Volvo PV 36 Carioca

The Volvo PV 36 Carioca was a luxury car that Volvo Cars built between 1935 and 1938. Its name borrowed the word for someone from Rio de Janeiro, which was also the title of a dance that was fashionable in Sweden when the car appeared. The styling followed the aerodynamic look of American cars of the period, among them the Chrysler Airflow and the Hupmobile Model J, and the source notes that many of Volvo's senior engineers had worked in the American auto industry before. The PV36 was the first Volvo with independent front suspension, although it kept the side-valve engine of the older Volvo cars still being built beside it. It was expensive, priced at 8,500 kronor, and Volvo built no more than 500 of them; the last one was not sold until 1938.