ABOUT OUR BLOGGERS
Dan Johnston
I began my career working in our Parts Operations out in California, later Field Operations and now in Public Affairs. My first company car was a ’72 145 in ‘Safety Orange’, a pumpkin on wheels. I’ve owned more Volvos than I can remember and of course my kids grew up in Volvos. I’ve been involved with mainly safety and environmental systems and I worked on our Safety Concept Car (SCC) that later became today’s C30.
Pictured here is my first Volvo.
I’ve been with Volvo since 2002 and, until someone catches on and fires me, I don’t plan on leaving. Before bleeding Volvo blue, I did a quick stint in the Public Relations department at Kia. Before that, I was an automotive journalist for seven years; six of them with Road & Track magazine and one with an Internet start-up that never started up. I love cars and in the past have owned a first generation Mazda Miata and a racing kart. Both were fun but neither was practical and sometimes life requires practicality. When I’m not chained to my desk here in Irvine, California, I’m writing. Short stories, usually.
I get a huge kick out of my job at Volvo and would argue that I have the best job in the entire company. It’s stressful and it can be intense, but mostly it’s a lot of fun. I get to work with our company’s top brass, steer the Volvo brand messaging and interact with some of the coolest journalists in the country. I couldn’t ask for anything more.








[...] or as a Swede would say: Hejsan, which is kind of like “Hi you.” I’m Dan Johnston, I get to work at Volvo and I’m not even Swedish [...]
[...] Dan Johnston, our good pal at Volvo, recently told us the sad news of Gunnar Andersson’s passing on Tuesday, June 9; he was 82. [...]
[...] Dan Johnston, our good pal at Volvo, recently told us the sad news of Gunnar Andersson’s passing on Tuesday, June 9; he was 82. [...]
Hi. Great job. I did not expect this on a Wednesday. This is a awesome story. Thanks!
Dan:
Regarding the new V60 diesel hybrid wagon I have one comment. Please bring it to the US!
We in the States are always accused of being anti-diesel. Well, we are not its simply the inability to purchase diesel products. If you build we will buy them, its thats simple.
Thanks!
Bill Seeger
Hi Bill,
We are all excited about V60 product. Not saying US is anti-diesel, just that this market requires a different emission system than we use in other markets. To engineer and build something for this market, even with lets say 5% of our sales, is very difficult to justify…at this time. No engine/systems are off the table. Our planning group is very keenly aware of this issue and honestly, if there is a marekt we will try to meet it. But for us, it also has to be profitable. We’ll see.
Kind regards,
dan