1987 Volvo 780 Coupe | Retro Review
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- Most car lovers appreciate the P1800 but still wouldn't consider any Volvo models exotic, but I think the 780 Coupe should get the exception.
Show 615 | Originally Recorded 2-17-1987
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3:53 Couldn't you get it with a manual transmission in Europe?
I had a 1989 780 with the 2.3L turbo. *The seats were unbelievably comfortable.* Cars today feel like sitting on concrete!
I had the same car, but a 1990 . To this day it’s the most plush and comfortable car I’ve ever owned
Volvo 700/900 series cars were incredibly comfortable. I've yet to own or even drive a car as comfortable.
@@edgarbraintree4370 I love Volvo 700/900 is best series of Volvo cars. Beautifuls, solid, resistents and confortables cars
I remember going to an auction in the late 80s and begging my dad to bid on a 780. We ended up driving home a 340! Not even a real Volvo, a DAF. Horrible little shit just wouldn't stop running. Gave it away to a family member in '99-'01.
My idiot cousin steered my dad away from anything good. There was a nice black 480 and a Audi 100. Even my dad regretted not bidding on the 480.
Anyway a few years later just me and my dad went to an auction. We came home with something nice this time, a '92 Audi 80 Quattro saloon.
Still think about the 780, looked far ahead of it's time.
110ft braking at 55 mph is really low, I'm guessing no thinking/reaction distance?
That car just screams Executive. One of the best looking bricks ever made.
Indeed!!!!! ☺️☺️
Scion xB is the best brick ever made.
I would own this coupe. Make sure it’s an automatic.
@@carwrtr1 *manual
Brick cuz they broke at the time but marketing team did the great job 😅
That gas and trunk release is very cool 😎
My 86 Bertone X/19 had a similar setup for the engine lid and trunk.
I remember seeing these as a kid always made my head turn because they were so rare and different looking
To me the front end looked like a Nissan model of the era. Cheapened the entire car for me. And I'm a Volvo guy! lol
It's sad, really. Id see these as a kid also and want one so badly. I'm 31 now, and while it's fortunate/unfortunate, these poor clapped out cars I see from yesteryear are starting to become cheap and (atleast in the West Coast), a bit more available. I wanna clean one up, throw on a set of modern BBS's and perhaps get the engine to eek out a lil more power 🥰
This was a $40,000 automobile and had to be special ordered because these 780 Bertone were limited. I saw one at a Volvo dealership in 1989 don't recall if it was red or black but it was a B230F inline 4 Turbo with 188 horsepower. In any event, I loved the Italian Leather seats and the craftsmanship of the interior wood trim. My Best, M.L.
My wife of 30 years always wanted a Volvo, so in 2007, while stationed in Italy, we ordered hers through the military sales, built specifically for her in Passion Red and as a Manual drive car. We still have this Volvo S-40 after 14 1/2 yrs, painted twice and as I write this, it is at the upholstery business getting a whole new leather look and feel. We plan to keep this car forever.
It's her dream car, so who I am to get rid of her dream? :)
@@12yearssober the basic 2.4 5 Cylinder.
@@12yearssober it has the PRV 2.8 v6 fitted. The 5 cylinder was not yet in production.
More power to you if you can manage it but the late 2000s Volvos we have in the states fall apart like nobody's business, especially the S40. I don't think i've ever seen one that actually runs.
Tbh i think you should have found one of the larger number of Italian 780 bertone's instead!
I've never seen a Volvo 780 coupe before but this is a sharp looking car.
I've seen them before, but few and far in between.
I had the rare privilege of owning one of these, albeit used and 20 years old when I bought it. In 2010 I saw a 1990
780 Turbo on Craigslist and jumped on it. It only had 120k miles, and anyone who knows the B230FT knows that’s nothing. Everything aside from the self leveling shocks worked perfectly. When it came time to get rid of it I posted it on Craigslist myself, without any pictures, and within minutes a mechanic in Grand Rapids, Michigan, sight unseen, offered to send me a $500 deposit. I was in New York. Astonished, I accepted, and two days later he arrived on a one-way flight with fake plates, and after giving me the rest of the money he said “I don’t even know why you’d sell this. It’s a keeper.” He proceeded to drive the car home from Long Island to Michigan with no insurance and registration. I never heard a peep from him thereafter so I hope he enjoyed many years of driving enjoyment in my 780
That is a damn sharp car, looks even better in black. I would daily one today.
