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Some motor-cars look upon fashion with disdain – cars such as the Volvo PV444/544.

The advertisements may have hinted at a world of excitement, glamour and Trad Jazz.

But thousands of buyers were more impressed with its reliability and splendid road manners.

In  September 1944 Volvo introduced their first car with a unitary body  -  the  PV444.

The name derived from its combination of a four-cylinder, 40-horsepower engine and four-seater accommodation and the choice of colours was any shade you cared for, providing it was black.

Full production commenced in 1947, due to the scarcity of steel and rubber when the demand for the PV44 was such that Volvo had a two-year backlog of orders.

In early 1957 the 1.4-litre OHV power plant was replaced by the Amazon's 1.6-litre unit and.

Volvo facelifted the PV444 as the PV555 in August 1958 with a single-piece windshield, a 121-style speedometer, enhanced cabin space and four-speed transmission for the more expensive versions.

The company initially believed that the PV would soon be phased out in favour of the Amazon, which debuted in 1956, but sales of the older model remained strong.

In 1962 the PV gained the 1,778cc B18 engine, and on October 20th, 1965, the very last 544 left the production line.

Exports to the USA commenced a decade earlier, and it would be fair to say that the PV444 was the anthesis of a Chevrolet Bel Air or Plymouth Belvedere - it was small and with an appearance that was at least seven years out of date.

Volvo establishes its first US dealership in Fort Worth, Texas and by June 1956 Road & Track referred to the PV444 as 'the 1½ litre car that has been walking away with the trophies in West Coast sedan races'.

A year later, the same title observed 'with a car like this-who needs a sports car?'.

The States was to become Volvo's most important overseas sales territory, and in  August 1958 the great Tom McCahill described the PV444 as 'this Swedish Nightingale' and 'a true connoisseur's car'.

He further praised the Volvo for being 'small, gutty and fast. And it's off-beat enough in the looks department so that you know at a glance no attempt has been made to simulate General Motor's body styling'.

Furthermore – ‘the superb handling qualities of the Volvo (totally without the aid of power steering) would out-manoeuvre the bigger cars like a Gold Cup boat racing a battleship of the line over a short triangular course’. 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic the name Volvo resonated with motorists who read of Ture Jansson's PV444 winning the Midnight Sun Rally or Gunnar Andersson's 1958 victory in the European Rally.

'The Volvo is a highly individualistic small car' thought The Motor in June 1957. 

By the early 1960s the PV's looks were decidedly anachronistic but as  Road & Track of November 1963 put it, 'If the Volvo has a single most-attractive feature, it is sturdiness and overall quality. There is nothing slap-dash or flimsy anywhere on the car, and this is, in our opinion, more than enough to compensate for any lack of sheer glamour'.

Tom Trana won the 1963 and 1964 RAC Rallies in his 544.

In 1965 Joginder Singh won the East African Safari in a well-used PV with over 42,000 miles already on the clock.

The looks of the PV  may have dated from the early 1940s, but it still outran many more recent designs.

As with all great Volvos, quality was of far greater importance than the vagaries of fashion.