The Volvo PV444/544 #Blogpost

The Volvo PV was a series of two- and four-door passenger cars made by Volvo from 1947 to 1966.
In the early stages of the Second World War Volvo believed that due to the lack of raw materials caused by the war car manufacturers should focus more on making smaller and more affordable cars. This way they didn’t use that many materials, so they could build more cars.

In 1944 Volvo revealed the car to the car-hungry public. It was immediately a huge succes and orders poured in from all across Sweden. Yet it would take another three years before the production finally started.

The Volvo PV quickly earned the reputation of being very strong and reliable cars. A secondhand PV544 even won the 1965 Safary Rally

Volvo PV444

The PV444 was introduced in 1947 and it was Volvo’s first uni-body car. It was also the first Volvo in almost 20 years to have a 4-cylinder engine.
The car was powered by a 1.4L inline four engine with three main bearings, overhead valves and a single downdraft carburettor making 39bhp. For 1950 the power was increased to 49bhp and in 1955 it was again increased to 50bhp.
For 1957 the engine displacement of PV444 was increased from 1.4 to 1.6L

The car’s fuel economy turned out to be way better than the average car. The average gas mileage back than was 12 miles to the gallon, the PV444 could easily do 25 miles to the gallon. Because of this and the great reliability the car proved to be a great all around family car.

The production of the PV444 ended in 1958.

Volvo PV544

The production of the PV544 started in 1958. The car had only subtle differences with the PV444, such as a windshield out of one piece, slightly bigger taillights and a ribbon-style speedometer.

They ditched the 3-speed manual gearbox from the PV44 and replaced it with a 4-speed. The biggest change was the engine, the replaced the old one with the new B18 engine originally designed for the P1800 which was introduced a year ago. This 1.8L engine has five main bearings instead of three.

The PV544 was also sold as a station wagon, called the P210.

The production of the Volvo PV ended in 1965. Exactly 440.000 units have been build.

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