2001 Volvo S80 2.9 Sedan 4-door 2.9l on 2040-cars

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Volvo reapplies to trademark the term C60

Perusing the database at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, CarBuzz happened on a trademark application Volvo cars filed for the term C60. Submitted earlier this month, on December 14, the mark would cover "Vehicles and Products for locomotion by land, air or water." Sounds like a car to us. Knowing the way trademarks go — which means knowing we might never see them on a production vehicle — this could be Volvo hedging a very long bet. The easiest guess as to where C60 might fit in the lineup is as the crossover coupe version of the XC60 Recharge, following the mold of the XC40 Recharge and C40 Recharge (pictured). With the current, second-gen XC60 having arrived for the 2018 model year, we would think a C60 version waits until a heavy facelift or new generation to join the party, assuming it ever happens. What's not hypothetical is Volvo's long-term involvement with the C60 alphanumeric. Going deeper into the USPTO files, seems Volvo first applied to trademark C60 on September 5, 2001, the same day the automaker also applied to lock down C40. Volvo traded paperwork with the government agency until 2009, when the carmaker abandoned both C40 and C60 in March of that year. Oddly, two months before, in January 2009, Volvo had reapplied to trademark C40 and C60, then abandoned both again seven years later, in July 2016. Again, oddly, nine months before the second abandonment, Volvo had reapplied yet again to trademark both C40 and C60. That was in November 2015. The USPTO granted Volvo the rights to the mark at the end of 2016, and it remains valid. So Volvo's latest submission is the continuance of the mark it's owned for six years and been toying with for 21. Volvo Cars owns the XC40 and XC40 Recharge trademarks, as well as C40, but it doesn't own a C40 Recharge trademark, the latter being the name of the production model. It took 20 years from Volvo's first idea of the C40 for us to get a production version. We don't know what a potential C60 will be, but it shouldn't be too far away. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Wagons make a bit of a comeback, with new models, sales on the rise

Consider this an official invitation to hop on the wagon bandwagon. There's still tons of room because, well, it's a wagon (and market share is still extremely small). But according to new data, the segment is growing. According to a report from Bloomberg, using data from Edmunds.com, roughly 211,600 Americans purchased wagons in 2018. That is technically down from the 237,600 sold in 2017, but wagon sales in the U.S. are up 29 percent from where they were five years ago. It's also the third year in a row that wagon sales broke the 200,000 mark. The sales trends have been somewhat representative of the availability of wagons. New models have debuted during the past 5 years and therefore offer more opportunity at more brands to buy wagons. In addition to more modest cars such as the Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen, several luxury and performance brands are offering wagons today, such as Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Porsche, Jaguar, Volvo and Buick. (Bloomberg's headlines make the point that "crossovers are for the Kardashians," and wagons are just, well, classier.) This uptick in brand-name availability, as well as extremely well-executed design on most of the wagons currently available, has helped increase the segment's desirability. That, and its ability to better accomplish the same tasks at hand while standing out from the crossover and SUV crowd. Still, the posted numbers represent a small fraction of the total vehicles sold. According to the data, wagons only held a 1.4 percent market share in 2017, the segment's best recent year. Wagons hold a steadfast place in America's past, and they're writing an interesting new story. With the downturn in traditional cars, they may continue to create an unexpected narrative. Related Video: News Source: Bloomberg, Edmunds Audi BMW Buick Volkswagen Volvo Wagon station wagon

Volvo is preparing to abandon its alphanumerical naming system

Volvo's alphanumerical naming system is familiar, straight-forward, but tilted towards the unimaginative side of the scale. The firm will start from scratch in the coming years, and it plans to give its future models an actual name. "If you look at cars today, they all have XC, T8, AWD, double-overhead-cam — their full specifications on the rear of many cars. Now, we're talking about a new architecture, one that's born electric and all electric. I think it's good and clear to mark that this is a new beginning. That's why we're not going to have numbers and letters, an engineering type of name. We're going to give cars a name as you give a newborn child. We have a very interesting and creative discussion going on about this now," company boss Hakan Samuelsson told Auto Express. He stopped short of providing more details about where Volvo plans to take its naming system. Historically, the company has almost always used numbers, letters or a combination of the two. The first car it released was the OV 4, which stood for oppen vagn 4 cylindrar ("open car, four cylinders" in Swedish). Volvo gained a foothold in the United States thanks to the PV544, among other models. Some of its greatest hits include the P1800, 240 (and its six-cylinder-powered variant, the 260), the Bertone-designed 780, and the 850. Notable exceptions to this decades-old rule include the Amazon (also known as the 120 series) and the Duett (called PV445 in some markets). Regardless of Volvo's next approach to naming cars, the change will be a big one. It sounds like the next-generation XC90 will inaugurate this new naming system. It's expected to make its debut before the end of 2022 with a suite of surprisingly advanced semi-automated driving technology under its sheet metal. Next, the Swedish company will turn its attention to the other side of the crossover scale. It will reportedly launch an entry-level soft-roader positioned below the XC40 and developed to lure younger buyers into showrooms. We previously thought it would wear the XC20 nameplate, though that's seemingly no longer the case. Regardless, the crossover will offer an electric drivetrain and it will "very likely" be made in China, according to Samuelsson, to keep costs in check. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. 2022 Volvo C40 Recharge charging