Travel Tips

The Factory Delivery Center or FDC is a modern, well laid out building. As you can see in the photo, the grounds are landscaped and well maintained. When you go to pick up your new Volvo, you will probably be excited and not notice the small details about the building and grounds like the covered entrance for inclement weather. There are umbrellas and luggage carts at the entrance to help you get unloaded and relaxed in the building. You will probably spend at least a couple of hours in the building, so enjoy. The picture includes some used Volvos parked in front. These are probably cars being turned in for shipment. If you look carefully, there are some stretch limos too. We were taken on the factory tour in these.

I am sure the Volvo folks have another name for the main room in the FDC, but I don't remember what it is. This room is very large, light, and airy. When we visited the weather was clear, bright and sunshine. I suspect the high ceilings, light woods, metal fixtures, plenty of windows , and ample lighting make the FDC a more cheerful and inviting place in dark and inclement weather times. That's Hans in the picture, rushing to help someone unload, load, etc. The delivery room is at the far end of the room and the picture was made from the display areas of the large, rectangular room. The main service desk is prominent in the right, center of the picture. Offices and services areas are to the right of the picture and are split level floors above the main room.

There were two cars on display when we visited, a cutaway S60 and a V70XC AWD Cross Country. The XC is the biggest selling car for Volvo in the USA, and it is the model we purchased. The car display was much more interesting after taking the factory tour, since the cutaway provided insight into the materials and design of the vehicle (pun intended). The focus on the display was safety, my impression being that Volvos are the safest cars on the road today, and quality of materials and manufacturing. In the foreground of the picture are some chairs and a table, Scandinavian design, of course. There were plenty of these table/chairs spots throughout the main room for waiting guests to relax/work.

This is a raised floor area between the main desk and the delivery room. It has a number of tables and chairs, refreshment/snack machines, water (plain and carbonated), and a computer with internet access. When we took delivery of our new XC the keyboard was a "Swedish" keyboard and we found that the "hunt & peck" method of typing was the most efficient method of composing messages because it avoided hitting a key that had a Swedish character. When we dropped off our used Volvo for shipment to the USA four weeks later, the keyboard was an easier to use, more "Americanized" version. This is where we sat to write post cards. There is a stack of post cards at the main desk, and you just drop them in the Volvo mail box near the front door, they take care of the postage.

The delivery room is very, very interesting. While you are at the main desk or at one of the tables around the room distracted by the paperwork, they "sneak" the car into the delivery room. Then, when everything is ready, you turn around and magically there's your new car! Do you think they have done this a few times??? When we took delivery, we were new to the process, suffering from the inevitable jet lag, and just not paying attention. Later, at turn in, I examined the delivery room and discovered this door to a garage where the cars are staged before being brought into the delivery room. One very, very interesting note-the delivery room is carpeted, and the carpet has not one oil stain or tire mark on it.

This is the door through which you must drive your new Volvo to exit the delivery room. The test track is outdoors, just behind the grassy berm and blue sign in the picture. It is a very simple, flat track that I estimate as a quarter mile track. Note the overhang outside the exit door, great design for inclement weather. My guess is that Volvo will not be building any cars wider than the exit door? (guess I will keep my day job and not attempt a career as a comedian). Can you spot the oil stains and tire tracks on that floor?

If you are as compulsive as I am, you worry about things like "how am I going to handle all my baggage, where can I store it while I am taking a shower?". This is a picture of the baggage room where you can wheel in your loaded luggage cart that you picked up at the front door when unloading from the limo that brought you to the FDC. Those are lockers against the wall, and you can put anything you are really worried about in them and take the key with you if you go to lunch later. I didn't take any pictures of the bathrooms. There are two of them, and one has a shower. As with everything else at the FDC, they are clean, well designed, and first class in every respect. There is also a nursery/playroom for the kids, but we didn't use it.

One of the things you probably will want to do is add accessories to your new Volvo. At the FDC they have a number of displays around the main room with accessories. There is also a display cabinet just in front of the raised floor break area with small Volvo items. The picture is of the large display near the cars, just inside the entrance door, to the right. I had a dealer stateside print up a quote sheet for the accessories we were most interested in, racks, coolers, mats, nets, etc. When I got to the FDC, I compared prices, and in every case, the FDC prices respresented substantial savings. Our accessories included the rear seat integrated cooler box and the divider pocket that went into the gap left by the removed rear seat center section.