Ed Westby's 'DAF' 300 vs Volvo 300
 

The very early 300 side by side with a slightly later one showing the Volvo changes.
Ed says that Volvo were so worried about the early 300's poor quality that people were offered a free upgrade to a newer 300.
25 minute long film on Youtube...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv4lE1lVVEk

Sion's cars. There must be a very, very small number of 300s in the UK which pre-date say 1980, never mind those on the road. There are a few "mk1s" about, but they're mostly 80 and 81 model years. I have a 79 (which still has a few of the DAF bits on it, but it's 90% Volvo-ised), but even that's pretty rare.

cheers

James

1979 is very impressive. There's a Y-reg one on ebay for sale, although it's hidden in the advert for a 1.7 Redline. It's the last photo of that 1.7 ad, and in the description.
Back in the 80s and 90s I used to see one or two x-reg, but it was mainly D, E, F and Gs that I saw. It's funny how 300 sales went up in its mid-life.
I didn't take much notice of Volvo until the late 80s when our neighbour bought a 740 saloon that looked very nice, although it was so wide and long it barely fitted on his drive.
I wonder if the 700's release actually boosted the 300 sales.

I'm trying to boost my posts to 30 so I can PM.

Yes - not many early ones about at all! There was a 1978 "Black Beauty" around a few years ago, but I've not seen that for a long time. It was in fairly decent shape, though, so hopefully it has survived. I'm struggling to remember seeing any other pre-80 cars for years, except Sion's 76 in that video.

You may well be right. I believe there was a phenomenon of people buying 300s as second cars, with a larger Volvo as the primary car in the household. Of course a 700-series model really isn't that big (or, even moreso, heavy!) nowadays. They have a reputation for being tank-like, but a modern VW Golf is heavier than my 740 Turbo saloon.

There is a thread in Support where you can request an increase in your post-count to bypass that rule, but I suspect you're nearly there anyway!

cheers

James

when I was working in a dealer when the 300 was launched I never heard the free upgrade rumour :-) it is possible one or two may have had that though It is the sort of thing volvo would have done with a very troublesome car .