
Launched in 2002, the XC90 was Volvo Cars’ first SUV. It combined luxury, safety and cutting edge technology in a Swedish-inspired seven-seater. The XC90 has proved so popular it’s still being made 22 years later – with an updated model launched in September 2024. “It takes the legendary formula of the XC90 that has won so many fans all over the world and it moves the game on,” according to Volvo Cars global CEO, Jim Rowan.
In total more than 1.5 million XC90s have been sold to date – and there are plenty more to come.
XC40
A modern classic, the Volvo XC40 in Australia has won the Drive Car of the Year for best Small Luxury SUV four years running, from 2021 to 2024. Which means no list of Volvo’s best cars would be complete without it. As the Drive judges put it: “A true benchmark of compact luxury, the Volvo XC40 continues to offer an unrivalled quality experience for SUV buyers." Which says it all.
EX90
The all electric EX90 has yet to land in Australia – but it’s set to raise the standard in the luxury seven-seat SUV market when it arrives in 2025. Early reviewers have been suitably impressed, underlining its “classy” exterior design, “excellent” cabin and “quality drive experience” – not to mention “sensational” audio quality. Volvo Cars global CEO Jim Rowan goes a step further: “I can confidently say that the EX90 is the best car we have ever made.” Which given Volvo’s heritage – and all the classics listed above – lays down a marker.
Find out more about the EX90 – and the rest of Volvo’s luxury range – here.