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Rough Start: 1978 Volvo 262C Bertone Coupe – The Brick House


Rough Start: 1978 Volvo 262C Bertone Coupe – The Brick House

I am a man of many strange automotive appreciations, I’ll be the first to admit, but the strangest kink I have might be the Volvo Bertone coupes. For the life of me, I can’t provide a solid reason why I like the shape of this car as much as I do. It’s easy to explain the basic Volvo 200-series appreciation…from the moment I first turned tires to smoke using a 1975 Volvo 242DL, I could appreciate the performance. From countless hours of YouTube videos that have the words “rally” and “crash” somewhere in the title, I learned to appreciate the level of safety that the Swedish were trying to incorporate into their vehicles. Yet the Bertone…it looked like it should’ve had a V8 from the start. In two-door form, the 262C looked like it had a chopped roof. And it wasn’t by accident…after Henry Ford II brought Lincoln Continental Mark IVs to Sweden to drive around during a visit to a Volvo factory, the workers became smitten with the American luxo-coupe and decided that they needed one of their own.

This example is sitting in Colorado with a price near the upper end of the Rough Start budget. There’s some rust repair that needs to happen around the rear wheelwells, but we see the good that can be. Whether that good retains the PRV V6 or goes for a more bombastic approach underhood, that will depend on how quickly your cash reserve fills back up. But for the time being, get some decent rubber on those wheels, start the bodywork and enjoy the car as-is. The Volvo reputation is worth sampling on it’s own before you start messing with what’s present.

Facebook Marketplace Link: 1978 Volvo 262C Bertone Coupe


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9 thoughts on “Rough Start: 1978 Volvo 262C Bertone Coupe – The Brick House

  1. MGBChuck

    McT, I also like the box with a chopped top, have seen several older V8 conversions (302 Ford, automatic).

  2. Chevy Hatin' Mad Geordie

    Funnily enough Volvo produced some great V8s themselves in later years and that would be a no-brainer swap! But only after a nice gloss black paint job and polishing those wheels.

  3. gary

    I’ve always loved the look of these cars. Volvo woke up one day, if only for a brief moment.

  4. Brian Cooper

    I daily a Volvo 240 wagon. That’s stupid high for a stock Bertone with rust. Plus that PRV engine is garbage. It was designed by Peugeot and Renault, how can it possibly be good? They are known to be junk. However, Volvo cunningly designed the 2 series engine bay around an LS. In fact an LS fits better than the stock 4 or 6 cyl. A set of STS engine mounts, a Holley oil pan and exhaust manifolds and the stock truck FEAD and intake and you are good to go.

    1. nada

      Volvo had problems with the PRV enginge yes, Peugeot and Renault had significantly fewer problems with the engine. The problem? Volvo’s engineers.

      Volvo also managed to get less power out of the enginge than Peugeot and Renault…

      Not saying that the PRV is the best engine ever, but Volvo has never built a great engine (except for farm tractors). The late V8 was engineered by Yamaha, that’s why it’s great.

  5. Jeepster

    does it take two days to swap out the $20 heater core like the rest of these damn cars ? while the fasteners and plastics break like eggshells …

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