Volvo 740

Volvo 740 at a glance

The 740 sits in the long line of rear-drive Volvos described in our Volvo catalogue and in the company story on the history of Volvo.

Why Volvo built a four-cylinder 700

The 700 series began at the top. Volvo launched the 760 GLE on 2 February 1982 at nine European venues at once, with the PRV V6 and a Volkswagen turbodiesel. Jan Wilsgaard, head of Volvo's design and styling team, had proposed more than 50 designs for the car, and the result was a slab-sided, upright saloon with a large glass area.

The 760 was expensive, and the 240 it was meant to sit above stayed in production. Volvo filled the gap in 1984 with the 740 GLE: the same body and platform, a fuel-injected 2.3-litre B23E four-cylinder rated at 98 kW (131 bhp), and a price roughly midway between the 240 and the 760, as the Volvo Owners Club records. A cheaper GL with a carburettor engine followed. The 740 kept the 760's original live rear axle, which Volvo called Constant Track, while the 760 saloon moved to multi-link independent rear suspension in 1988.

Estate, Turbo and 16-valve: the 740 range by year

The estate arrived for 1985 and quickly became the core of the range. Over 40 percent of 740 sales in 1989 were estates, and in Germany the 745 was Volvo's best-selling model from 1985, according to Classic Trader's model history.

The fastest 740 was the Turbo. From 1985 the 2.3-litre B230FT gained an intercooler and was quoted at 136 kW (182 bhp) in the UK; catalysed versions sold elsewhere were rated at 118 kW (160 PS), rising to 119 kW (162 PS) for 1990-1992. Car & Classic lists 0-60 mph in 7.7 seconds and a top speed of 124 mph (200 km/h) for the intercooled car. For Italy Volvo built a 2.0 B200ET intercooled turbo with 118 kW (160 PS); Quattroruote timed it at 196.85 km/h.

Volvo's first multi-valve engine, the 2.3-litre B234F with two camshafts and two balance shafts, appeared in the 740 GLT at the 1988 Geneva show. Diesel buyers had the Volkswagen-built 2.4-litre six: 60 kW (82 PS) without a turbo and 80 kW (109 PS) with one.

Gearboxes were a four-speed manual, a four-speed with electric overdrive, a five-speed manual and a four-speed automatic, and every 740 had disc brakes on all four wheels.

1989 facelift and the slow handover to the 940

Volvo gave the 740 a minor exterior facelift in autumn 1988 for the 1989 model year, with a new front end, and the Volvo Owners Club notes that the revised B230FT cut turbo lag by about 40 percent. For 1990 the car gained smaller composite headlamps and tail lights in the style of the 780 coupé, stronger 13 mm connecting rods on the B200 and B230, a Mitsubishi TD04 turbocharger and LH-Jetronic 2.4 injection. The 1991 cars received a new dashboard similar to the 760's, and the 1992 models swapped the mechanical cooling fan for an electric one.

The successor did not arrive in one step. The 940, in effect a 700 with a redesigned rear end, entered production in August 1990, and the two cars were built side by side for two years. The last 740 came off the line on 2 October 1992; the 760 had already ended on 27 June 1990. The six-cylinder line continued in the 960, which was renamed in 1996 and is covered in our history of the Volvo S90.

Volvo 740 today: what to check when buying

Rust is what ends most 740s. Car & Classic names the sills, wheel arches and underside as the areas to inspect first. The red-block engines are long-lived when serviced, so a folder of invoices with regular oil and timing belt changes is worth more than a low odometer reading, and a Turbo should be checked for smoke and turbo bearing noise.

Electrics are the second theme. Pre-facelift wiring harnesses are prone to cracking insulation, so test every light, window and gauge. Carburettor cars with the Pierburg 2B units (B230K and B230KH) are harder to keep running because carburettor parts are scarce, so fuel-injected cars are the safer buy. The Volvo Owners Club in the UK keeps model histories and production tables for the 700 series and is a good first contact for parts and advice.

Most cars still sell for modest money, while exceptional Turbos have reached a different level:

• Auction median about EUR 5,200 (USD 6,000) for 740s sold in the 12 months to May 2026, oldcarsdata.com, based on a small sample.
• A near-new 740 Turbo with 58,750 km was estimated at SEK 290,000-320,000 (about EUR 26,000-29,000) by Bilweb Auctions in September 2026; the same car had set a model record of SEK 280,000 in 2020.

Most 740s change hands well below that top figure, and condition and service history matter more than trim. More European saloons and estates of the 1980s are collected in our classic cars section.