2007 Volvo S80 on 2040-cars

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What's the deal with comedians and their cars?

'Round about the time in his life when it should happen for all of us, Jerry Seinfeld's ship came in with a force that almost split the dock. He'd been doing pretty well with his observational style ("There's a cereal now that's just cookies. Have you seen this? Cookies for breakfast. It's called Cookie Crisp. Cookies for breakfast! They oughta just call it 'To Hell With Everything!'"). But he showed no signs of setting the world on fire until he got cast in a show that was either about – depending on the level of comedy geek you ask – the average New Yorker, the very worst people in the world, or nothing. Suddenly Jerry Seinfeld was pretty much the center of the comedy universe. And while his comedy was at once both brilliantly innovative and rooted in the mundane, his next move was a predictable grab at something exotic – he went out and bought his dream car. A rather nice 911, actually. As almost everyone knows, it didn't stop there, and the man put together one of the most enviable collections of iconic Porsches we're likely to see. So what's the connection, if there is one, between cars and comedy? As far as Jerry Seinfeld (the man) is concerned, he's probably not the same guy as the Jerry on Seinfeld (the show) although it's hard to say for sure; his public persona is almost unnervingly well managed. But cars and comedy were the constants in his life then, and, well, just look at what the guy does now; Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee is a cultural constant, and we're certainly seeing Seinfeld the man in that one, and cars are obviously still central to his life. And it's been that way with a lot of very, very good comedy guys. Cars seem to round out their lives, to become the yin to their comedy yang. Ernie Kovacs might not have invented visual gags or surreal humor, but he got them both to kill on television in the 1950s, so he's a comedy hero. He died behind the wheel of his beloved Corvair wagon, so he's absolutely some kind of car-guy hero as well. Bill Cosby, the hottest name in comedy for a good long while, had Ferraris, one of two fire-breathing supercharged big-block Cobras (pictured below), and a BMW 2002tii – none of which either contributed to or in any way make up for the profoundly sociopathic creature he turned out to be, but it's still a data point. The Smothers Brothers, who defied the networks and the norms by getting blatantly political before that sort of thing was cool, went sports car racing.

Volvo bringing Chinese-built cars to America beginning next year

Just because the penetration of the American automotive market by Chinese brands hasn't quite happened yet doesn't mean that Chinese-built cars are far off. According to a new report, we could very soon see long-wheelbase Volvo S60s that were assembled in the People's Republic arriving on US shores.
The report comes from Automotive News China, which cites an anonymous Volvo exec. An official Volvo spokesperson later corroborated ANC's report, although where the original source claimed that we could see the Chinese-built S60L in US dealers at some point in 2015, the company line was that a timeline hadn't been established to begin exports from the world's most populous nation.
According to Volvo, the benefit to exporting from China to the United States rather than from Sweden is the relationship between the US dollar and the Chinese yuan. Overall, it's a less tumultuous issue than the dollar-to-euro situation. By moving vehicles from China to the US, the Chinese-owned company is limiting the degree of risk it's taking with sudden currency swings.

Junkyard Gem: 1984 Volvo 760 Turbo

When it came time for Volvo to replace the aging 200 Series (which debuted in 1974 but looked nearly identical to the mid-1960s-design 140 it was based on), the result was the 700 Series. This car first hit Volvo showrooms in 1982, and the initial models were all upscale 760 sedans with the same PRV V6 engine that powered the DeLorean DMC-12. The cheaper four-cylinder 740 appeared in North America for the 1984 model year, which didn't stop Volvo from selling a 760 with a turbocharged four-banger in the same showrooms. That's what we've got for today's Junkyard Gem, a first-model year Volvo 760 Turbo in a Colorado self-service yard. As it turned out, the 740/760/780 not only didn't replace the 240/260, it didn't even outlast it. 240 sales continued all the way through 1993, while the 760/780 and 740 got the axe in 1990 and 1992, respectively (to be fair, the later 900 Series was based on the 700 Series and was available new here until the very last 1998 S90s and V90s were sold). During the 1984 model year, American Volvo shoppers could choose between a new 240 Turbo (in two-door, four-door, and wagon forms) or the 760 sedan with their choice of oil- or gasoline-burning turbocharged engines. Yes, the 1980s truly were The Turbo Decade. For 1985, a turbocharged version of the 740 sedan was added to the lineup, though that was also the final year here for the 240 Turbo. This engine is a 2.3-liter "red block" four-cylinder, rated at 160 horsepower when new. That was two fewer horsepower than the more angrily boosted 2.2 in the 240 Turbo that year. The 740/760 scaled in at just a few more pounds than the 240, though it seemed bigger at a glance. Supposedly you could get a U.S.-market 760 Turbo with a four-speed manual transmission, but every example I've ever seen had the four-speed automatic. This one racked up just a bit over 200,000 miles during its life. Not bad, though I've found a 740 Turbo wagon that got close to 500,000 miles before ending up in the junkyard. The interior looks decent enough for its age, though I suspect these cloth seats replaced the original leather ones after the cowhide fell apart beneath the High Plains sun. It's hard to get more 1980s than a graphic equalizer/sound effector.  This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Zero to 55 in 7 seconds flat!