It's unimpressive. Volvo... Ugh.... If you don't want a chance of crashing ... DON'T DRIVE. That's safer than a Volvo.
Red Pearl Metallic is also a great color for this car.
@@Lucas-yv1pk yes. Besides black that’s the next best one.
I had a black one, I drove it into the ground delivering pizzas in Chicago... fun car wish I had more mechanical knowledge then.. I may have still had it running today it was a b230ft, not the prv trashbox
I do drive one daily. After 30 years the electronics are a little finnicky but love the understated luxury, the turbo 4cyl, and the better handling than the one in the video (multi-link independent rear suspension after 1988)
I missed my family's 760 turbo too much to watch this video when it first uploaded. The 700 and 900 series were legendary, and the 780 added amazing styling to an extraordinarily well engineered platform. Only weak point was terrible fuel economy for the size.
I really do agree with them-the 700/900 series has a very underrated chassis. Excellent ride and handling, even with the solid axle.
1:55 People who've never owned an *Italian "touring car"* (this car was designed & built by *Carrozzeria Bertone in Turin, Italy)* can't possibly appreciate what *soft Italian leather* feels like. It makes other leather seem like just a dead cow.
I love vehicles which have a niche version produced by Italian carrozzeria. As they said here, production is only 2000 annually, most likely limited by the resources Bertone had at its disposal. I owned a Maserati BiTurbo Spyder. The Spyders were manufactured offsite at Zagato, and (before the 228 model came along) were outfitted to a much higher standard than all the other BiTurbo models, as well as having a manufacturing capacity of just 300 per annum!
Production was more than 2000 per year - that was the number imported to the States.
@@bobjohnson1587 Volvo's official production total for the 780 Coupe is 8518 from 1986 to 1991. *That's an average of 1420 per year.*
Yes, but the year that they were talking about was '87 - not the following years where production numbers fall off. 'Average' numbers can be deceiving!
80's and 90's Volvos 😍
Fun fact: That engine was the same one fitted to the DeLorean. My dad's Giugiaro-styled Dodge Monaco had one, too.
Thats not something to be proud of. The engine in the Delorean was its single biggest failure. They were gutless turds
Architecture of this engine was used as base for the Alfa Romeo 155 DTM engine.
With 2.5L it produced over 400hp, naturaly aspirated.
No offense, but the Monaco was not my favorite car. The only Monaco that does it for me was a '74 Monaco sedan, painted in black and white, and driven on a Mission From God. And the Delorean was a grossly overrated shitbox. A neighbor let me drive his sometimes and I was appalled at just how bad the entire car was, and the engine was never happy with US emissions controls. Given the choice I'd rather have a Bricklin. Or a Bradley.
@@catjudo1 The Bricklin is a giant pile of junk, id take a Delorean any day. The Delorean is a fun car to cruise around in, the biggest issue like I said was the powerplant. Delorean ran out of money and had to buy a cheap off the shelf engine. Otherwise it is a comfortable fun car to drive. A buddy of mine has 3 including 2 full Back to the Future conversions so I have a bit of a clue how they are.
@@12yearssober They did offer the turbo in these cars '89-'91 I believe. The PRV engines were extremely reliable and smooth (hence why they were used in so many different models). I had a Volvo 760 GLE with the PRV for 25 years and my mechanic kept begging to buy the car off of me but I wouldn't give in :)
I remember these in the 80's always wanted one. I have a 98 S70 GLT. With a 147,000 miles on it. Fully loaded everything works like it should.
That slalom test was hilarious
'Agile'
It's like Elaine dancing in that episode of Seinfeld.
@@charliehmi76 it had a ton of body roll but it was getting it done
Glad to see in replies some know this car. This car was rare than and more now. I got one in black with tan interior. Excellent classy car. I can still smell the Bertone leather and the real wood on the dash board.
I do love when they talk about how great the suspension is while the things side mirrors are scraping the ground because theres so much body roll in the slalom
🤣🤣🤣🤣 I thought it was going to flip
Best comment 😂😂😂😂
IPD makes sway bars for these cars that significant;y reduce the body roll in these cars. Still these 780 had good grip even if they also had significant roll.
Well, he did say "suicidal..."
That was the 1980s for you. Back then, that was great handling.
I saw quite a few of these at car shows and cruise nights a couple years ago, they aren't bad looking for an older Volvo. The owners of the ones I saw took great care of them and they were super clean. One in particular, a Black 89, was near flawless. It did not have the PRV V6 like the one in the retro review had, it had a Turbocharged 2.3L 4 cylinder.
