In 1957 I saw the best vehicle I ever owned when I saw a 1957 Volvo 544 two door on the street outside a Chevrolet dealer. The picture shows the body of this car. I was driving a 1953 Packard “400” four door sedan at the time. This was a huge car weighing over 4,000 pounds with an inline 8-cylinder engine. The Volvo looked a lot different to me as soon as I tried it. I stopped for specifics.
The car had recently been brought from Sweden. It was about half the length of the Packard and about half the weight. Its price new in 1957 was $1,995. I tried to spread it but half heartedly. I knew I missed buying before I was in the showroom five minutes.
I loved the car from the beginning. It had a four cylinder front engine and a three speed transmission. The rear wheels were . The seats were comfortable and there was a small back seat. The car fits my family well since we only had two small children at the time. Only a short car car I had decided to use the routes to work and back, driving about twenty miles a day; but I managed to drive the car so much that it was replaced overnight by a Packard. One of the surprising results of my switch was a lot better gas mileage. It gave twenty-five thousand to the gallon, while the Packard provided only about twelve.
When vacation time came, my family decided to spend two weeks in Canada. I thought it would be OK to drive there in a Volvo. The log was small but we managed to get enough material for this in a short time. At the end we have a problem encountered. The officials on the Canadian side stopped us and said they needed to ask some questions. Apparently they had never seen a Volvo and thought we might have another reason to drive to Canada. Our registration was taken but we promised to return it. Our car has only been in our possession for a few weeks and looks brand new. The agents thought we were going to sell it in Canada.
The following year the family traveled to Florida. It was a long trip but we did it in two days. Our goal had been Daytona Beach but when we got there we decided to drive to the end of the Florida Keys. We went and drove several hundred additional miles and down part of the Keys. We never got to the end when we realized what a huge bite we had taken. We turned around and drove back to Daytona Beach. We remembered that trip for fifty years more.
I liked the car because of its unusual features. For example, it had a “radiator shade” that we could manually pull out the car in cold weather . Doing this allows the car to warm up faster. Also, when I put it in first gear, the engine made a noise like it was “red”. I was very pleased with this idiosyncrasy. I’ve never heard another car make that sound since.
How long do I own the vehicle? only two years. When the Peugeot 403 was introduced in 1958, a still image showed a man poking his head out of the sunroof of the car. I bought a Volvo so I could enjoy this line. In retrospect, I like to believe that this trade is related to one of those mistakes that we regret for the rest of our lives.
