It was in February 1982 – 25 years ago – that the new Volvo 760 GLE was unveiled. Volvo’s car of the ’80s received a rapturous welcome from both the press and the public. It was regarded as elegant and exciting with its chiselled features. Not a typical Volvo, yet unmistakably a Volvo. This was the car that saved the company back then, creating the foundation for what later led to the modern Volvo Car Corporation. However, the route ahead was both long and tricky

Driving pleasure and sound common sense

The 760 was originally scheduled to be unveiled to the public at the Frankfurt motor show in autumn 1981 but this was postponed because quality was not quite up to Volvo standard. When the wraps were finally pulled off the car in February 1982, what emerged was an elegant Volvo boasting daring, totally new lines, comfortable yet with plenty of driving pleasure with a choice of three engines: a four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine, a V6 petrol engine that had now grown to 2.8 litres, and the in-line six-cylinder D24 diesel engine built by Volkswagen but largely to Volvo’s unique specifications. With a turbocharger, it made the 760 the fastest-accelerating diesel car in the world at the time.

The car’s price in Sweden, 99,800 kronor, came in just under the psychological 100,000 kronor barrier and for that money customers got a truly fully-equipped car with features such as a six-cylinder engine, automatic transmission, sunroof and power steering. Sales successes both at home and on the export markets were not long in coming. In true Volvo fashion, the company started off with the top-of-the-range model, gradually adding volume-selling models in both four-door sedan and five-door estate car guise.

Hans Gustavsson sums up:
“The Volvo 760 was a pivotal point for Volvo Cars in terms of product and economy, and both it and its derivatives came to form the basis for the company’s survival. Without the 760 there would have been no 850, without that no S80, and so on. The 760 project cost 3.5 billion kronor at that time. Of course, the aim was that the 760 and its forthcoming derivatives should last throughout the 1980s.

All told, 221,309 cars were made in the 760 Series (1,230,704 including the 740) before it was replaced in autumn 1990 by the more modern 960. By that time, it had earned the company a healthy profit and had given Volvo Cars added prestige for almost an entire decade