T​he most bizarre hot hatch made. Ever.

Swedish cars have become synominous with safety, sophistication, and admirable reliability. A couple of words I wouldn't think of when thinking of Swedish cars are "Hot" and "Hatchback" but that's exactly what Volvo gave us in the form of the 480. Although early versions weren't exactly fast and it's more a 2 by 2 coupe than anything. Oh and Volvo doesn't really have the same sporty pedigree as BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Renault, or even SAAB. Saab had: the 99 Turbo, the 900 Turbo, the 9-3 Turbo X, the Stonnet, and others were sporty SAAB models, a lot of which were turbocharged. On the other hand with Volvo, you'd be limited in finding more than a handful. The best part is, it's a classic hot hatch, which is virtually unknown, and doesn't cost much whatsoever.

L​ooks

Volvo are best known for their boxy family estates from the days of yore, but in recent years, they've dropped the boxy look for a more sophisticated and upmarket look. Volvo in the 1980's was almost an entirely different company then than it is today. It had an entirely different image of what they have today. They were literally boxes on wheels, the 480 came out in the mid-1980's believe it or not and it looks nothing like the Volvo's of the time did.

I​n fact, it was so cool it had pop-up headlights and in my book, nearly all cars which have pop-up headlights are cool. It's clear to me that the designers behind this car had a look at the Ford Sierra Cosworth RS. I don't know why, it just looks similar though.

So much of this car was made out of glass, look at the side profile. As well as this, it had a glass tailgate. Fun fact: all of the hatchback coupe's made by Volvo have a glass tailgate, from the P1800, to the 480, to the C30, and even the late V40 family hatchback had a glass tailgate. I think this adds to the overall charm of the car, it has a link to both past and future models.

Interior

I​ believe that Volvo create the best looking interiors of any car manufacturer at the moment. Everything is so simple yet advanced. All the buttons are big, the materials are nice and even though climate control is controlled through a screen, it's still incredibly easy to do and the touch screen works if you're wearing gloves of any sort.

I​n fact, it's not just new Volvo's which have nice interiors, older ones did too. They are Spartan compared to today's interiors but they weren't bad for the time. Even the seating arrangement looks comfortable (well... it looks comfortable for a 3 door 2x2 coupe hatchback thing)!

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Q​uirks

With this being a Swedish car, you'd expect this Volvo to be full of quirks. It does have a few from the aforementioned glass talegete to the keyhole to unlock the car lights up when you pull the exterior handle (this must be the coolest gimmick). Now, I'd say I'm from the lucky generation, I've never owned a car which needs the key to be inserted in to unlock but I could imagine the frustration of it being dark and not being able to stick the key into the hole.

Ford tried to solve this issue by installing a torch into the key, but it wasn't as ingenious as Volvo. Because when the battery for the torch in the Ford key inevitably died and the owner decided not to replace it because they didn't have time and they're out at night it would have been a pain in the backside to find the hole. In Volvo's case, a pull of the handle revealed where the key hole was.

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P​ower

O​ne of the main complaints about the earlier models was that it was underpowered. It came with a 1.7l Renault engine, which powered the front wheels. Later on, in 1988, you could also get a 1.7l turbocharged Renault engine, which powered the front wheels. In 1992, you could get a 2l Renault engine which powered (you guessed it) the front wheels. It also had Lotus designed suspension.

Cabriolet

A​ cabriolet version was very nearly put on sale, however there were issues with the supplier going bust. Although, I am quite happy the cabriolet was never made, I'm not too keen on the look of it.

By Andrzej Otrębski - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32781331

By Andrzej Otrębski - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32781331

W​hat now?

Y​ou may be wondering to yourself why I've written this article about an old Volvo hatchback coupe thing. Here's why: most classic and rare coupes cost a pretty penny. They are normally many thousands of pounds but here I see a quirky, odd, and downright mad Volvo for under £1500, there's two I can find, one of them is just shy of £2000, the other one as I said earlier was under £1500. They do need a bit of work done and are sitting over 100k miles, but that's nothing on an old Volvo, considering the sheer build quality of them. Dare I say the this is the coolest classic hatchback. It's certainly the coolest Swedish hatchback.

Overall, the Volvo 480 is a cheap, practical, rare, and relatively unknown model of car. It is certainly a head turner when driving past one and a cheap one could make a brilliant project car. It's not exactly like these Volvo's will depreciate, they're probably at their rock-bottom now and will shortly be appreciating in value because I can say without a shadow of a doubt, this Volvo is a future classic. I struggle to find myself wanting one quite a lot now!