Automotif CCLI...

Initially sold in Sweden as the Amazon, the Volvo 122 was one of the first cars from the Swedish maker to have any sales success in the US. This is a 1963 122S, with the "S" signifying the sportier model, with a dual-carb 1800cc four cylinder motor making 85bhp.

Volvo will cling like grim death to a styling trend. By 1963 American makers were deep into the rolling Wurlitzer era of "longer, lower, wider", while the pontoon body styling of the 122 wouldn't have looked terribly out of place in the late Forties.

Volvo was ahead of the curve in other ways, though. Three-point shoulder harnesses, at least for front-seat occupants, were standard on the 122 from 1958, a first for a factory production car. The bodies featured extensive rust-proofing, too.

Volvo made the 122 up through 1970, by which point they'd largely been supplanted by the 144 and its ilk, first of the boxy Volvos that would carry on that look for decades after it, too, had become unfashionable.

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