AB Volvo
The Volvo 700 series is a range of executive cars produced by the Swedish manufacturer Volvo Cars from 1982 to 1992. The 700 series was introduced in 1982 with the premium 760 models, followed two years later by the more basic 740s, which benefited from the 760's prestige, while sharing the same bodywork. The 700 series was then gradually replaced, beginning in 1990, by the 900 series. The 700, designed by Jan Wilsgaard, was originally to have been a replacement for the 200 series, but production of that model continued until the early nineties.
The expensive 780, a Bertone-designed coupé version, entered production in 1986 and departed without a direct successor only four years later. The most visible differences between the 700 and 900 series were the much more sloping rear greenhouse (sedans), instead of the extremely square, formal, upright C-pillars of the 740s and 760s; more rounded corners on the 900's bodies, and a somewhat better-appointed interior. The 700 series came to an end in late 1992 when the last 740s were built (although they were considered to be of model year 1993). The range had been augmented and finally supplanted by the Volvo 900 in 1993, with the last of the 900s being sold in 1998.
From the Wikipedia article Volvo 700 Series, CC BY-SA.
This is the catalogue record of the Volvo 700 Series, one of 34 models AB Volvo has placed in the historical record and one of more than seventeen thousand cars the MotorJury library tracks. The record places its introduction in 1982. The photography on this page is hotlinked from Wikimedia Commons under an open licence, with the photographer credited on every frame.
To read the Volvo 700 Series properly it helps to place it in its decade. The 1980s were the decade of turbocharging, electronic fuel injection and the first mass digital engine management — Group B rallying and hot hatches defined its performance culture. Any car launched into that world was shaped by it — by what materials, engineering and regulation allowed, and by what buyers of the day demanded. Its direct contemporaries in this catalogue, introduced within three years of it, include the Porsche Porsche 944, the Toyota Toyota Camry, the Nissan Nissan Micra — the cars a buyer of the period would actually have cross-shopped.
On paper, the Volvo 700 Series reads like this: the record lists its engine as Petrol engine / Petrol: / 2.0 L Volvo Redblock Engine / B19/B200 Inline-four engine / I4 / 2.0 L Volvo Redblock Engine / B204 Multi-valve / 16V I4 / 2.0 L Volvo Redb; kerb weight is recorded at saloon: / 1315 - / estate: / 1371 -; drive goes through 4-speed Volvo M46 Manual transmission / manual / 5-speed Volvo M47 manual / 4-speed Automatic transmission / automatic; the layout is FR layout. Every figure above is a manufacturer specification carried by the Wikipedia infobox or the open Wikidata record for this model — nothing on this page is estimated, and where a source is silent the row simply does not appear. Production is recorded at 1,430,000 units, which makes it one of the industry's true mass-production stories.
Within AB Volvo's own catalogue the Volvo 700 Series sits alongside the Volvo 144, the Volvo 264 TE, the Volvo 440/460, the Volvo 780. The record names the Volvo 200 Series (which continued) as its predecessor and the Volvo 900 Series as its successor, fixing its place in the model line's chronology. Design is credited to Jan Wilsgaard. Assembly is recorded at ubl |Sweden: / Gothenburg |Kalmar (VKA) |Uddevalla (Auto Nova Plant) |Belgium: Ghent (VCG)|Canada: Halifax (VHA)|Australia: Clayton |Indonesia: North Jakarta (PT. ISMAC).
This library is generated, verified and rebuilt from the open record on every deploy. The catalogue skeleton comes from Wikidata, specifications from Wikipedia's infoboxes under CC BY-SA, photography from Wikimedia Commons under each file's own licence, and the ownership data from United States federal safety records. Nothing is written by hand and nothing is invented: every fact on this page traces to a public source, and every page is rebuilt nightly as those sources improve. Errors in the source record will appear here too — and disappear the night the source is corrected.
The catalogue records what the Volvo 700 Series was; the ownership database records what it is like to own. MotorJury computes a verdict for every model year the United States federal record covers — complaints, recalls, real economy — refreshed nightly, with no opinions involved. If this car reached the American market, its verdicts are in there.
Specifications come from the Wikipedia infobox for this model (CC BY-SA) and the open Wikidata record, and are shown only where a source actually carries them — nothing here is estimated. Figures are manufacturer specifications, not measured results.
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Contemporaries from other marques, introduced within three years of this car.