New Car

Volvo

Volvo for Life

In the world of cars, every manufacturer has a feature that it uses to separate it from the crowd, a marketable characteristic that will draw in potential buyers. Over the years, Volvo has rightfully promoted itself as a pioneer in automotive safety, much like Honda has done with fuel efficiency and Hyundai has led the charge with warrantees. For Volvo, it's all about safety.

There was a time when Volvo safety could be described in one way: boxy. For instanse, the 240 sedan was built like a tank with equal visual attraction. Thankfully, today's line of Volvo cars and SUVs provides the protection the brand is known for, as well as what are arguably some of the most attractive models on the market. Those models are the small Volvo S40 sedan and its wagon counterpart, the Volvo V50, the Volvo C30 hatch and sexy Volvo C70 hardtop convertible. The list includes the more substantial sedans Volvo S60 and Volvo S80, the Volvo V70 wagon, and a trio of SUVs comprised of the Volvo XC90, Volvo XC70 and Volvo XC60.

Aside from building SUVs and cars, Volvo's workforce has been busy developing a lot of safety systems. Among them were safety cages in the 1940s, advanced seatbelts in the '50s, crumple zones and padded dashboards in the '60s, energy-absorbing bumpers and steering columns in the 1970s, airbags and antilock brakes in the 1980s, whiplash protection and automatic adjusting seatbelts in the 1990s, and collision warning systems and roll stability control most recently.

2011 Volvo C30

Review  Specs  Safety and Security

Volvo S40

Review  Specs  Safety and Security

Volvo S60

Review  Specs  Safety and Security

Volvo XC90

Review  Specs  Safety and Security