Volvo Amazon

The Volvo Amazon is a Swedish-built car, the first one being rolled out of the factory in October 1956 as an alternative to theVolvo PV.

The Amazon is known for being a reliable car. Of the 297,000 sold in Sweden 35,000 are still registered and it's expected that 15,000 are still in use.

The design was clearly inspired by American cars of the early 1950s. It came with Volvo's new B16 engine, a 3-speed manual gearbox and rear wheel drive. In 1959 the sport model, Amazon Sport, was released and later the same year the Amazon became the first car with a three-point safety belt. In 1962, Volvo introduced a two door version, a four door combi (wagon) and the new B18 engine, but the two tone paint job was no longer available. The new gearbox selections were the three speed M30, the four speed M40 and the M41 with four speed and overdrive.

In 1966 production of the Volvo PV ceased and the Amazon Favorit was introduced to replace it. In 1967 came the Amazon 123 GT that was even more of a sports car than the Amazon Sport. The engine was a tuned B18 from the Volvo P1800. In 1969 the displacement of the old B18 engine was increased and the engine was called the B20.

Production ended in 1970. A total of 667,791 was made. It was replaced by the Volvo 140.