I absolutely loved this car. Look at those seats and interior vs what Detroit was doing at the time. No comparison.
I know.
I had million way power bucket seats on my plebeian 1987 Oldsmobile which included power headrest and side bolsters.
And unlike the hot, sticky, and soon cracked leather it had hard wearing herringbone stitched cloth.
Don’t get me wrong.. I loved the leather seats in my 85 Volvo 740… but to think that there was no comparison-there definitely was.
Oh and the interior.
Never have I ever come across a car with such cheap plastic interior components as Volvo. I’ve owned several 80s GMs and several 80s Volvos and never on a GM car or any other car have I had a control stalk snap off completely in my hand. Door bits were always falling off, the plastic around the interior door handles were all cracked. Just terrible.
@@Bartonovich52 Anyone trying to compare an 80's GM car to anything is clueless. They were ugly garbage.
@@Bartonovich52 You must be ham fisted to say the least. A Volvo was light years ahead of a GM car even if some plastic bits broke. Be glad you didn't have a serious accident in any of GM heaps back then. Anything Volvo was doing wrong then, GM was 10X worse with junk engines, interiors, dynamics, cheap hard seats and don't even mention safety. Nothing GM built in the 80's was worthy, they were all POS GARBAGE death traps.
@@MercOne GM is still garbage, today. They lost their lunch in the Automotive industry/market to Japanese companies. Anyone buying a GM product is making a General mistake!. Volvo's and foreign cars for life.
Wouldn't mind those seats in my living room.Look quite comfy.
This Volvo Is Giving Me 86 Maserati Bi Turbo Vibes. I have to find this car!🥰
Yes. BiTurbo is much smaller than Volvo.
I just love these old square Volvos
I was a teenager then but I love this and the MB 300 CE.
In 1989 my mom left my dad for douche who drove a black on black 300 CE. My dad was broke, unemployed and depressed, but luckily soon landed an executive job with a darkblue metallic, yellow leather interior Volvo 780 for a companycar and never looked back.
My first car was a 1990 Volvo 740 GL, and loved it. Admittedly i'm more of an old Cadillac gal, but i'm still very fond of my 740. The 780 bertone? Omg i still would kill a guy for one. Throw in a 262c bertone and i'll even dispose of the body!
A member of the gym I workout at has a 780 in fairly decent condition. It's the later model with the Turbo 4 cyl engine and the multi link rear suspension(the early ones like the one in the video I believe still had a solid axle rear). It's still a nice car today.
The. styling has aged well. It's a strange about those blocked "guages" though.
Loved the looks of the 780. Looks much more cohesive than the 262b. Great review.
The 262b was just wrong lol
@@phil955i David Bowie didn't think so! lol
@@bobjohnson1587 oh, I take it he had one then lol
Legends say this 780 is still driving around somewhere in rural New Hampshire
Didn’t even know this Volvo existed! Glad I discovered it 😍
That EQ!!! 🤌🏾🤌🏾😍😍😍
The old volvo PRV V6, the power of a 4 cylinder and the fuel economy of a V8 :D But damn this is a pretty car!
The suspension is as soft and nice as on a Chevy Caprice.
Seats in that car look more comfortable than the sofa in my house.
What is the special sauce that Italians know how to make a basic three box sedan with sharp right degree angles everywhere that sexy?
Swedes made this, not Italians.
I wish that Motorweek would bring back the MW Hits & Misses to today's reviews
80s MotorWeek is quite displeased if they have to tilt their heads slightly to see those oil or battery gauge, and heaven help you if they're digital.
Those are clearly the most important instruments, they should have dedicated heads-up displays mounted directly to the dashboard.
Those rear side windows are huge in comparison to new coupes.
I’ve never seen this car before. Sharp looking car.
They only imported 2,000 Volvo 780 Coupes a year and a base price of $35,000 a year made them intangible for many buyers. They are extremely rare cars, even new you didn't see many of them on the roads.
Oooooomg never thought I'd see one of these on reviews. Swedish with an Italian touch, proprio come me ;O
Lol he said ample head room as the guy bumbs his head on the ceiling in the back seat!
A handsome saloon with a gorgeous interior. Very rare sight on the roads today
That car was way ahead its time! Airbags and antilock brakes! But at $35 thousand dollars!? That was like $100 thousand back then!
