Volvo quiz was over before it even began
Page 7
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
II A worldwide competition to win a 143,000 tractive unit on Volvo's web site descended into chaos and was over before the manufacturer announced the event to UK operators.
Commercial Motor received a press release from Volvo about the competition dated 6 June, but the 220hp, 15-tonne FL had been snapped up a week-and-a-half before by an enterprising entrant from Haarajoki in Finland.
To win the truck, entrants had to give a year between 1900-2000 for each of four photographs being slowly revealed at www.volve.com. One photograph was completely blank as late as 19 June; just four days before the competition deadline and it appeared no one had posted a correct entry.
It is believed that the Finnish entrant posted 100 entries with three correct answers and a fourth guess for the blank photo, trying every year from 1900-2000.
After the prize had been won the competition appeared to be still open. But when CM entered, the web site crashed for several hours.
The website then mixed up On's answers, claiming we had suggested Concorde's first flight was in 1927.
Volvo insists UK entrants could have won the prize, claiming anyone could have visited www.volvo.com before 26 May. It also says it has no information to suggest the problems CM had were wide-ranging, adding that answers to some questions were difficult to tie down because Sweden is currently taking its traditional summer holiday.
Did you enter the Volvo competition? Contact: CM on 020 8652 3670.