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Volvo shows glimpses of new Concept C Coupe ahead of Frankfurt [w/video]

Volvo has released a short teaser video for a concept car that will be unveiled on August 29 ahead of the Frankfurt Motor Show. At first glance, it would appear to be nothing more than a few sketches and some words from Volvo design boss Thomas Ingenlath, but at about the 11-second mark, four images are flashed on the screen revealing the true nature of the video - the Volvo Concept C Coupe.
As Inglenlath suggests in the video, this new concept is designed to help bring more excitement to the brand's lineup, and from what we can tell in these strategically captured shots, the company is definitely on to something. While we don't get too much of look from any one angle, the front reveals what appears to be a concave version of Volvo's signature grille and the side shows off a stylish greenhouse. We have to wonder, do these images confirm the identity of the mystery concept car that's been floating around the Internet this week? In either case, our favorite view is perhaps the rear shot giving us a glimpse of the car's name as well as its flat, wide haunches and C-shaped taillights.
Scroll down to watch the whole video, and if you don't have a trigger-quick mouse finger, don't worry. We made a gallery of screen shots showing the four embedded images.

Junkyard Gem: 1998 Volvo S90

Volvo began selling squared-off, rear-drive-equipped sedans and wagons here starting with the 140 in the 1968 model year, and continued selling those safe and sensible bricks all the way through 1998. The very last Swedish Brick models sold new in the United States were the 960 sedans and wagons, badged respectively as the S90 and V90 during the last couple of years here. We've seen one of those V90s in this series, and now it's time for its corresponding sibling. I found this very clean '98 S90 in a Silicon Valley yard last December. It hurts to see a well-cared-for European luxury sedan get this close to 200,000 miles and not quite make it.  The only body damage I could find appeared to have been inflicted after this car entered the used-parts ecosystem. There's not the slightest hint of rust, of course; this car shows every sign of having spent its entire life in California. The interior is just beautiful, too. This is almost certainly a one- or two-owner car that got every maintenance item done on the dot and spent its downtime parked out of the sun in a garage. Dig this top-shelf AM/FM/cassette/CD player with remote disc changer, a $485 option in the 1998 S90 (about $850 in 2022 dollars). The MSRP on the car itself started at $34,300 (around $60,200 now). So, why is this car in the junkyard? My guess is that some major component (e.g., engine, transmission, differential) failed and a quick comparison between real-world resale value and cost of repair resulted in a call to Pick Your Part. High-end European machinery isn't cheap to fix, and 25-year-old Volvos aren't worth much. While a small but significant fraction of American buyers of the 140, 240 and 740 preferred cars with three pedals, that fraction had shrunk to insignificance by the late 1990s. A four-speed automatic was the only transmission available in the final-year S90 and V90 here (Europeans could get a manual version). Interestingly, Volvo stuck with the old three-digit numbering system (first digit indicates series, second digit indicates number of engine cylinders, third digit indicates number of doors) for internal company use, decades after ditching it on customer-facing surfaces. This car was a 964 in Goteborg. Volvo brought back the S90 name for the 2017 model year, and you can buy a new one right now, but it's neither rear-wheel-drive nor brick-shaped.

Volvo and Ericsson to take Spotify on the road

Volvo is working to bring Spotify to its vehicles. Ericsson has announced it will provide its Connected Vehicle Cloud service to Volvo for future products, and Spotify streaming music is part of that service. Like Toyota Entune and other infotainment services, the Connected Vehicle Cloud will use the driver's smartphone as a modem to stream music and serve as a base for other applications, all of which will be controllable through the vehicle interface. Expect to see the service launch in 2014, though Ericsson stresses later generations will feature an embedded modem with its own SIM card that will piggyback off of the owner's phone data plan.
But that system won't show up in production vehicles until at least 2016. In the interim, Ericsson says it will continue to work with government agencies on its car-to-car communication efforts. That program could eventually help pave the way toward autonomous road trains capable of helping vehicles travel safely together while also reducing traffic congestion. Wired has a full break down of the Connected Vehicle Cloud strategy. You can read it here.