Volvo churns out 15 millionth car

On 20 February this year it was once again an open vehicle, this time a convertible Volvo C70 that made history as it left the factory at Uddevalla in Sweden as car number 15,000,000.

In Volvo's first year, production proceeded at a modest pace, with 297 cars being sold in 1927. Emerging from the shadow of the global economic depression and Second World War, it took Volvo 23 years to build its first 100,000 cars. Today, that figure corresponds to about three months of production.

However, Volvo has never really been a high-volume manufacturer. Early in the company's history, it was decided that the brand name should signify quality and safety. Since the early 1970s, environmental issues too have come to the forefront of the company's corporate agenda.

It is therefore no accident that Volvo was first off the mark with the world's single most important safety invention (the 3-point safety belt was fitted as standard to Volvo cars as far back as 1959) and with one of the world's foremost innovations in the environmental sphere (the 3-way catalytic converter was introduced in 1976).

Many Volvo owners have over the years also expressed their appreciation of their cars' sensible, solid engineering. Functionality has always been important and this was confirmed when the British motoring magazine AutoExpress undertook an ambitious survey about ten years ago to find out which cars are best and worst to live with from the owner's viewpoint.

Two Volvo models took part in the survey, and both won their classes. The Volvo C70 was regarded as the best sports car and the Volvo S80 was named the best luxury car in stiff competition against considerably more expensive cars.

Volvo's best-selling model was the classic 200 Series. Between 1974 and 1993, no less than 2,862,573 Volvo's in the 200 Series were built.

But probably the best-known of all Volvo models is the P1800 sports coupé that was built during the 1960s. You might remember it as the car that Roger Moore drove as “The Saint”.

Almost as famous by now is Irv Gordon's red Volvo P1800 which features in the Guinness Book of Records as the car that has covered a higher mileage than any other car on the planet.

In 2002 his car's odometer rolled past 2,000,000 miles (3,218,000 km) and in 2012 Irv expects to be doing the three million mile (4,827,000 km) service on his trusty car.

Beat that if you can...