Volvo replaced the 740 series in 1990 with the 940 series, and it showed a clear departure from the clear-cut, wedged shape of its predecessor.
Still, the car shared most of its underpinnings with its predecessor. On the plus side, it kept the station wagon shape, but it canceled the coupe version, which was not a sales winner anyway.

While other wedged-shaped cars looked outdated, the 940 didn’t. Even though that Volvo shaved the edges trying to make the vehicle seemed rounded, it didn’t, at least from the front. The car featured a flat front fascia and rectangular headlights. They still looked like they were designed with a ruler and a straight angle. Volvo made the 940 wagon by extending the car’s roof over the trunk area for the 940 station wagon shape and ended the car with a flat vertical liftgate.

Volvo designed the 940 Estate as an executive car, with an interior that matched the carmaker’s intentions. While the lower trim levels featured wool upholstery, the upper trim levels got a leather-clad cabin. The dashboard sported a smaller instrument cluster with five dials inside. Its trunk was one of the biggest on the market. With the rear bench flat folded, it could host up to 2,121 liters (74.9 cu-ft), while with all the seats in place, it could carry 992 liters (35 cu-ft) of luggage.

Under the hood, Volvo used the same powerplants as the 740. As the name suggested, it featured only inline-four units, but that wasn’t entirely true for Volvo’s flagship model. Apart from the gasoline units, the carmaker worked with Volkswagen and installed a range of turbo-diesel engines.