If you like unusual vehicles, it almost literally does not get any more unusual than this 1976 Volvo 66 GL Estate! I can hardly look at this car, I keep picturing it in our driveway and that’s not good. This super rare Dutch-turned-Swede is on Craigslist with an asking price of $4,900. You’ll have to line up shipping from beautiful Hillsboro, Oregon. Thanks to Luke for tracking down this rare one!
You Ph.D car-spotters may have noticed that this car bears an amazing resemblance to the DAF 66, or to DAF cars, in general. That’s because it’s basically a rebadged DAF 66 with Volvo trinkets and doo-dads on it. In late-1975, Volvo purchased a controlling interest in DAF and gave these cars a bit of a refresh, adding a Volvo grille and a few badges.
Isn’t this thing fantastic?! Luke would have gotten me in trouble by sending in this tip if this car was in nicer condition – this sort of small, funky, awkward car is right up my alley. The Estate model added a bit more room in back for luggage, very, very small luggage. This particular Volvo 66 GL Estate was parked in the 1980s and it’ll need to be towed, as with a winch onto a flatbed, because it hasn’t even been started in three decades.
The body looks deceivingly solid, but I’m guessing that there is more than a little rust lurking under the surface. You can see rust on the hatchback in this photo. The rusty exhaust pipe sticking out of the back scares me more than a little, but a car like this will most like need a nut-and-bolt restoration which will be a labor of love, not an exercise in profit-making.
Unfortunately, there are no engine photos, as is more often than not the case with CL ads, for some odd reason that I will never understand as long as I live, and even after that.. This one would have had a 1.3L inline-four with about 45 hp. That’s not a lot but this car weighs only 1,900-pounds and they were never made for US freeways in the first place. The interior on the GL is a little fancier than on the DL cars, but fancy is a bit of an overstatement. You’d think that a Volvo 66 would be a little more posh than a DAF 66 would be. This one comes with a few cobwebs free of charge. Have any of you seen a Volvo 66 or a DAF 66? This is one rare ride, there are not many of them left.
Holy moly! This thing is literally “in my backyard” as I live in the Hillsboro area. The Washington plate makes me wonder about potential title issues though.
had one in the UK and it would beat a manual ford
xr3 of the road with its VRT trans mission and belts were easy too change
As long as the race was held in reverse gear.
“If you like unusual vehicles, it almost literally does not get any more unusual than this 1976 Volvo 66 GL Estate!”
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Stick around. It will get way more unusual.
Buy it,& you’ll have the only White one in town.
I find it interesting.Are those Ford Fiesta wheels?
I thought the same thing- Fiesta wheels but with only 3 bolt holes. I bet they started with the same wheel stamping blanks as Fiesta but finished with different bolt pattern. Interesting. For wheel nerds like us.
Good eye – I didn’t catch that.
I was fixated on the wheel design.
Here we called them in the 70’s “voffen” and they could be driven at the same speed forwards and backwards.
3 lug nuts on a Volvo? For shame,,,I’m sorry, but quite frankly, I’d be embarrassed to have the name Volvo on this. I’m sure it’s on par with all the other “econo-boxes” of the time, and I’m sure it worked well, like Scotty sez, for what it was intended. Got to move the people around Europe, cheaply, and we did the same thing here. I’d have to think finding Yugo parts would be easier. Thanks, Scotty, never saw one. BTW, how do you find these “oddballs”? Do you have some kind of classified tab for that? :)
Hi Howard,
Luke sent this tip in, we usually mention in the first paragraph when a reader sends in a tip. This one would draw a bigger crowd than any muscle car or exotic, in my opinion.
Howard, nothin’ wrong with three-lug wheels! All my Renaults had ’em, and they stayed nice and tight….
If I’m right, the only “Volvo” about this car was the trim. It was unchanged from the days DAF was a standalone company. And yes, I’d guess parts for it are virtually nonexistent, except perhaps in Holland. But wouldn’t it be fun to put your “needs” list for it on the counter at AutoZone?
I was born and raised in the Netherlands and yes in the 70s and 80s these were quite common…. actually I thought it was quite a shame to be overtaken by one (read: any DAF). It would be a no-brainer for me to pick it up and get it towed to Orange County CA but I’ll pass as (eventually) driving it in our crappy traffic would become an exercise in patience. Lots of patience.
Nobody’s going to mention the car’s right hand drive and the speedo’s in miles? OK fine, just saying this car is even more unusual because it’s Dutch, Swedish and UK. And it’s in the US for some reason.
Another Oregon dweller, btw. What the DAF was
known for was its infinitely variable gearing, belt-
driven I believe. Dopes this car have that?
$4900? Wow, that is absolute crazy money for a car no one wanted in the Netherlands around that time.
But Barn Finds very often features English cars
which no one wanted at the time.
My father was Dutch, my mother was Swedish – How is it I have never heard of this vehicle? I used to feel like such a small minority, now I find we Swedish-Dutch Americans have our own flagship car. It warms the cockles of my heart.
Weren’t these Renault powered?
Yes, they were. In “DL” trim they were powered by a 1100 cc, 47 bhp engine, in “GL” trim they had a 1300 cc, 58 bhp engine, the B110, resp. B130 as Volvo called them, but they were actually all Renault engines. With some work, the engine of a Volvo 340, would fit. Called the B140, 70 bhp. A conversion done by some enthousiasts. In some countries these cars were strictly B130 which allowed the use of a better heating capacity etc. About the wheels: these were already used by DAF on their 66. The DL spec was 135/13″, the GL 155/14″. What is not shown on the outside is that Volvo improved the rigidity of the body and changed the pattern of the transmission to the common N-R-D (from m.y. ’77 on P-R-N-D). This example is a very early one. You could still some DAF-branded parts on them for a short time. Nice find, very underrated car with a Dion back axle!
My mom had a DAF 55 for her putt-putt car when we lived in Germany. Dad worked with a German colonel whose brother owned a BMW dealership, got the car for $500 roughly. Was cheaper and easier than driving a Buick LeSabre around villages. Good car too, just regular maintenance and it never broke. Funniest thing? “Low” gear was a green button on the dash that would illuminate when pressed
Yes indeed! However, in the 46 and the 66, this button was changed into a switch, in this picture it is the green one on the left.