Dave has been a Volvo enthusiast and supporter for over 35 years, but in April of 2018, Volvo Trademark Holdings in Sweden sent a cease and desist letter, forcing the removal of the “Volvo” typography.
The emblem continues to be offered in a variety of forms with just the prancing moose.
Prancing Moose History 101:
When the XC90 debuted in 2003, Volvo was busy organizing a number of test drive events, where quite a few Volvo fans (including me) came out to see and test-drive the new SUVs on fast cone slalom courses. Volvo was showing off their new and advanced Dynamic Stability Traction Control (DSTC), a first of its kind for an SUV.
Most courses allowed us to drive the cars by ourselves as many times as we wanted. Lots of good fun. One of the courses was a special slalom, where a professional driver would take a carload of folks in the new SUV, accelerate quickly to about 60 mph, and while keeping his foot firmly planted on the gas… to the floor, he would then crank the wheel as fast as he could one direction, then the other through a tight set of cones.
This maneuver simulated the sudden high-speed avoidance of an obstacle in the road, such as a moose (of course). Volvo was calling this course the “Moose Avoidance Test.” The DSTC was truly an amazing feature in this test. Many other tall vehicles would have certainly become unstable and possibly lost control, spun out or even rolled over during such an extreme maneuver, but Volvo’s DSTC took over the throttle and brakes and kept the big SUV in perfect form without a hint of trouble. Even with the driver’s foot to the floor, we could feel how the DSTC aggressively controlled the throttle and all four brakes, each brake independently, to keep the vehicle straight and stable. The result was the vehicle exiting the course, still at 60 mph plus, with perfect composure. This stuck in my mind as a remarkable event and something no other SUV at the time would dare try without a full roll cage and everyone in helmets.
Then in January 2005, when Volvo began showing their special concept XC90 at car expos, I spotted one of them at the Los Angeles Car Expo. It was sporting a shield sticker with a moose profile on its fender. That sticker got a lot of smiles from the crowd. I instantly thought of designing the Prancing Moose as a parody of the Ferrari prancing horse and it then found its way onto my Volvo wagon for the next show I attended. (source: Dave Barton)
