Vehicle Description
1973 Volvo 1800ES 2-Door Sport Wagon - Two Owners, Local Doctors -
74k Original Miles - Factory Cypress Green - Volvo Collector Car -
Only Produced in 1972 and 1973 (Please note: If you happen to be
viewing this 1973 Volvo 1800ES on a website other than our Garage
Kept Motors site, it's possible that you've only seen some of our
many photographs of this vehicle due to website limitations. To be
sure you access all the more than 115 photographs, please go to our
main website: GarageKeptMotors.) This one checks a lot of boxes.
�€" Brian Silvestro, Road & Track, 12/6/17 Garage Kept Motors is
pleased to present this rare and sought after 1973 Volvo 1800ES,
the final year of only two production years. This sport wagon has
had just two previous owners, both local West Michigan MD's who
have cared for the car like their own patient. It remains highly
original and ready for a new garage to call home. Derived from the
successful Volvo P1800 sports coupe originally launched in the U.S.
in 1962, the 1800ES kept much of that model's design ethic and
mechanicals while extending the roofline, adding more useable rear
fold-down seats and a remarkably spacious cargo hold beneath a
frameless glass rear hatch. The English refer to this arrangement
as a shooting brake, a sporting car designed to also carry shotguns
and accompanying clothing and hunting gear needed for a day in the
field, as capably as it handles the twisting roads and country
lanes en route. Car & Driver was clearly taken with this sporting
sports-car design. In its December 1971 issue the car magazine
gushed: What the car enthusiast will need for those long weekends
is a machine that comes as close as possible to sports car handling
and response�€"a car that won't bore him to sleep or scare him
wide-eyed�€"but still has enough cargo area for the equipment.
There is enough space for a 30hp outboard plus a can or two of gas;
enough picks, pitons and rope to climb Mount McKinley; a couple of
those small trail Hondas with the folding handlebars; or a tent and
enough beer to rough it painlessly at Watkins Glen. Whatever it is,
the Sportwagon won't put a lid on your lifestyle. Volvo simply
proclaimed: Darwin was right to advertise this evolutionary design
advancement. Mechanically, the 1800ES, according to Hemmings Sports
and Exotic Cars, ...absorbed all of the latest-and-greatest 1800
coupe's driveline: two-liter fuel-injected four, four-wheel disc
brakes, Laycock de Normanville overdrive unit�€"although a
compression drop from 10.5:1 to 8.7:1 saw power drop to 112 net
horsepower, compared to 130hp gross in '72; this stateside-only
unit was dubbed engine variant B20F. The suspension remained the
same as the coupe's, partly because the ES weighed just 65 pounds
more than a comparable coupe (and the extra two inches of length
were all thanks to the rear bumper, a husky piece of business meant
to protect that glass opening). The 1800ES would only be produced
in 1972 and 1973, about 4,000 cars each year, with this car being
the final year of production. The low volume made the expense and
engineering challenges necessary to conform to U.S. emissions and
safety mandates cost-prohibitive. Owning a well-kept, nicely
preserved Volvo 1800ES these days is a joy allowed only to a few
classic car aficionados. The 1800ES offered here is an extremely
well cared-for example in classic Cypress green over tan leather
(with matched color vinyl on the rear seats). The condition of the
car's interior is excellent, from leather surfaces to Smiths
gauges, original steering wheel, and Volvo carpet floor mats. The
contrasting black dashboard is not cracked or faded. The exterior
finishes are nearly flawless: chrome, lenses, glass, and paint. The
engine compartment is complete and largely original. The car has
only had two owners, both doctors, and they apparently lavished
hospital-like care on this 1800ES through the years. The car's
mileage averages to approximately 1,600 per