Volvos Tough, but Finally Crushed in Ad Rebuttal

Hot rod enthusiasts today saw that a 13,000-pound “monster truck” could indeed crush a Volvo, but not without a little trouble.

In response to a television commercial that Volvo has pulled from the air, the U.S. Hot Rod Assn. staged a demonstration of the power of a monster truck against a Volvo in the parking lot of the Spectrum sports arena.

The ad had appeared to show Volvo as the only car left relatively intact after a monster truck called Bearfoot ran over a line of autos. It was later learned that the Volvo in the ad had been reinforced, and the embarrassed company withdrew the ad this week.

Today, with TV crews and a small crowd gathered, Bearfoot had another go at the Swedish car.

This time, the junked Volvos were no match over the long haul. But Bearfoot and two other monster trucks, Predator and Black Stallion, needed a few swipes to get the job done. The roar of the trucks drowned the crowd’s cheers with each pass.

Predator crushed a line of five cars--a Pontiac, three Chevys and a Volvo in the middle. The roof of the Volvo wagon held up enough that it apparently would have protected passengers.

Then Black Stallion took one run at a line of six Volvos, breaking them in for four runs by Bearfoot. One on the end gave the trucks particular trouble. Bearfoot finally finished by coming at an angle to smash roof supports on one that had remained standing.

Bearfoot driver Todd Blaeser said he was surprised by how well the Volvos held up. But, asked if Volvo had passed the test, he looked at the pile of six crushed cars with his truck on top of it and said, “It doesn’t look like it, does it?”

“We’ve run into Volvos that have stood out in a pile of cars as being tougher,” said Blaeser, 23, of Chippewa Falls, Wis.

Volvo spokesman Robert Austin watched the car stomping on television from his office, and said that while the Volvos “didn’t come out unscathed,” they appeared to hold up well compared with other cars.

At one point, Predator got stuck on the Volvo on its third pass over the five cars.

“It was apparent that the Volvo was standing up to the full weight of the truck. So I would leave it to the public to draw their own conclusions.”