I once had in my possession a brass model of Volvo's first car, the ÖV4, given to me by Volvo Canada. The ÖV4 was nicknamed "Jakob". Foolishly I dispensed with it because the model contained a cigarette lighter in the baggage area. Where models where concerned I was a purist, with no tolerance for lighters, coinholders, etc. Since then I've changed, and so has Volvo, which suddenly is keen to glorify its history, though only one of the 10 pre-series cars manufactured during 1926 was saved for posterity and is housed in the Volvo Museum in Gothenburg, Sweden.The letters ÖV are Swedish for "open Car" while 4 indicates the number of cylinders. In the first year, production proceeded at a modest pace, with 297 cars being sold in 1927.

Emerging from the shadow of the global economic depression and Second World War, it took Volvo 23 years to build its first 100,000 cars. Today, that figure corresponds to about three months of production. When that first car drove past the factory gates back in 1927, it proudly carried its "iron symbol" on the radiator grille. When number 15-million left the factory in Uddevalla on 20 February, a Volvo C70 Coupe/Convertible, that symbol was still carried with pride. My lost lighter may at least have prevented another case of lung cancer.

[Sincere thanks to contributor Nigel Matthew for altering us to this important historic event.]