Emerging Classic
It might look like a child drew it, but Volvo’s 400 series is a very grown-up car. Durable and very much of its era, it is both useable and enjoyable today.
Volvo’s small car offering of the 1990s is starting to look like a promising classic.
They do things differently in Sweden, as Volvo’s stand at the 1986 Geneva Motor Show proved. It featured a compact, four-seater sporting car with pop-up headlights and a liftback body. The 480 was distinctive, combining a low stance with some of the rugged looks that Volvo had made very much its own.
In some ways it trod familiar ground for the company, echoing the sporting brake style of 1971’s P1800ES. Although more associated with hulking saloons and estates that looked as though they were built to survive a nuclear apocalypse, Volvo had also ventured into the smaller car market with its 300 series. However, the 480 was something of a revolutionary model in its own right: it was the manufacturer’s first ever front-wheel drive car.
In this respect the 480 mapped out the way forward for Volvo. From then on almost everything it has produced has been either front or all-wheel drive. A year after the 480’s launch, its floorpan entered the range with a much more mainstream car atop: the 440 hatchback, followed two years later by its 460 saloon sibling.
Although these – collectively the 400 series – were a technological leap forward, they hid it well because the styling of these compact cars was designed to resemble their larger brother, the 940 saloon. This was a sensible move by Volvo, as the 940 was popular and the 400 was able to piggyback its reputation for solidity. When it was facelifted in 1994, the 400 series was restyled to resemble the big saloon’s successor, the 850. Volvo’s strategy paid off handsomely. The 440 and 460 sold well during a healthy model life of nine years. Thanks to the durability of a car built to survive winters north of the Arctic circle, it can still be seen on the road 30 years later.
The Volvo 400 series has a lot to offer. Its front- drive chassis endows it with decent handling, its engines are simple and easy to maintain and its bombproof build means that well-preserved examples can still be located at a price that will never be lower – Volvos attract fanatical and long-term owners who tend to maintain their vehicles with care.
Although actually built in the Netherlands (like the 300 series before it which had originally been designed as the Daf 77), the 400 series is a thoroughly Swedish car. Its specifications include features such as adjustable seat belts with pretensioners and (from 1993) side impact protection that took a decade or two to become normal fayre elsewhere. Safety has long been Volvo’s primary preoccupation. Most of its TV adverts in the late 1980s and early ‘90s featured crash tests, crash test dummies and products being driven off buildings at dizzying heights. Heated seats were also part of the package, something that still seems luxurious today.
At the heart of the 400 series was a range of engines obtained through Volvo’s relationship with Renault, which lasted throughout the 1980s and ‘90s. Until 1992 several variations of one basic 1.7-litre, four- cylinder petrol unit were available, with outputs ranging from a
carburettor-fed 77bhp to a turbocharged 122bhp. In 1992 options changed to a 1.6-litre giving 84bhp, a 1.8-litre that produces 89bhp and a 2.0-litre, 110bhp motor. In 1994 an 89bhp 1.9-litre turbo diesel was added to the list.
Three transmissions were available. Most 400s feature either a five-speed manual or four-speed ZF automatic gearbox. However, later cars also had the option of a modernised CVT system. Between 1972 and 2001 Volvo owned a proportion of DAF, the idiosyncratic Dutch manufacturer known for its small cars and its interest in rubber-band gearboxes. The transmission in the Volvo 400 series was an evolution of this, with steel bands running in oil.
As the 440 and 460 were intended to provide competition for the main players in the fleet market at the time, trim packages are many and varied – the status attached to trim level were of huge importance to fleet drivers, and Volvo paid great attention to this. There was a definite hierarchy to the range: L and GL denoted basic equipment, GLE spoke of luxury, GLT was the badge of warm performance and Turbo spoke for itself. Confusingly, these were revised in 1994. Facelift models are badged S (basic), SE for the business motorist, Si for press- on drivers, GLT for performance addicts and CD for lovers of luxury.
In actual fact Volvo equipped its cars well at every level. One TV advert shows a thrusting, besuited young man looking wistfully at a passing 440 through the side window of his Vauxhall Vectra. He had good reason to. At the time the Volvo offered refinement far greater than the Vectra or the other main menu item, Ford’s late-model Sierra. The 440 and 460 were better-built and equipped, quieter, more refined and – arguably – handled more competently. In addition, the passive and active safety built into a Volvo gave its occupants a far greater chance of walking away from a rush-hour pile up on the M4 near Reading. Many 400s had both driver and passenger airbags, and all had running lights.
It is 24 years since the last 400 left the factory, and despite being well puttogether the 440 and 460 are a rare sight on the road today. However, they are nowhere near so scarce as the Vectra or Sierra. They are also more distinctively styled and interesting, which is why we nominate them as classics of the near future. They are eminently practical vehicles to own, seating five in comfort. The 440’s hatchback boot is useful, although the 460 saloon has decent luggage space thanks to 10cm extra body length. At the time the fleet market for relatively compact estates was lukewarm, so there is no wagon option, although an enterprising Dutch company did offer a glassfibre conversion kit.
A 400 can be run as a daily car, thanks to excellent reliability. Even the Turbo is a practical proposition. Renault may have little reputation where dependability is concerned, but one aspect of automotive technology it was an early master of was forced induction in road cars. Turbo problems are usually limited to failure of perishable items such as the hoses. Other problem areas are simple to fix: lower front wishbone bush wear, deterioration of boot seals, stretching handbrake cables and soft trim items coming unglued. The usual rules of common sense prevail when seeking out a 400: hunt for a car that has been owned by the same person for many years, has a steady trickle of maintenance receipts between its MoT certificates and a relatively recent cam belt.
Rot is unlikely to be a problem. The GLT, Si and Turbo models are most fun, although all 400s will be pleasant companions thanks to their decent equipment. You may need to take time seeking one out however, as Volvos are often lifetime companions.
Prices vary according to mileage and year, but £1000£1500 will secure you a good example, while up to £2000 can buy a nice, low-mileage GLT or Turbo. This is money well spent as the 440 and 460 are typically Swedish: serious yet enjoyable to be with, eminently practical yet quietly radical. Doing things differently rarely makes such sense.