At 10am on 14 April 1927, sales manager Hilmer Johansson drove the first production Volvo - an ÖV4 model - off the line at the Lundby factory in Göteborg.
Now, 85 years later, the same model has been driven through exactly the same gates to celebrate Volvo's birthday, with Stefan Jacoby, president of Volvo Cars and Olof Persson, CEO of the Volvo Group, aboard.
Jacoby, who recently premiered the new V40 at the Geneva motor show, laughs when he says: “It's a fantastic car, but it's easy to see how much has changed over the last 85 years.”
Volvo founders Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson had no direct experience of cars or the automotive industry and, during its first year of production, Volvo sold a very modest 300 cars.
SWEDEN’S BIGGEST COMPANY
However, business really started to take off the next year when they started making trucks and buses as well.
Volvo Cars is now in the premium segment and last year sold about 450 000 cars in 120 countries, while the Volvo Group produces trucks under the Volvo, Renault, Mack and UD brands, together with buses, construction equipment, drive systems for marine and industrial applications and components for aircraft engines.
It's the world's second-biggest manufacturer of heavy trucks and Sweden's largest company.
And it all started with this little, wooden-framed, two-litre cabriolet.