Emeryville Street Sighting - 1963 Volvo PV544 Sport

Tucked away on a quiet corner of a quiet street in Emeryville, California is an unassuming brick building with a simple script sign above its door that says "Fantasy Junction". It lives up to its name. Inside are dozens of classic sports cars worthy of anyone's dream garage, and all for sale. And outside... well, usually there's nothing special outside. But on one of my visits there with a friend who had never been, we encountered this cherry red Volvo PV 544 parked across the street.

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.

Danville Street Sighting - 1989 Volvo 780 Bertone

The Volvo 780 by Bertone is quite possibly in my top three favorite Volvo models, or at least top five. The 780 is an interesting creature, a Swedish sport coupe designed and built by Italians and powered (in some models) by the PRV corporate V6 engineered with Peugeot and Renault. The 780 was a loaded flagship with real wood, quality leather and a host of conveniences and features from a power moonroof to automatic climate control. It was produced from 1986 to 1991 in limited numbers, with only 8,518 rolling off the assembly line during that period (Some sources say it's more like 9,521, but Volvo themselves claim the smaller number). The US market received 5,695 of those.

Santa Cruz Street Sighting - 1971 Volvo 1800E

I still see a fair number of old Volvos. In fact, Volvos made before 1990 are extremely common, mainly the 240 series cars - to the point that I don't pay attention to them. To a lesser extent, the 140 series and 164 are also still out there. The older Amazon and PV544 can still be found, as can the sporty P1800.
I've previously featured a P1800, and even did a Best of the Rest post as proof that these stylish coupes have survived in decent numbers. This car in fact made that post, and upon seeing it in better light I decided to photograph it again.

Santa Cruz Street Sighting - 1973 Volvo 1800ES

If I asked to you name a Volvo sport wagon, chances are you'll come up with the 850 T-5R wagon, or perhaps the later V70R. But the first sporty Volvo wagon was actually more of a shooting brake, a two-door affair intended as a send-off for the aging but much loved P1800 sports coupe. I've previously featured a P1800 coupe and even done a "Best of the Rest" post on five others. But this is the first 1800ES wagon I've had the chance to shoot in detail. Given the rarity of the ES, of which only 8,078 were built between 1972 and 1973, I'm glad I did.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1964 Volvo PV544

Flickr has proven itself to be a valuable resource for locating interesting cars. Often, going in search of one (or several) vehicles results in finding none of the ones I planned for, yet finding something entirely different. In this case, my search for an early-'60s Pontiac yielded instead an early-'60s Volvo, more specifically a circa-1964 Volvo PV544 (and eagle-eyed readers will notice that it took two visits to get all the pictures for this feature).

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.

San Francisco Street Sighting - 1965 Volvo 122S Station Wagon

Another interesting case of a foreign manufacturer copying a successful design is Volvo with its Amazon line of cars. Their split grille, single headlights and slight tail fins were inspired by 1950s Chryslers, albeit scaled down quite a bit. The design is also said to have been inspired by a Kaiser that somehow made it to Sweden (but I haven't seen very many Kaisers that looked anything like a Volvo Amazon).