A couple of weeks ago, The Bishop was working on a post about a kind of Volvo David Bowie owned, a 262C, that strange but wonderful chop-top boxy Volvo personal luxury coupé that may be the only Swedish car to have come from the factory with a vinyl top. In his research, he came across some old press photos of the Volvo. He showed me a studio shot of a golden 262C, a picture that included one strange detail. A detail that you might miss at a glance, but once you see it, it’s unignorable. There, in the back seat, looking calmly out the back window, sits a huge-ass Great Dane. Why?
I mean, adding a dog to pretty much anything outside of an operating theater is a good move, but in this case, it’s kind of baffling. First, it’s not like anyone went out of their way to make the dog more visible; it’s just there in the seat, not really well-lit, the reflections on the glass making it less than optimally clear.
It’s not emphasized in any way, with no attempts made to highlight the dog’s presence there at all. He’s just sitting there, patiently, maybe even a little glumly. Was this the photographer’s dog?
It’s not like the other press photos had some overarching canine theme: there’s not dog one to be found in any of the other contemporary pictures on Volvo’s media site:
In fact, looking at these thumbnails, you don’t even see the dog at all. And, as I said, every other one is dogless, including this one of the same car in front of a lawn that would have been perfect for a dog to romp on:
But, alas, no dog. And, really, why should there be a dog? If you want to take a dog in a Volvo, the 262C is possibly the worst Volvo you could choose, save perhaps for the P1800/1800S sports car, though even that one had a later shooting brake variant that would actually be pretty good for a dog. In fact, Volvo showed just this use in one of their brochures for the 1800ES:
But the 262C? No way. Pretty much any other Volvo of that era, late 1970s to early 1980s, would have been a better choice for dogs.
The wagon, of course, would be the ideal, but even the sedan has a roomy back seat, and the two-door sedan has tons more headroom for a big dog like a Great Dane than the 262C did. The 262C just makes no sense as a dog car! Look how it was advertised:
It’s a classy, luxurious automobile experience! Look a those tufted leather seats, and that snug, low roofline! Do you really want to shove almost 200 pounds of smelly dog in there, scratching up those butterscotch-leather seats and soaking the carpets in drool? No, of course not, you’re too classy! Bertone designed this car, not freaking Boots and Barkley!
If we scour the Volvo press website for other times dogs have come up in Volvo official press photos, the results are pretty limited and very predictable:
A few photos of dogs in the back of Volvo wagons, sometimes trapped behind an accessory luggage compartment divider thing. That’s about it!
Finally, I reached out to Volvo themselves to see if they had any idea of what the story was behind this mystery dog. Russel Datz, Volvo’s National Media Relations Manager attempted to find out the story, and reached out to Volvo’s headquarters in Sweden to see what they could find. Here’s what he told me:
“We have no idea what’s up with the dog.”
I appreciate the attempt, but that doesn’t really help. Was it the photographer’s dog? Was the dog the proud owner of the car? Did the factory have a Great Dane infestation? Was it the security system?
Truth is, we just don’t know. The Great Dane in the Volvo 262C Bertone Press Photo remains a glorious mystery.
That’s not a dog Torch.
It’s my former Mother in Law.
WOOF!
and somehow she could still breath, even when we went on vacation and left her in the airport parking lot for 10 days…YMMV
Years of listening to Car Talk have conditioned me to associate the Magliozzi brothers’ laughter with mother-in-law jokes. I can hear Tom & Ray cackling madly now.
Ah, the mysterious Updog!
What’s Updog?
Nothing much, what’s up with you?
I just love the fact that we had international communications trying to resolve this.
“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend.
Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” – Groucho Marx
Don’t know why they did, but they probably hired artist William Wegman to do the shoot, and that’s one of his Weimaraners. Very cool and quirky to have done that, I would say.
That doesn’t look like a Weimaraner.
There is nothing wrong with that 🙂
They should’ve just let the dog drive the car 😛
It worked for Subaru.
It’s an early self-driving car prototype. It is the driver’s responsibility to feed the dog, and it is the dog’s responsibility to bite the driver if he touches any of the controls.
The brothers at Car Talk used the width of a friend’s ass as a unit of measure — the Pinkwater. Perhaps the Dane or canis dansk is a volumetric unit of of measure.
You might be on to something. If you can fit a Great Dane in the backseat, you can surely fit a few kids back there.
Ruh roh! This isn’t Shaggy’s van.
Owned one of these. The dog portends the constant care and feeding of that high maintenance nightmare of a V6 under the hood.
Daily cleaning of dog shit and drool would have actually been more enjoyable and less expensive.
Wow that is just seriously creepy!
Also, the Volvo toast rack head restraints in other than black? What a time to be alive 😎
Mothers first 244 had them in Brown
The second 244 had them in Blue – front and back.
Alright, always nice with experts. My only Volvo (yet) was a 1970 164 from before they were invented, I think. Never seen any in a light colour like on the 262C, just thought they were always dark colours.
I’ve never heard/seen the referred to as “toast racks” – but it’s a great description!
Yes -Volvo only had them from 1975-1993 – not only on the 200 series cars, but also the 66 and early 300 series.
Additional trivia, since this is about the only time and place anyone might possibly care, and I’d like to think it’s remained in my head for a reason:
740s and 760s had ’em, too, through 1990. Some had comfy solid headrest pads that simply popped into the grille like giant subpar Lego; unfortunately, I haven’t tried to test-fit them in a 240.
240 headrests changed to a lower/wider, chunkier rounded-rectangle shape (like the 740/760’s) for ’86, but remained just as chewable and squeezable – if anything, more so. For ’89, both sedans and wagons got them in the rear as well, so kids in the back could chew freely without a parent noticing right away.
