When Kirk Kekorian's mouthpiece Jerry York said Ford should get rid of Volvo,few commentators thought the deal would go down this quickly. Even though a Ford spokesman insists "we have been consistently saying since the end of last year that Volvo is not for sale," Automotive News [sub] reports that Ford is negotiating with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) to sell their Swedish division. SAIC currently has joint ventures with GM and VW to build and sell cars in China. They also own the rights to Rover; they're branching out with their own vehicles based on Rover cars under the Roewe brand. Buying Volvo would give SAIC a strong inroad to the European and American markets and/or another brand to play with in China. If this deal falls through, an unnamed Russian investor is rumored to be interested in buying Volvo. A word of caution to the brand's suitors: Gott lära av andras fel, eftersom man inte hinner begå alla själv.
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The dilution of Volvo continues… I’d buy a Ford-Volvo but not sure about a SAIC-Volvo. I’d still like to see a modern version of the 700-series. Solid, RWD with efficient turbo engines, excellent ergonomics, excellent handling, and reliable for 20+ years.
The new face of Volvo?
http://www.smotor.com/en/showroom/rodius/rodius_800_4.html
Guess I will be taking Volvo off my list of possible cars for the future. Didn’t really want a Ford owned Volvo but I know I don’t want a Chinese one. Maybe they will improve Volvo but I’m not going to be holding my breath.
Same here Redbarchetta, so much for “Volvo For Life”.
Yeah, I’ll be turning in my XC90 at lease end and won’t be leasing/purchasing another if this goes through.
With the Chinese manufacturers habit mimiking other brand names (Chery/Chevy, Roewe/Rover),will they rename the brand as Vulva?
Wow. I can see that going over like a lead balloon. Unless the point is to buy Volvo for it’s safety expertise (and address the generally awful crash performance of Chinese cars), this is about the worst possible option: Volvo’s customers are not at all going to accept the stigma of “Made in China”, even if it turns out to be unfounded.
I would think (or hope) that there would be competition to acquire the Volvo brand…even from the French (as they’ve had ties in the past and recently with the trucks).
And I’m sure there is some interest from within Sweden to keep Volvo as a Swedish company.
Isn’t the level of integration of Volvo/Ford pretty high? In any case, I can see some real benefits for a Chinese purchaser in addition to the Volvo name. Given that Ford is hurting, they might agree to some future sharing of technology that would have high value. Also, the plant locations wouldn’t have to change in the immediate future, so that should help in perception. In fact the new owner would likely do everything possible to increase quality and safety. This could be a very good deal for a Chinese buyer.
Yup…much as I didn’t really like the Tata acquisition of Land Rover and Jaguar, this really leaves a sour/bitter/crappy taste in my mouth (or was that the Chinese food I had for lunch?)
Isn’t the level of integration of Volvo/Ford pretty high?
Seeing how they stripped Rover’s Longbridge factory clean and took it all to China to make the Roewe and given the Chinese disregard for copyright and IP, I can see some cheap Fjord Mondoe and Fucos cars flooding the European markets in a couple of years.
Don’t read too much into this until Ford says something publicly. The Jag/LR sale was widely rumored, but when it actually moved forward, it was a fairly visible move. I also remember similar China rumors when Jag/LR were out there, as well as a Russian investor. However, none of that panned out, and only U.S. PE and established, credible auto companies were in the running after the first round (Tata and M-M are private companies light-years ahead of, say, SAIC, in quality and product dev capability).
However, Ford’s attachment to Volvo, operationally and financially, would require a lot of money to break. I’m not sure that SAIC or some random Russian investor would front the cash. I also doubt the Swedish government would let a Chinese organization own Volvo. I can see Ford selling off stakes in Volvo to raise money, but the two companies are too tightly coupled right now to just severe without a lot careful thought. Don’t get me wrong, I think it will happen, just not for at least another year or two.
As I (and others) have said before, the best possible solution would be a triangle deal between Ford, Renault/Nissan and Volvo Trucks.
Renault sells their truck business to Volvo Trucks. With that cash they can buy Volvo Cars from Ford. Win-win for all parts, everybody will be happy. Renault will get a premium/safety brand and a (bigger) foot in the US market. And they will finally make the deal that faded away into nothing fifteen years ago. Ford will get some cash, and Volvo Trucks will be the largest truck-company in the world.
so its ok to buy clothes, electronics, furniture and small tools made in China, but not an automobile……in case you haven’t noticed we use a lot of things now made in China.
“so its ok to buy clothes, electronics, furniture and small tools made in China, but not an automobile……in case you haven’t noticed we use a lot of things now made in China”
It’s called snob-appeal.
The Sultan of Brunei said he would stop shopping Rolls-Royces if it was to be sold to Volkswagen. And the sultanate had a standing lease on 200 brand new rollers every year. Lucky for him that BMW made their little coup.