I’d love to own one. I’ve always lusted after a P1800 and one of these beautiful Bertone coupes
Love the Volvo uploads
These are great lookers, but the 89-91 Turbo option is the way to go. Good luck finding one with an uncracked dash. Lots of 780 only parts that are basically unobtanium. I'd love to find a nice blue one with the two tone leather.
The 780 didn't share a single body panel with the other 700 series models. So, very tough to find body panels and interior parts for it.
@@jakeminnie6359 Would love to see it!
Would love to see the video testing of the 89' 780 Bertone Turbo if it's available!!
My dad had this Volvo, that was alien for other cars back in that time. And there was only 7 of them in whole Yugoslavia
4:18 - a bit under-dampened or underbraced. That front tire seemed to have more grip than the chassis could take in the slalom!
glad you mentioned that, i thought i was re-watching the corolla from a few days ago!
Yep.
Chassis was tuned specifically for American luxury car buyers.
A Swedish engineer walks into an Italian disco...
The 80s Volvos were very nice.😇
Love anything with a PRV
6:06 mark, 32 years late but just noticed that "Gauges" is spelled incorrectly.
European alternate spelling
Guages lol I read your comment the exact moment I saw the typo, too.
That's how it's spelled in Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Beautiful car aged well very rare never seen one. 😎
Someone should have blocked that caption saying blocked 'guages'.
For an old car it still looks sweet looking.
I’d gladly own this! This is class, and it is beautiful for being a touring car…
@3:30 Having grown up in a world where the majority seemed to pronounce Peugeot as either Pee-jo or Puh-jo, I find John's version to be the most accurate in both pronunciation and assessment.
Unlike 'Camray'! lol
Weird to see an 80's car that looks well built.
😆😂😆😂😆😂😄😂😆😂😄😂😆lol.... gtfoh
It's a gimmick loaded POS. Try to get parts and service and enjoy your driveway decoration.
AGILE!!!! It's damn near on two wheels in turns😄😂😆0-60 in 11 secs😂😄😆 and it only weighs 3200 lbs???... what a POS!!!
@@rickmassey1272 Did someone from Volvo hurt you or your family? You seem to be taking my comment very personal. It's ok, it's over now.
You probably mean "a non-japanese 80's car that is well-built"
When I saw the steering wheel at first, I wasn’t expecting it to have an airbag, but I was wrong.
Not only did it have an airbag but was also leather covered, very uncommon for 1987.
And heated seats too! Very futuristic for 1987
@@maddesi2709 Not really. My '77 Volvo had front heated seats - standard. Volvo had them on their vehicles decades before other car makers did. Something about some of Sweden being above the Arctic Circle!
These things had the classiest magazine adds
I had NO idea these existed. Looks good a bit cumbersome in the handling though.
Me either and I know cars! Looks Timeless! Yeah I seen that stutter to the left too lol.
this one looks really cool and simple. These cars are really great with a red block and a manual transmission.
Volvo designers: "Is this classy enough?"
Yes
I used to see tons of Volvo 700 Series cars on the road throughout the 1990s into the early 2010s
Now the only one I see on the road is mine!
This was also available with a b230ft which was a much better option that the prv garbage box
The PRV was why the DeLorean had to go to 88MPH. Couldn’t go any faster.
Don’t know squat about Volvos, but I think that’s a sweet car! Only wish it was available with a manual.
Holy body roll, Batman!
Simply a beautiful touring car Id gladly take over any of the techno junk Germans and even Volvo makes today.
That squishy suspension bounce with me on the outside of the turn would urge me to slow down. Even if the grip was there, I'm not going spirited in the turns with a bounce like that.
@davek12
I too was surprised by that, it seems to run out of suspension travel - or roll resistance - and bounce off the bump stops
As a kid.
My rich neighbors son had one! Yrs later i must have one
The later ones with turbo 4-cly were even better!
A very nice, luxurious and safe vehicle ahead of its time. Volvo was among the first to utilize the one piece "European" headlamp design 👍🏽
No they weren't. Toyota and Nissan were. Back in 1985
@@thewiseguy3529 Indeed my parents '86 Toyota Camry had composite headlamps, I believe Toyota switch to composite in '85 on the Camry.
@@marcusdamberger that's right and Nissan Maxima did too, the same year. 1985
@@marcusdamberger I think Audi even was doing composite head lamp lenses in 1985. It was a main event back then lol even the ford escort and many other ford/lincoln, mercury makes had them in 1986 as well.
