Style: A Rare Comeback the Volvo 122S. By Doug Hubley.

"A smart car embodying the sturdy qualities of engineering and the restrained beauty of outstanding Scandinavian design." "Lines of grace that create true joy of ownership for the discriminating motorist. " - from a 1960 Volvo sales brochure

A RARE C EBACK

The Volvo 122S

. With a world full of newer cars, or flashier or faster cars, or old cars that are dirt cheap, why would a person layout thousands of dollars for a drab little

Volvo that could be up to 27 years old?

There must be some pretty good reasons, because in the past few years the

Volvo 1225 has gone from being just another used car -albeit an unusually rugged and charming one - to a Presence on the Maine automotive scene, the strongly desired object ofa small but fervent cult.

The design of the 1225, or Amazon as it's called in its native Sweden, is 30 years old. These modest sedans and station wagons were sold in the U.S. between 1959 and 1970. Yet, defying the quiet-but-deadly work of age and road salt, there seem to be more and more of them rolling down Maine's roads (and parked around Portland's West End) every year.

And the fact that many of them look, and run, better than cars half their age and younger says much about the Volvo 1225 - and perhaps more about the person who owns and drives one.

There will,ofcourse, be no more new Amazons, but a number ofprofessional Volvo watchers agree that there are more in service now than, say, five years ago. It may not qualify as a fad, but it's clearly a phenomenon, and one already going on for years in such relatively rust-free states as Colorado and California.

Alan Prosser is the proprietor of Alan Auto, a Volvo specialty shop in Portland, and is himself the owner of more than 20 Volvos of varying models. He has gotten many Amazons back onto the road. He explains that the 122S is currently undergoing a transition "from the mundane to the collectible."

Exciting when new, a model of car is prosaic when familiar, and regarded as just another used car; but as time passes, Prosser says, "it increases peopie's sensitivity (to a particular car) when they realize they're no longer available. so I think there are those that are coming out of the woodwork, so to speak" - Amazons that had been stored or leftfordead and are now being refurbished for use.

The key to the whole process, as well as to much of the 122' s appeal, is its incredible durability and its mechanical simplicity. "They've always got a couple more miles in them, no matter what," says Prosser, and a major claim in Volvo advertising has long been the high average age of the cars; an Amazon ad from the 1960s gives 11 years as the average age of all Volvos then running in Sweden.

So, even with Maine's potent rust factor, Amazons had life in them long after other makes ofsimilar vintage and Continued on page 42

mileage had bitten the dust. The car "bottomed out" maybe five years ago, says Prosser; "they run them down to nothing, and then there are a fewpeople who willcollect them, restore them and put them back together, and drive them. And cherish them."

David Link, a Portland designer who has also had extensive auto-restoration experience, owns a 1967 1225 station wagon which - demonstrating Prosser's thesis - he bought, and restored from an advanced decrepitude. Link compares the car to an old wooden yacht: "It may never be perfect, but as long as you keep up the maintenance, it'll last forever.

The 122' s sturdiness bestows not only long life but a certain aesthetic appeal. "Ilikethe fact that it's made of heavy steel," says Abby Zimet, a reporter for the Maine 5unday Telegram. Her likenew, mustard-brown 1964 Amazon sedan, she says, "drives like a heavy good car. You feelwell-grounded, wellweighted to the ground, and it handles beautifully. And it makes a nice thump when you close the doors, which makes you think you're driving a quality veh' I ICe. "

The aesthetic attraction is visual, t00. "CI ,,,.asslc ISthe common description of the car's lines. "It doesn't look like the Parthenon or anything like that," says the enthusiastic Link, "but it has a classic sense of proportion to it: the fender line, the relationship of glass to the body, the wheel arches are just right."

Headds, veering into rhapsody, "I feel that the 1225 station wagon is probably one of the most beautiful all-steel wagons ever built."

On Zimet's car, rubber window seals have deteriorated withthe years, admitting rain and the 122' s nemesis, rust. And rust is the worst problem the Amazon has. Prosser calls the car "more rust-prone by design than any other Volvo," and relates the plight of one rusty 1225: "The only thing that was holding the front half and the back half together was the motor mounts," which he ended up having to replace almost weekly.

Ron Perkins, who services and restores Volvos (and other makes) at his Duck Pond Motors shop inWestbrook advises a would-be Amazon owner t~ check under the back seat for rust. "If you don't find it there," he says, "then the car is probably basically solid." He and Prosser both recommend buying a rust-free Amazon over trying to restore a rusty one.

Parts for the 1225, or any Volvo, are expensive, but opinions differ on their availability. Perkins cannibalized a pair of 122s for parts. He calls them otherwise hard to find.

Prosser maintains an extensive stock of new and used parts, and says that "I don't think there's one part that's critical to their running that isn't obtainable, through Volvo or used, through me," or through other Volvo shops and parts specialists.

Quickly becoming a collector's item: the Volvo 1225.

Al Tenneson, service manager for the Bates and Cunningham Volvo dealership inTopsham (and proud owner of a restored 1966 1225), testifies that there is no problem getting parts for the Amazon.

As the average Volvo 1225 has gone from being a decrepit, rusty-butloyal beast with a Grateful Dead sticker on the bumper to a sharp and shiny little gem, so has its typical owner changed. Parts are pricey and the cars them,selves are getting that way; Zimet paid $3,300 for hers, and Prosser mentions one 1225 whose owner wanted nearly $10,000 for the car. 50 affluence isone likelycharacteristic ofthe typical "new" 1225 owner.

Other traits are more endearing. Prosser calls Amazon owners independent thinkers who shun the faddish or trendy. The 1225 owners Perkins mostly sees, he says, are craftsmen, "or meticulous types of people. People likeartists, who are very meticulous about painting.

Link, whose restoration work and training as a silversmith fitshim to Perkins's description, calls the typical Amazon owner "a split personality. There's a bit ofthe stubborn romantic in that they are not willingto accept concessions to modern design, like plastic and electronic gadgetry," even at the sacrifice of amenities and efficiency. "I had a couple who work in wood buy one from me; I had another couple who work in fineglassware who bought one from me," says Perkins. This craftsmanlike bent is often turned to the cars themselves, since their simplicitymakes them ideal for the tinkerer. "But there is a pragmatic side too," Link contiilUes."A well-kept 122 islike a Purdey shotgun or a McIntosh stereo receiver," twoprestigious brand names. "Properly maintained and properlyused, it willnot only last a lifetime, but it will also give a tremendous amount ofsatisfaction to whomever owns one."

While the Volvo name is often associated with the emergence of Yuppie culture - whatever that means - and while affluence and a certain feel for material things seem to be common, if not ubiquitous, among today's 122 aficionados, the notion of the Amazon being a Yuppie culf item is soundly rejected by 122 wat~hers. "The 122 is a different Volvo than what you'll see in Falmouth Foreside," reputed to be a Yuppie enclave, says Link. He adds, not without some vehemence, that "to keep an old car, any old car, on the road takes an aesthetic commitment and a philosophical bent that Idon't findinyour average Yuppie."

One could add to those two qualities a certain kind of love, for 1225 owners express a devotion to their machines as durable and well-thought-out as the car itself. "I think people develop more intimate relations with that car than some other ones."z'Imet agrees.

David Link forthnghtly loves his Amazon. "If, God forbid, anything should happen to it- an accident, let's say - I would probably get another one, stash this one away, and use it for parts," he says. "There's some part of this car that's going to be on the road at the turn ofthe t I,cen ury, m sure. " _______ By Doug Hubley