San Francisco Street Sighting - 1972 Volvo 1800ES

I'm still a fan of Volvo 1800ES wagons, in no small part because I'm a sucker for station wagons in general and two-door wagons in particular. The 1800ES was a rare bird even when new, as the final evolution of the P1800 sports coupe first seen in 1961. Only 8,077 ES wagons were ever built, and they remain a cool curiosity today.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1974 Volvo 164E

It's still kind of weird to me hearing the name Volvo tossed around as a luxury manufacturer. They've gone upmarket in recent decades, but living in the San Francisco Bay Area it's very hard to shake the mental image of ratty old 244DLs with colossal black rubber bumpers. One of Volvo's first efforts to break into the luxury field was the 164, an upgraded version of the 144 sedan with a longer wheelbase and bigger engine. The 164 featured 3.0 liter straight-six power, wrapped in a unique front end with round headlamps and a tall, upright grille. Officially sold from 1969 to 1975, a small number were apparently also titled as '76s. This one is a '74, built with Bosch D-Jetronic fuel injection, a facelifted grille, large rubber bumpers, flush-mounted door handles and the first year without front vent windows. The 1974 164 was also available with heated seats, a perfect luxury item for a car from a Nordic country. Buyers had a choice of four-speed manual transmission with or without overdrive, or a three-speed automatic that hampered acceleration dramatically. Regardless, the automatic was popular in North America. I guess nobody really bought a Volvo sedan for its performance in the pre-turbo days.

Oakland Street Sighting - 1968 Saab 95 V4

Today there's much talk in advertising of crossover SUVs that seat 7 or more passengers. No longer satisfied with full-size V8 Ford Expeditions and Chevy Suburbans, many buyers want interior space, carlike handling and fuel economy at the same time. Funnily enough, that's not a new formula. The minivan has offered that kind of practicality for decades, but minivans are so passé. Early Saabs were always compact family cars with small engines, and the 95 wagon offered three rows of seating for up to seven people. Seven very small or very skinny people. The 95 wagon and 96 sedan were initially powered by a 0.8 liter three-cylinder, two-stroke engine. This engine made 40 horsepower and smoked too heavily to comply with rising emissions standards as the decade wore on. In 1967 a Ford-built 1.5 liter V4 engine became available, now a four-stroke design for more power and less smoke.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1965 Volvo P1800S

I figured it's time to clear out some of my really old blog-bound pictures, and this car was one of the very first vehicles I photographed. I took these with my old camera well over a year ago, before I even started California Streets. In fact, I started this blog because my submissions to Jalopnik.com's "Down On the Street: Bonus Edition" were never getting posted. So here we are, and here is the second Volvo to be featured on California Streets.