Volvo is known — and loved — for producing quirky cars. (Good luck finding a Volvo review that doesn't employ that adjective.) That reputation has held firm over the years, even in spite of the brand’s recent move toward more upscale, conventional vehicles.
A few Volvos, however, have been true headscratchers — cars that blew right past quirky to land at downright weird. Below, we've rounded up five of the weirdest cars Volvo ever made.
Volvo 262C Bertone (1978-1981)
Decision-making in the Malaise era was weird, man. Volvo created an homage to Lincoln’s Mark IV pleasure barge, but they did it on the cheap. The result was an Italian-built coupe...that was really just a standard boxy Volvo sedan from the belt line down, with a disproportionate vinyl roofline up top.
Volvo 480 (1987-1995)
Volvo tried to get trendy in the 1980s with the 480. It was a hatchback with the wedge-shaped hood of a Pontiac Fiero and pop-up headlights. It did have a traditional-looking Volvo grille — it was just located under the bumper. It also had a big glass hatch like a VW Golf. Volvo also designed a zany convertible version with a safety bar frame, but that never made it to production.
Volvo C30 (2008-2013)
If you’ve ever searched a used car site for a manual transmission Volvo, you’ve encountered the C30. It was a contradiction in terms for the American market: a premium two-door hatchback. It also looked goofy, harkening back to the Volvo 480 with a glass hatch that split the taillights.
Volvo S60 Cross Country (2016)
Many automakers, Volvo included, lifted all-wheel-drive station wagons to disguise them as crossovers in the 2010s. In 2016, Volvo dipped their toes into the water to see whether anyone wanted a high-riding all-wheel-drive sedan with 7.9 inches of ground clearance in the form of the S60 Cross Country. The answer? No, not really.
Polestar 2 (2021-Present)
Volvo recently branched Polestar out into its own Tesla-fighting electric car brand. The first full-on EV that announces the brand’s presence in the marketplace is the Polestar 2 — a car that seems to be in conflict with itself. Most new performance vehicles try to be sexy; yhe Polestar 2, perhaps refreshingly, may be the most anonymous, normcore sedan out there.
Polestar at least did some cool quirk things with the interior, right? Negatory. It’s about as minimalist as one can get. The Polestar 2 offers blistering speed, but with conservative tuning that doesn’t trust you to use it. Yet Polestar does let you adjust the suspension tuning (manually, by hand) if you opt for the Performance pack.
