The 15th Million Volvo Car lives in San Diego
Proud owners talk about their little piece of history
Aimee and Paul Kay are happy owners of Volvo number 15, 000, 000. Their piece of Volvo history was delivered to San Diego in early May. The very first Volvo car left the factory on April 14, 1927. This month, it was once again an open car that was under the spotlights. That's when car number 15,000,000, an attractive convertible Volvo C70, left the factory in Uddevalla, headed to San Diego.
The 15th million Volvo was transported more than 8000 kilometres from the Volvo factory in Uddevalla to San Diego on the US west coast. Aimee and Paul Kay picked up their prized new purchase, a Celestial Blue C70, from dealer Wes Hinkle. The couple were invited to travel to Göteborg in Sweden and visit Volvo's Torslanda factory, with all expenses paid for.
We first saw the C70 at the Auto Show and fell in love with it. We went back and forth and finally we said the time was right," relates Paul Kay. Volvo Cars is proud of what the brand stands for," says Gregor Hembrough, Regional Sales and Marketing Manager for Volvo Cars of North America, who was present when the car was delivered to Paul and Aimee.
In the first year, Volvo’s production proceeded at a modest pace, with 297 cars being sold in 1927. Emerging from the shadow of the global economic depression and Second World War, it took Volvo 23 years to build its first 100,000 cars. Today, that figure corresponds to about three months of production. However, Volvo has never really been a high-volume manufacturer. Early in the company's history, it was decided that the brand name should signify quality and safety. Since the early 1970s, environmental issues too have come to the forefront of the company's corporate agenda. It is therefore no accident that Volvo was first off the mark with the world's single most important safety invention (the 3-point safety belt was fitted as standard to Volvo cars as far back as 1959) and with one of the world's foremost innovations in the environmental sphere (the 3-way catalytic converter with Lambdasond was introduced in 1976
Today the Volvo brand is equally renowned for the attractive design of cars that reflect characteristic Scandinavian design traditions
When that first car drove past the factory gates back in 1927, it proudly carried its "iron symbol" on the radiator grille. That mark was and still is a symbol of Swedish steel and quality. When car number 15,000,000 left the factory in Uddevalla, that symbol was still carried with pride on the front and it still represents quality and solidity. The Volvo C70 is one of the absolute safest convertibles ever built. It is a functional and spacious car. And it is actually two cars in one as the three-piece retractable hardtop transforms the Volvo C70 from coupe to convertible at the touch of a button
