The Volvo 440 and 460 are versions of a small family car produced by the Swedish manufacturer Volvo between June 1988 and September 1996. The 440 was a five-door hatchback and the 460 a four-door saloon which followed in 1989. They were built at the NedCar factory in Born, the Netherlands and were only offered with front-wheel drive. They shared many components with the earlier Volvo 480 coupé, including floorpan, front and rear suspension, engines from Renault, transmissions, and braking systems. Design and styling The Volvo 440/460 Series models were designed to fit in below Volvo's bigger saloon and estate cars as a replacement to the 340/360 Series, to compete with the likes of the Ford Sierra. Development of the 440/460/480 started in 1978, as part of the "Galaxy Project" which was to create two lines of front-wheel drive cars to replace the 300- and 200-series. The smaller line was called G1, while the larger G2 was to become the new Volvo 850. The first G1 mule, designed by Jan Wilsgaard and called the G4, was completed in September 1980 and looked largely identical to the finished Volvo 440. The G1 project was split into three branches, the G13 becoming the 480, the G14 the 460, and the G15 the 440. In 1982, the entire project was sold by Volvo to Volvo Car B.V. in the Netherlands (the successor company to DAF), who started work on the 480 coupé version. As was Volvo's tradition, a new line of cars was always introduced with the most expensive and lowest selling model first, allowing Volvo time to iron out any problems before starting volume production. The 480 had a lot of problems in its first year of production, and the Dutch office did not have the manpower to complete the G15 (440). A lot of the work was thus subcontracted to two English companies. With the project being shifted to the Netherlands, then partially shifted to England, and further held up by the troubled gestation and initial production of the 480, the 440 looked rather dated by the time it was introduced. While the actual design is credited to Peter van Kuilenburg, Gothenburg had laid down a lot of design provisions since this was to be a volume product for the company, and the final result looked near identical to Wilsgaard's 1980 design. A station wagon was never offered, to avoid competing