Volvo Open House in Rockleigh, NJ – 9/29/12 – Come on Over
I just love fall in the northeast. The air smells wonderfully clean, the leaves turn colors and Macoun apples are in season. If you’ve never had one, it’s like a Honey Bell with very limited distribution. It’s wonderfully sweet with a little tartness. Adrienne, my wife and fellow Volvo employee 
, introduced them to me many years ago. Macouns don’t travel well, so you’ve probably never tasted one if you haven’t been to the northeast. When we had our Irvine, California office, I’d ship a box full of the apples along with colored leaves gathered around Rockleigh to those poor West Coast sods who moved from the east coast to the west coast.
On Saturday, September 29th, we will open our doors and invite Volvo owners to our North American HQ. It’s a great chance to meet our employees who share a passion for our brand and want to demonstrate that pride. We will have on hand cars for you to test drive and, of course, drool over. We will also dust off our classic car collection. It’s a great chance to see one of six (we believe) 1927 PV4 in existence, along with a really sweet P1900 and Irv Gordon’s really sweet P1800s. Be sure to stop by and wish Irv well on his journey to 3 million miles!
Our former head of PR, Bob Austin, put together the first Open House, probably around 1980 something, long before Saturn did theirs. Still, it was good to see Saturn sharing the same kind of openness that we did. Our first Open Houses were handled by PR with just a bunch of employees doing all the odd jobs it takes to make an event happen, led by Bob Austin and Ree Hartwell. Over the years it has grown into a bigger event. Finally, it was taken over by another group who spent, well LOTS of money, on doing this as a marketing event. It sort of worked but just didn’t have the feel of “come on over and lets talk” kind of gathering so we went back to PR to head up this year’s Open House. Laura DiStefano is in charge this time. I call her our Homecoming Queen, not sure if she finds that funny…I do.
It’s a great opportunity to meet us, ask tough questions and hear from the horses mouth what we do and why we do it.
Use this link to register. See you there.
Couple of VCOA friends. Hi Greg and Gretchen! 
dan
5 Comments
Already signed up and confirmed! I’ll be there in my 71 1800, and my wife will be bringing her 1-of-5-in-the-USA Orange Flame Metallic V50 (Our little OSD souvenir!)
Will you be making the trek north for this Dan?
Hi Paul,
Don’t know right now. I have a personal event that kind of conflicts. We’ll see. I’ve never seen an Orange Flame Met V50. That is rare.
dan
Dan,
I woke up yesterday morning and found this blog post. I then immediately followed your link and found the field was filled. Zounds!
But I had already had my opportunity via the advance early warning systems of both the VCOA (Volvo Club of America: http://vcoa.org/ ) and VSA (Volvo Sports America: http://www.vsa.org/ ). I had kind of deliberately not answered that early warning.
That was because I already had a plan in my mind. I need to get my 1973 1800ES to my new home state of Tennessee from Rhode Island, and as expensive as one way flights are, there is only one good to do that. And that is to Drive it of course. I’ll pass only a few miles from VCNA headquarters and I’m making a point of taking the Skyline Drive again. Seems to me that the last time I did the Skyline Drive, it was also in a Volvo, and too many years ago. The car? A 1968 Volvo 144S, that wasn’t quite loaded to the bump stops, just close indeed. The drive was memorable indeed and I look forward to it. The 1800 is a fine GT automobile as Irv Gordon has so empathetically pointed out.
Another thought that went through my mind is a quote from a VCOA founder, Steve Seekins. A Portland Maine dealer was worried about what attendance he might get at a car show they wanted to put on. Mr. Seekins absolutely assured them: “Feed them and they will come!” So I think I need to thank Bob Austin for knowing that little detail – I’ve had more that one lunch courtesy of VCNA. I’m sorry I have to miss this one, for the open houses have always been a lot of fun. VCOA and VSA both have a lot of people that are fun to hang out with, and Volvo certainly always puts on a great open house. Dressing my car for Halloween to go to Rockleigh comes to mind…
Cheers,
Dave F.
So bump that I won’t be able to make it this year, especially as I already put a nice 17″ antrachite Pegasus R wheels on my 01 V70 T5 . Never missed this event but this year we are doing our folliage trip cross country by Amtrak.
On the other hand, I will be seeing all the no rust classic volvos in the west coast
Have a fantastic event and happy Fall !
Warren
01 V70 T5 158 K and still going !
Hi Warren,
Sounds like an awesome trek. We’ll see you at our next Viking Round-Up.
dan