To me, this is such a crying shame. While I’m a big fan of salvage yards and finding “gold” within them, you still never want to see an otherwise save-able car end up there. The Volvo 262C is an oddball in every regard, a strange concoction produced by a company known for making sound, steady product decisions, and because of the unexpected arrival of this chop-topped, high-luxury creation, the Bertone-designed coupe remains an intriguing footnote in Volvo’s history. This example listed here on Facebook Marketplace is primed for parting out but looks like it could be restored.
What’s still somewhat amazing about this unusual model – of which only about 1,000 came stateside – is that in inflation-adjusted dollars, it cost about $60,000. Can you imagine Volvo rolling up to its typical U.S. customer and asking them to pony up that sort of cash for a car that was typically seen as a “sensible” purchase? The 262, however, was met with a positive reception from customers and dealers alike, with the latter purportedly offering above list prices to get more allocation. This is covered in a period Road & Track review of the car, so those anecdotes are all but lost to the sands of time; however, it’s still wild to think about such a forgotten model being sought-after.
Like so many other manufacturers at the time, Volvo was trying to out-luxury the stalwarts of the industry: Mercedes-Benz, Lincoln, and others, all of whom enjoyed an established reputation for being top banana in the upper-crust car market, even if their products weren’t all that remarkable. The 262C went to town with high-end features, including genuine wood trim, leather seats with endless adjustability, a decent stereo with a cassette deck, and other high-end touches. The car shown here is remarkably clean insider, right down to the factory floor mats.
The “landau”-style roof covering was clearly an attempt to appeal to the loyal American car shopper, but I’m not sure anyone noticed when looking at the dramatically chopped roof. The lowered roof line may have actually been a stroke of brilliance, because we’re all still talking about it decades later, and I can’t think of too many other manufacturers that have taken a chance like that to create a memorable design. It looks like the original title/registration documents are still sitting on the dash, further emphasizing how original this car was before the seller decided to part it out. Hopefully, the PRV V6 will find a new home as well in a deserving DeLorean or Peugeot product, bringing this junked 262C full-circle in its retirement.
I was instructing at a track day event when one of the drivers showed up with one of these. I was picked to work with him and was really surprised at the power and handling of the car. Unless the underside is toast I would think a total restoration would be worthwhile.