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| Sweden may only have produced pop singer like Abba and Roxette because this 1962 Amazone Estate had all the soul. |
A BUMPER sticker claims that “52% of all people are caused by accidents”.
For those of us who still remember when station wagons ruled suburbia, this is not funny, but a fact.
For a very few blond Swedish people, that accident happened on the enormous back seat of a very rare 1962 Volvo Amazon Estate.
That was the year Volvo made what is still the world’s most perfectly proportioned station wagon.
Perhaps because it was initially only sold in Sweden, everyone wanted one. Many still do.
Never mind that a woeful 55 kW single-carburettor engine was only as strong as today’s 1 300 cc. Most other cars had even punier engines.
Couples who had neither TV or books could fit in all the children.
Travelling salespeople could appear solid and reliable with space for all their samples. Carpenters could hang planks over the split tail gate and stand on the bumper to reach the overloaded roof rack.
There was no danger of breaking or denting any part of it. Volvo even designed the bumper to function as steps.
With the rear seat folded down, the luggage compartment became 1,83 metres long and 1,26 metres wide. At Sweden’s ski resorts this meant that the bumper sticker is probably underestimating things.
On top of its 1 250-kilogram body it could legally load a 490 kg payload, and then a quite a bit more when Aunt Helga hefted her body into the passenger seat (with a fond glance at the rear seats).
The Amazon estate finally went out of production in 1969 after just over 73 000 cars had been produced. By then it sported all Volvo’s safety innovations, like emission limits, power-assisted disc brakes, medically designed seats and a collapsible steering column.
The Amazon was replaced by a rectangular nightmare called the Volvo 145. Technically better in every aspect, it never had the Amazon’s soul.
