Even when new, the 66 caused many startled glances as people wondered why a Dutch-built DAF now sported a Volvo badge. Today, it is one of the rarest examples of the Swedish marque in the UK since it is believed that there are only 12 Volvo 66s on the road.
The 66’s origins date from the early Seventies, when DAF of the Netherlands commenced its P900 hatchback project. Such an undertaking required a partnership with another firm and by 1975, Volvo had taken a majority share in DAF. By August of that year, the 66 had received a new identity, while the P900 débuted in 1976 as the Volvo 343.
DAF’s first car had been the 600 of 1958, a small rear-wheel-drive saloon whose main selling point was its belt-driven continuously variable transmission (CVT). Drivers could select only forward or reverse with the floor-mounted “direction lever”; bizarrely, the DAF was one of the few cars that could go as fast backwards as forwards.
Eight years later, the DAF 44 sported bodywork by the Italian stylist Giovanni Michelotti, followed by the “square nose” 66 with De Dion rear suspension in 1972. Power was from a Renault 1,108cc unit, with a 1.3-litre engine becoming available in 1973. Motor Sport found the 1.3-litre version had very good handling “with the rack and pinion steering giving good directional control”.
Volvo claimed it spent four years developing its version of the DAF 66, although its exterior was almost identical to its predecessor, aside from the new badging and energy-absorbing bumpers. However, one of the most notable changes was that the “Variomatic” CVT transmission was now controlled by a conventional selector lever. In addition, Volvo augmented the centrifugal clutch with a vacuum-powered servo unit.
The 66 was marketed in the UK as “the start of something small”. The Telegraph found it “a simple car to drive” although earlier DAFs “had to live down a reputation as an old ladies’ car”. And so Volvo deliberately did not emphasise the Variomatic transmission as this tended to appeal to motorists who regarded Jimmy Young records as dangerously radical. One Motor Sport writer described the 66 as “suitable for nervous ladies to drive at 50mph”.
Instead, “in designing, engineering and assembly of the 66 we’ve been as meticulous as with any other Volvo”. Autocar thought it “shaped up very well indeed and gave every sign of having competitive performance and good road behaviour”. Only the upmarket GL was sold in this country, in saloon and estate guises, the former costing £2,568 in 1977, when a Vauxhall Chevette GLS four-door was £2,504.
The UK was at the time Volvo’s second-most crucial export territory after the United States and the Swedish firm promoted the 66 as the ideal second car for an affluent household with a Volvo 244 in their garage. The GL specification included front and rear inertia seat belts, two-speed wipers, a cigar lighter, front head restraints, electric windscreen washers and twin halogen spotlamps. There was also a vacuum gauge to assist with economical motoring located by the driver’s left shin, while the interior was “trimmed to Volvo standards”.
Production ended in 1980, after 106,137 units and sales of 14,000 in the UK. Volvo promised the 66 GL combined “superior performance with a generous measure of style and comfort”. The reality was an 85mph top speed and the type of buyers who mourned the passing of the upmarket “badge-engineered” Mini variants, the Wolseley Hornet and Riley Elf, in 1969.
The 66 soon passed into memory and this example now attracts many a double take. Very few people seem to recall the Dutch marque, let alone its Volvo doppelganger. Linda Yarker acquired the 66 after a motorcycle accident, which meant she required four-wheeled transport during the winter months. The DAF expert Graham Meinert recommended the compact Volvo.
Yarker finds her 66 “a splendid car” that is wholly suited to 21st-century urban motoring. In 1977, Car magazine may have relegated it to the “Boring” section of its Good, Bad and Ugly guide to new cars, snidely dismissing it as “once a DAF”, but most owners did not care. After all, the 66 was, to quote a memorable sales campaign, “a sensible car for sensible people”.
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