Iron Man Irv Turns 70, Sets 3 Million Mile Goal
Happy birthday to our most famous and enduring brand ambassador, Irv Gordon of East Patchogue, Long Island.
Irv turns 70 today, an honorable achievement for anyone. But, with Irv, it’s always about big numbers. He’s driven more than 2.8 million miles in his 1966 Volvo P1800. And, today, on the big 7-0, he’s affirming his goal [...]
Cryptic Message
Last week, after posting a short history of our seat belt, I received an e-mail from Sören, a man of very few words, always cryptic. His message was something like: “What, Clive and Mary.” And that was it. No clue what he was getting at.
I sent an equally sparse reply: ‘?’. And of course, nothing [...]
A journey that started with a ‘Click’
On July 14, 2010, our simple life saving device, the three-point seat belt, will forever be a part of American history. The Smithsonian National Museum of American History will officially accept Volvo’s three-point seat belt into their collection. On that day, with a press event for media, business, government and Smithsonian officials, a little bit [...]
Pike’s Peak takes real Swedish Ball Bearings
Good finish for Richard Bailey’s 122. Not bad for 4 cylinders.
VINTAGE RACE CARS DIVISION: 1. Keith Davidson, Ford Fallon Sprint-13:21.437; 2. Thierry DaLatre Due Bosqueau, Ford Mustang Fastback-13:41.722; 3. Jess Neal, Plymouth Barracuda-13:54.834; 4.Michael Jones, Ford Mustang-13:56.921; 5. Bob Hill, Ford Mustang-14:08.041; 6. Robert Jimenez, Ford Mustang Coup-15:05.475; 7. Doug Allen, Ford Mustang-15:13.960; 8. Richard [...]
Durability
We have two hard core corporate values: Safety and Quality. Used to be we called out Durability as a separate core value, but in reality it should have always been part of Quality. So to make life simpler for me (ok, a whole bunch of me’s) we added it to Quality.
What does durability mean? From [...]
Our Safety Center Celebrates Saving Lives
Volvo Safety Center
10 years ago we moved from a very cramped, limited ‘real world’ crash testing facility to one that no one could top. One key feature was a movable track that rides on an air cushion, which can duplicate just about any kind of impacting angle where two vehicles could meet at varying speeds. [...]
Our Customer Care Department
Terri (blog reader/commenter) asked, on our March 11 posting, how we handle customer relationships. Our most important customer contact point is Customer Care. I asked Bill Casey, Volvo’s Customer Care manager, to give us an insider’s POV.
Bill: After holding several positions at other companies, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in Customer Service. [...]
Ford sold Volvo
We at Volvo have been thinking about who would buy us, ever since Ford announced their goal to make Ford just Ford. We wondered, discussed, thought about; all those kinds of things that happen when something uncertain is in our daily lives. Talking to my friends at Volvo Sweden and Doug Speck, our North American [...]
How safe is an old Volvo? (continued)
S40s and V40s (1998-2003) were slotted to be our entry-level small cars. Actually this car was never intended for our market, but our manufacturing plant – NedCar – in the Netherlands had excess capacity from another manufacturer that was much less successful then we were with the S40 and V40, so we brought them to [...]
Happy Birthday, Volvo Three-Point Seat Belt
August 13, 1959 was a very special day for Volvo and those whose lives would be saved by our invention, the three-point seat belt. After its invention, Volvo opened the patent to anyone who wanted to use this simple device. In 1972, the U.S. Department of Transportation mandated that all cars sold in America would [...]
