Volvo does not build many cars like the Volvo L3314: a 5-door estate with 1583 , built from 1959 to 1981 at the height of the post-war boom.
The story
The Volvo L3314 is a range of military vehicles produced by Volvo. In the early 1950s Volvo received an order to develop a new utility vehicle for the Swedish Army. A pre-run series of 90 vehicles, named the L2304, was delivered between 1959 and 1961. It was powered by a Volvo B16 engine. Full scale deliveries of the somewhat improved L3314 began in 1963. The L3314 was powered by the 1.8L B18. The L33-series was offered with different body-variants such as hard-top, half-cab, soft-top, or special versions mounting anti-tank weapons.
All vehicles are forward control (where the cab is located over the front axle), except the open L3304. The base version was the L3314SU softtop. Other versions were the L3314HT hardtop with mechanical winch, the L3304 anti-tank gun vehicle and the L3315 communications version, with a shielded 24V system. The L3314 was succeeded by the Volvo C303 in the late 1970s. An upgraded version of the L3314 was offered on the civilian market in 1977 as the C202 Laplander. It was a hard-top with the more powerful B20 engine instead of the B18, but with less robust axles and no differential brake. The C202 was manufactured exclusively in Hungary Csepel Car Factory as a cheaper alternative to the more expensive C303. Civilian versions of the L3314 series, as well as the C202, are often called the Volvo "LAPLANDER".
What is underneath
Under the skin sits 1583 other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. Kerb weight is 1600 kg. The gearbox is a L3314: 4-speed M42 manual transmission / manual / C202: 4-speed M45 manual transmission / manual. The layout matters: the engine sits behind the driver and ahead of the rear axle, which puts the mass in the middle of the car and is why mid-engined cars change direction the way they do. The wheelbase is 2100 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Where it sits in Volvo's history is not in doubt: the TP21 came before it; the Volvo C303 followed it; it was built at Sweden (Lundby, Gothenburg. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Dodge Challenger, the Nissan Patrol, the Mini Mini. Nearby in the Volvo catalogue sit the Volvo 144 and the Volvo 264 TE.
The money
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Volvo L3314 has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.