In a recent discussion with Bob Austin, the former head of PR for Volvo Cars, I learned the history behind the unique and very special Volvo Saved My Life Club. I, and some of my family members, have been protected from serious injury because of the safety that was engineered into the Volvos that we were driving, so I felt this was a tale worth sharing.

We'll let Bob tell the story of its founding in his own words.

"In January of 1990, I was head of Public Relations at Volvo. In a conversation with some folks in our consumer affairs department, I asked if they were still getting letters from people stating that they believed a Volvo had saved their life. They told me that the were still getting them at a rate of about one per week.

That set my mind to thinking about how we should be handling those wonderful letters. I came up with the idea of a club since there were many people who "qualified" to be in this club and they shared a common belief that a car had saved their life. Why shouldn't there be a club called the 'Volvo Saved My Life Club?'"

Read the Whole Article