The point is, brand cachet and image are very important. Nike sneakers could be made in a sweatshop anywhere, but would you buy a swiss clock for one hundred grand if it wasn’t made in Switzerland?
Ingvar that is a really good idea, it just looks to well packaged and perfect for everyone to work out. These things usually end up with some party that messes up the deal, for whatever reason.
My grandfather had a couple of French trucks in Puerto Rico, nice except when they constantly broke down. They were a bitch to work on and parts were impossible to get on the island, they sell the trucks but no parts for them. He often had to have my dad send him parts from the states just so his trucks wouldn’t be laid up for several weeks. Big parts too, I remember him sending some steering parts that look up half our garage.
so its ok to buy clothes, electronics, furniture and small tools made in China, but not an automobile……in case you haven’t noticed we use a lot of things now made in China.
The stuff is usually worthless junk, I would rather spend a little or a lot more and get something that last more than a year. And in most cases we are forced to buy that stuff because you can’t get the items from anywhere else even if you wanted to. That’s why I wont shop at Walmart anymore. Don’t get me wrong they do make some good Chinese goods you just rarely see them here because everyone wants the cheapest crap they can find. Some chinese guitars aren’t bad, just the tone woods aren’t of the same quality you can get here or in europe, but the build quality is comperable since it’s all CNC machined now a days.
Dump Mercury immediately instead of this. Ford/Lincoln/Volvo. Make sense? Maybe too much sense…
I try to not buy anything made in China but it’s difficult. The decision to not purchase a Chinese Volvo would be quite easy, though.
Not shopping at Wal-Mart greatly aids in not buying Chinese-made goods. However, buying electronics undoes that idea. I was upset to find out my new Grundig radio was made in China now… good thing I have the old ones for shortwave use.
My mind is probably off in fantasy land or it maybe the lack of caffeine. I’d like to see Honda buy Volvo. Acura has already becoming defunct with design snafus and loss of any standing as a maker of luxury vehicles.
Turn Acura into a sports / performance wing with a revised S2000 for small affordable sports performance car and add the CRX replacement. Then move up to rwd/awd version of the inline 4 turbo & v6 TL, the newly revised rwd/awd v6 & v8 RL, all the way to the flagship NSX.
Volvo takes over the luxury / near luxury end and merge into combined Acura Volvo Dealership – Swedish styling and safety mated with Japanese efficiency and quality.
Keep S80 / V70 / S60 / V50 / S40 / C30 / C70 (dump TSX / TL / CSX / XC 90 / XC 70). Keep MDX & RDX but have Volvo go over it – keep the engine / drivetrain though. Get rid of the Volvo R vehicles as they are the antithesis of Volvo’s true image.
hmm would that mean Chinese “owned” or Chinese “made” I wonder?
Just read economics of India, Volvo is laying off 2000 workers & staffs.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Volvo_Cars_says_to_cut_2000_jobs/articleshow/3164194.cms
Sales in America tanked.
What about their sharing platforms with other models, can it be still sold?
Maybe they can reduce the fantastic price of the XC70. While they’re at it, maybe they can make it fuel efficient.
Nice short, otherwise.
Every major player has huge manufacturing base in China especially those German brands. Congrats to all my friends who’s riding latest model of BMW/Benz. You got a lot of stuff coming from the same source as WalMart.There’s a little dirty rumor spreading for a while that many components with big “made in German” printings are literally packed and shipped from China. Guess what ? You’ll never tell.
I heard Volvo is one of the rare cases that none of their parts are from China. Now if SAIC win the bid, the only cars you can get without Chinese components may reduced to … panthers ?
Bad News PLZwiseup ….. those wonderful P1 platform cars (S40 V50 C30 C70) are full of parts made in China as are the new P3 cars (S80 XC70 V70 and soon XC60). As a Volvo tech I can tell you that I see these come in on the hook or driven in everyday with electrical problems that were non-exsistant in the P2 platform. Many had component failure during the PDI process although some of those were resolved in ’05-’06.
Sill the component failure rate far exceeds any P2 car. We now get brake rotors that say on the box ‘Made in China’ but the plastic packaging says ‘Made in Sweden’ … go figure. Volvo already has a plant in China for the P1 platform although they says it’s only for the Chinese market I would tend to disagree after watching the product quality decline since mid ’04 just before the launch of the P1 line (2004.5).
MasterTech
Two years passed, Ford was still hesitant. China buyer was the last one to take Volvo in the pocket. Chinese did very good on weapon and aerospace, to maintain a quality car will not be a issue.
World is always changing, I still remember how British look down the Germany goods, and force them to mark “made in German” on everything. Same happen to Japanese when they export car to US. Be patient.