Volvos were once bought almost exclusively by people like Margo and Jerry from The Good Life who filled the backs of them with green wellingtons and bags of compost. Their cars were usually brown or sometimes awful mustard yellow with moss growing in the panel gaps.
Then Volvo underwent a radical overhaul. It abandoned its boxy, boring look and started making smart-looking SUVs with stylish interiors that featured swathes of black glass and dark wood instead of bits of bark.
Like other carmakers, Volvo had discovered that to survive it needed to sell more cars overseas. The patronage of a few English eccentrics no longer paid the bills, especially as these customers changed their cars only once every 30 years. So the Gothenburg-based company said