Now you know!
They always matched the upholstery/interior plastics. That tan is absolutely the interior color that aged the worst. I’ve had a couple 240s with the tan interior, and certain pieces seemed to crack if you looked at them directly for too long (even examples native to the Pacific Northwest US, not subject to crazy temperature extremes or constant bright sun).
Valpen i fönstret!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMAhf2FeCng
I feel like it may have been an attempt to show a 2-door with ample back seat room. Or possibly the Dane was there to solve the mystery of the haunted Volvo 262c, which just turned out to be old man Whilloby trying to cheapen the real estate price of that regal front yard. Not pictured is driver with ascot, his girlfriend, her best friend he agreed to take along, and a stoner dude they picked up along the way.
And he would have done it, too, if it wasn’t for those meddling kids.
Yeah, the dog does seem to be saying, “I was told there’d be snacks.”
Volvo ads are just strange. The discordant music, the weird outfits, the whole thing just puts me off. In fact, the ads are so off-putting, I would just not buy a Volvo.
I still remember they had an ad where the key fob had a heart monitor to detect an intruder hiding in the back seat of the car when returning to drive off in the middle of the night. That ad was so freaking odd to me.
Isn’t that what a trunk monkey is for?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AidAXgq9dWc
This is a kick-ass ghost story in the making. When you track down the photographer and his first reaction is “My God! There’s a dog!”… And then he recognizes it as his dog that used to love to ride in the car with him but passed away exactly one year before the photo was taken.
I mean, I think that’s at least the vibe they were going for.
Aww man 🙁
Years ago, I had a coworker with a Great Dane, and an Escort wagon. The dog took up the whole back end of the car. He’d rest his head on the armrest between the seats to receive head scritchies during the drive. Wonderful dog, one of the sweetest temperaments I’ve ever seen. And he loved car rides.
This has nothing to do with Volvos, I guess, but maybe it points out the bare minimum vehicle size required for a Great Dane.
I drive to work and get behind a Kia Soul that has a Great Dane sized dog behind the rear seats, he doesn’t look comfy, I think he looks at my miniature schnauzers in the back of the V70 and gets jealous
Great Danes are awesome dogs. The only drawback, other than the horse-like appetite, is that they have no idea how huge they are. They think they’re lap dogs.
Select all images with
dogs
I swear I’m not a robot!
That’s EXACTLY what a robot would say!
I have heard how the Icelandics feel about the Danes- I have no idea if Swedes feel the same way. This could have been a visual statement about this being a “not so great Dane.” I’m unfortunately not so up on my Scandinavian national rivalries.
Swede here.
Any dog that doesn’t piss, shit, or puke in the car is A-OK with us.
But it’s getting old fighting a Rotweiller for the driver’s seat everyday.
Someone’s getting a TASER for Christmas…/s
When I turned 16 in 1997, my dad gave me $4,000 to buy a car. He expected me to buy a Volvo 240 or Dodge Diplomat, both of which were widely available around that price point in the late 90s. In one of the biggest mistakes of my life, I actually found and test drove one of these 262Cs that was in scope price wise, but I (stupidly) decided to go with a Merc 190D instead. The 190D ate its transmission 6 months later… Might still have the 262C if I’d gone that way instead.
You might still have the Dodge Diplomat if you had gone that way too. People in Detroit know the legend of the Wal-Mart Dodge Diplomat. https://www.theautopian.com/the-detroit-diplomat-is-the-rustiest-daily-driver-in-america-and-whoever-owns-it-is-either-an-american-hero-or-a-fool/
I honestly didn’t know these even came in any color other than black with the vinyl roof. Looks pretty good.
Oh, and Whosagoodboy? Youreagoodboy,yesyouare!
Many Saab 99 EMSeseses were factory-equipped with vinyl roofs in the early/mid-’70s, so the 262C is not the only Swede to have been so stylish.
That sounds even worse that this!
I love the 240 in all iterations except the 262C. The vinyl roof is just the rotted cherry on top of this poorly-proportioned shit sundae.
“Pretty much any other Volvo of that era, late 1970s to early 1980s, would have been a better choice for dogs.”
As the owner of an even smaller 1976 Volvo 66 GL sedan, I’ll point out there is at least one choice worse than a 262C.
I think it’s entirely appropriate for the era and the brand. Quirky yet subtle details, just like the car itself. Maybe they wanted to make sure the critics noticed there was still enough headroom for a great dane, given that chopped roof look. Volvo is too practical a car company to make something non ergonomic.
Instead of the chopped roof look, it’s the “ROOF! ROOF!” look.
I’ll be you made Datz’ day. I imagine that he came home and said “today was different” and it was because of you. Torch on, Torch.
My life would be so much better if I had the clout to ask (and expect answers to) really irrelevant questions like that, and expect answers (even if this one wasn’t helpful, just getting it feels like an accomplishment).
Once an engineer that worked for me was so curious if an ad photo in an industry magazine was real or photoshopped that he called the publisher, went through several people, until they pointed him to the ad agency. He went through several more people until he actually talked to the person behind the ad. He was assured it was real and not staged or photoshopped. I think it made the guy’s at the agency’s day that someone was that interested.
Datz very likely, indeed.
There should be a series where Torch reaches out to various Media Relations departments to ask them unexpected questions. Companies may start to get confused but then Pixar could let them know that he’s harmless and to just go with it. I’d click on that.
Well not sure who the dog belongs to. But it seems happy and big. So the words ” I’m not going to force him out you do it” were probably bandied about.