A look back at Australia’s once proud car industry and the cars built right here that have been overlooked. Meet the Aussie-built Volvos.
The Melbourne suburb of Clayton is as far away from Chengdu, China as you can imagine, yet both locations share a common bond – they have both manufactured Volvos for Australia.
Between 1972 and 1988, Clayton-based Motor Producers Ltd was the home of Australian-assembled Volvo 140, 240, 260, and later 760/740 Series cars.
The story of how Volvo ended up assembling cars in Australia dates back to 1954 when the Clayton facility was established as Martin and Kings for the production of goods wagons and trains. Shortly after its establishment, Martin and Kings started assembling Volkswagen products from imported kits to diversify its business. By 1960, the facility had expanded to accommodate more VW business and other car brands.
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In 1968, Martin and Kings became Motor Producers, a VW-owned subsidiary, and they were looking for new brands to fill the extra production capacity. Volvo (and Datsun) entered the picture.
With growing local demand and government policies favouring locally assembled vehicles, a deal was struck, and in 1972, the first Australian-assembled Volvo 140 Series vehicles, which featured over 85 per cent local content by value, rolled off the line.
Local assembly, combined with strong marketing highlighting Volvo’s safety focus, resulted in the brand increasing its share of premium vehicle sales over $4000 from eight per cent to a remarkable 23 per cent of the premium segment at the time.
The Volvo 144 quickly gained popularity among Australian consumers for its reliability, safety features, and comfortable driving experience. Encouraged by its success, Volvo expanded the range with coupe and wagon body styles joining the sedan on the Clayton line.
The initial lineup included the four-cylinder powered 142 Deluxe (two-door) and Grand Luxe manuals with 118 bhp (88kW) and 130 bhp (97kW) respectively. The 144 (four-door) variants featured the same drivetrain and model lineup, with the later Grand Luxe offering a three-speed auto.
The range was completed with a 145 Deluxe Station Wagon and a 164, the latter boasting a 145 bhp (108kW) six-cylinder engine. The stunning 1800E Coupe flew the flag at the top of the range as a fully imported proposition.
In 1974, Sweden dominated the charts with ABBA’s debut song Waterloo winning Eurovision, and Volvo unveiled the replacement for the aging 140 Series, the all-new 240 Series. Released in Australia in 1975, the 240 Series introduced a new nomenclature and an expanded locally assembled lineup, including a new 2.1L four-cylinder engine developing 94kW.
The range now consisted of 10 models, with the entry-level DL grade offered across 242 (two-door), 244 (sedan), and 245 (wagon) variants, available with manual or auto transmissions. For those seeking more luxury, the GL grade was also offered across 244 and 264 variants, with the latter featuring a new 140kW six-cylinder engine and a price point of $12,000.
Initial reaction to the 240 Series was slow, with criticism aimed at the lack of visual differentiation from the previous 140 Series and, to some extent, its underwhelming drivetrains. In reality, Volvo was facing financial troubles and the possibility of a merger with Saab. Fortunately, Volvo persevered, and we all know what became of Saab.
Sales of the 240 steadily increased with successive facelifts and visual upgrades, culminating in the launch of the 242 GT in 1979.
The 242 GT marked Volvo’s first entry into Australian motorsport, with influential motoring figure and journalist David McKay entering a stock 242 GT into the 1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000, finishing 20th.
Unbeknownst to the Australian public, the 1985 Volvo 240T, nicknamed “the flying brick,” would appear on Australian race circuits as part of the 1985 Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC).
At Bathurst, Robbie Francevic, a well-known New Zealander, teamed up with ATCC newcomer John Bowe to qualify the Swedish tank in fifth position, only to have their plans scuttled by a minor part failure on lap 122.
The following year proved to be the pinnacle of Volvo’s racing foray in Australia, with Robbie Francevic winning the 1986 ATCC in his 240T. This was the last time a Volvo would grace Australian race circuits until 2014 when the Volvo Polestar S60 Supercar was launched, albeit powered by a V8.
From the heights of the 1986 Championship win, the 240 Series remained part of the Australian motoring landscape until 1992, well after Motor Producers had ceased operations in 1988 when the Clayton facility was sold to Nissan. But before local assembly of Volvo products came to an end, the brand had one more trick up its sleeve – the incoming 760.
In the background of Volvo’s local racing success, the assembly of the marque’s next-generation vehicle, the 760, was well underway. Offering a significant point of difference from the aging 240 Series, Volvo decided to skip assembly of the four-cylinder 740 and instead target the executive market with a freshly minted six-cylinder powered 760 with its new, boxy (considered ugly by most) design language.
Wheels magazine, in May 1985, summed up the all-new Volvo well in a comparison between the BMW 528i, Saab 16S Turbo, and an HDT Group 3 Commodore, stating, “The styling is the Volvo’s most controversial aspect that some of our testers could not come to terms with.”
The public largely agreed, and coupled with its loping ride quality and increased competition from key rivals, the 760 seemed to lose some of the ground the brand had gained the previous decade. Even a switch to the turbocharged four-cylinder 740 later in the model’s lifecycle failed to ignite consumer interest.
However, economic challenges, changing government policies, and Nissan’s desire to increase production of its own vehicles at Clayton led to Volvo ceasing local assembly and becoming a fully imported brand in late 1988 later introducing the front-wheel drive 850 Series vehicles.
In total, 65,000 Volvos were produced at the Clayton facility, meeting the Australians’ ‘Need for Swede’ with the help of 1900 workers, who would soon exclusively produce Nissan products.
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