Junkyard Find: 1979 Volvo 262C Bertone

by Murilee Martin

Published: June 7th, 2013

Since we had an extremely rare 1979 Junkyard Find yesterday (a Volkswagen Dasher Diesel), let’s have another today. This is the first time I’ve found a genuine Volvo 262C Bertone Coupe in a wrecking yard (I have seen the occasional Volvo 780 Bertone Coupe), and it happened during the same trip to California that gave us the Dasher Diesel. Let’s admire this fine example of Italo-Swedish design!

These cars are out there, and you can get rough ones for nickels and dimes. In fact, we’ve got a 24 Hours of LeMons team— the Bert Ones, get it?— running a very quick, B230-powered 262C Bertone on the East Coast.

With hindsight, we can see that an expensive Volvo 240 2-door with a chopped roof, Bertone badges, and PRV engine was doomed to marketplace failure from the very beginning.

Still, Volvo was willing to take some chances in its pursuit of… well, we can’t quite figure out what demographic was being targeted here. Stodgy, sensible cocaine dealers?

210,268 miles on the clock, which is a bit less than the figure in most junked Volvo bricks that I see.

The PRV, which also powered the DeLorean DMC-12 and Eagle Premier, wasn’t in the same reliability league as the good old Volvo four-cylinders.

The very luxurious Bertone leather interior has been torn up pretty well, but a few bits remain.

#1970s #1979 #1979Volvo262CBertone #Bertone #DownOnTheJunkyard #Junkyard #JunkyardFind #Malaise #MalaiseEra #Volvo #Volvo240 #Volvo260 #Volvo262C

Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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3 of 58 comments

Mikemeade on Nov 13, 2013

What yard is this car in? I may well need some parts off of this car if it is still available.

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Rocco on Dec 29, 2023

Hi I just purchased a 1979 Volvo bertone coupe and I'm missing one piece on the back of the top

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- 28-Cars-Later on Dec 29, 2023
  
  The 262C's mostly don't exist now so either the trim is shared with the 242/244 or you may have to fabricate a replacement. You could also check eBay as there are a few sellers who carry obscure Volvo parts.
  EDIT: Does it still run the PRV V6 or has this one been restored/swapped? You really don't want the V6 if you can avoid it.
  
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