Volvo 780 coupe first of many luxury gt grand tourers from Volvo.
I remember those as a kid
Understated elegance.
Paul wall would be proud the way that thang was swangin
John, you weren't wrong. The S90 was still for sale a decade later.
Slow but elegant
Should have been a 780 turbo 16 valve...
It needs an LS swap.
When Volvo was a real Volvo ( 80's and 90's ), not like now that you don't know what the hell it is .
Isn’t Volvo owner by some Chinese car company now like Jaguar?
@@applepoop10 Volvo is now-days owned by Geely. Their models have received a lot of praise. Jaguar is not chinese 🤦 it’s a british brand owned by Tata motors. They also own Land Rover.
@@applepoop10 - Tata, the owner of Jaguar Land Rover is Indian (as in the 2nd most populous country on Earth), BTW...
I have no problem distinguishing Volvos of today. None whatsoever.
@@benjaminsmith2287 Congratulations ! Now, bye !
I definitely feel like the guy in the blue jacket 'testing' the car could just as easily have been stealing it....
Wow, it looked like it was going to roll over in the turns.
I’d take this or an Acura Legend coupe
I think both had the back seat windows that you could roll down
Imagine paying $83k for this today 😳😳 still as beautiful as ever though!
COST WAS LIKE 29K PLUS TAX THEN NOW 80K
A great 1980's "yuppie" car here in the Northeast. I bet I stumbled across a couple of these parked at a Patriot or Ivy League football game in the late 80's or early 90's.....
That 2.8 PRV is a later version of the DMC 12 DeLorean engine !!!
recently found out about this thing and i think it looked gorgeous, in hindsight it doesnt look like a volvo, at least, not conventionally anyway
I beleive the engine refinements that they mentioned cured the inherent problems in the PRV engine, but convincing buyers of it would be almost impossible. Those terrible engines depreciated a lot of very nice Volvos. I was tempted by a few mid eighties 760s, but that engine just scared me off.
The 780 was the first Volvo I ever looked at and said wow! The styling was so clean and simple. Unfortunately it was an expensive itch that I never got to scratch.
The big problem with the PRV was poor oiling to the cams on the original 2.7. Was cured with the 2.8 version in early 80's
@@moejr1974 Lots of issues with the early ones: Cam lubrication, overheating, blown head gaskets, leaking cylinder liner bottom gaskets, broken exhaust manifold bolts... The 2.8 introduced in 1980 version wasn't even much better. It is first with the '87 update that they got it right. Cams are running in small oil baths now, new even-firing crankshaft, new arrangement of head bolts, bigger oil sump... The only thing to be afraid of are head gaskets which last approx. 150.000 miles and then start to leak. Otherwise the engine is fine. Crankshaft and piston design are absolutely bulletproof!
this is equivalent to over 80k today, how was price not a miss? i guess the build quality was so good that they couldn’t complain
More Volvo retro reviews please!! 740/940?
Never saw 1 of these. In fact the last Volvo I drove was a 240DL lol
You haven't missed much! lol
This review is complete with oil pressure gauge and creepy guy with serial killer black gloves.
Especially the alloys wheels are hard to clean
I just scrapped mine mine had the b230ft Plus turbo 4-cylinder the head gasket blew no one wanted the body I got $100 for scrap metal even though the car with a nearly flawless minus the dent on the trunk from a branch falling during our wind storm we I still have my 940 Turbo wagõn
Sorry to hear that ! Hopefully you sold the interior trim pieces to all the 780 nuts who can't find them... (me included)
I love the look of these. Shame they never made them in RHD..
Beautiful car let down by the small V6. The bigger and heavier 1985 740 Turbo Wagon had better performance numbers and better mileage as well.
If not for UA-cam I never would have known that Volvo had Renault/Peugeot engines. That really surprised me
Actually the DeLorean DMC-12 also got it, albeit installed behind the seats.... (the 2.8, 2.9 and 3.0L V6's were developed in a joint venture by all 3 marques, which are known by the PRV acronym)
It was a joint venture, PRV = Peugeot, Renault, Volvo.
It's equally true to say Peugeot and Renault had Volvo engines.
MW Staffer was the local Little League Capo/Enforcer.
Can't say I've ever seen one of these cars on the road before. I may have, but I may have just thought of it as another volvo.
The leather gloves came in handy showing how things worked in the car as well as putting away the luggage 🙄
Or later stealing the car