We've been helping to circulate rumors of possible Volvo sales recently, most of which have centered on Chinese firms as the potential buyer. All the while Ford has insisted that Volvo isn't for sale; statements which we've treated with the incredulity that all pre-sale denials deserve. But it seems Ford's sticking with the Swedes. In a post on his Autocar blog, Hilton Holloway describes Volvo's 20-year quest to emulate Audi's upmarket appeal, and its utter failure to escape its stodgy image. One Volvo exec tells Holloway that "he wished he had BMW's customers, who would tick all the options boxes and update their car every couple of years." Obviously that's not about to happen anytime soon. So FoMoCo is set to dial back Volvo's upmarket ambitions and reposition the Gothenberg brand as a VW-style "upmarket mainstream" marque. This means building cheaper cars that are "more closely related to Ford models" so that U.S. production can boost Volvo's profit margins. It also means Volvo wants to hoik sales from 420k to 600k vehicles per annum. The new Volvos could be green lighted as early as January. With such short development times, look for Volvo to descend into the bowels of brand engineering with its new generation of high-volume models. It could well be "one Ford" too many.
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And this, ladies and gentlemen, could just seal the fates of Mercury and possibly Lincoln.
Unless Ford is planning to pull Lincoln upmarket (which they can do safely, now that they needn’t worry about crowding Jaguar and Land Rover), this is going to create a bit of a squeeze, what with Lincoln being, well, not good enough to slot in above Volvo. Combined with Lincoln’s “Damaged Goods” status, something’s gotta give: either re-invention or a quick death.
It also puts Mazda in a bit of a pinch: they’ve been more than holding their own against Volkswagen and Acura. Smacking Volvo into the same niche won’t help either company.
psarhjinian is right. There’s only so much room for Mazda, Mercury and Lincoln at this (25-45k) price point. Let’s not forget the competition outside of Ford too. And since they can’t sell Lincoln-Mercury (or good luck trying) they’re better off selling Volvo.
And kudos for the V8olvo picture. JL and Converse Engineering must be thrilled.
To be totally honest, a 244 with a Mustang 305 and a 5-speed is pretty much my dream car.
We’re actually going to get our V8olvo registered so it’s street legal. That’s how much we love it.
Volvo should follow our lead. Henry Fjord FTW.
I dont’know why they don’t sell Volvo. Ford Lincoln and Mercury are more than enough and are in need of enough attention.
Ok~~so for the time being I guess they’re not selling Volvo (we’ll see how long that lasts). The one thing that really bugs me though is why the execs in Gothenburg don’t try to sway Ford AWAY from selling the brand to a company other than one based in Sweden (Couldn’t Ford just sell Volvo to Volvo~~in the long run it would be worth the financial burden for Volvo to be dictated by themselves again and finally get out of their mess with Ford). I mean, Volvos are still loved in that country, and they’ve already seen how foreigners mess up their product lines. I know Volvo doesn’t have the deepest wallet, but if they could just be solitary again, they’d have the ability to get back to their roots and fight it out without any stupid interference.
I rode in an S80 on my birthday :) once and it was the best/most comfortable sitting experience I’ve ever had in a car—-hooray for ergonomically correct designs!
In itself, VW’s “upmarket mainstream” is exactly where Volvo should be, and it could make full use of its reputation for reliability.
Yes, it does conflict with (moribund) Lincoln and Mercury, but only in the U.S.
And Volvo was never given a chance against BMW. Audis are front drivers too, but have awesome interiors, great engines, and S/RS versions to act as halo cars. Volvo’s sexy sheet metal is not enough to make it compete head-on with the Germans.
This said, brand-engineering may hurt volvo pretty bad. Look what it did to said Lincoln and Mercury.
However, I don’t see Mazda as a problem. Volvo is more “safe”, Mazda more “zoom-zoom”.
For what its worth, Volvo won me from VW, mostly because they had a small wagon (no Jetta yet). And for their Euro Ncap safety ratings. And for their interior. My V50 is on the Ford platform, and so far is an excellent car. So I guess Ford decided I’m the target demo and all Volvos should follow this model. Woot!
Which traditional Volvo brand values could be employed by Volvo nowadays? Which ones could signify a unique selling proposition?
Based on past but still-cherished models such as the Amazon, 240, 740, I think Volvo should mean
a- guaranteed reliability to 200 k miles,
b- class-leading seats,
c- class-leading safety according to real-world data,
d- good TCO (total cost of ownership) compared to other European cars,
e- not great sportiness, but careful attention to making a car easy to drive 500 miles in a day,
f- Scandinavian design appeal.
Car branding too often circles around simplistic concepts of sportiness, sexiness, or “premium” appeal. Apart from my point C which is a difficult sell (although many people still think Volvos are the safest), you could make a modern Volvo appealing if you concentrated on the above values, I would say.
Based on past but still-cherished models such as the Amazon, 240, 740, I think Volvo should mean
a- guaranteed reliability to 200 k miles,
I dunno. My family has had, gosh, 5 volvos over the past couple of decades (240’s through s50) and they were very solidly constructed and safe, BUT…while they certainly lasted a looooong time, they were *never* particularly reliable–certainly not Japanese-reliable.
Stuff was always breaking, but the rest of the car was still soldiering on sufficiently to make spending yet more loot on fixing it seem worthwhile. TCO I would say was pretty harsh though….all those repairs stretching out across a-never-say-dead platform.
Now that the rest of the auto-world has finally got the safety tune that for decades only Benzo’s and Volvos were playing, the rationale for buying one got a lot tougher.
Terrifying depreciation and a sparse dealer network are a bit of a turnoff. Maybe they could try to “IKEA” the brand and capitalize on it’s scandanavian qualities. Or is that SAAB’s thing already?
As far as reliability, JDPA shows the XC90 on their “Least reliable” list while the S60 is on the reliable “Recommended” list with a number of Japanese makes. This explains the number of XC90s I see on flatbeds.
Ford should most definately emulate Ikea for Volvo. Style, form, function at a decent price. Its a winning proposition as long as it doesn’t come in a box and you have to assemble it yourself.
Volvo is the new Mercury.
An that’s all there is to it…
I understand that the reliability problems with the XC90 (and the S80) seem to be mostly from the Yamaha-sourced 4.4 liter V-8. The Yamaha-sourced V-6 and V-8 engines used in the Ford Taurus SHO had similar reliability problems. Lincoln may have unwittingly dodged a bullet when they decided not to use the Yamaha 4.4 liter V-8 in their Taurus-based MKS.
OTOH, Volvo’s own inline 5 and 6-cylinder engines seem to be pretty reliable, although the 5-cylinder is kind of rough sounding.
What I can’t understand is why Ford prioritised the sale of JLR over Volvo. In Volvo you have a company with the wrong models, in the wrong countrys and at the wrong prices. They have’nt even begun to execute a turn around plan. Even Volvo’s technology is’nt so unique now.
By contrast Jaguar is most of the way through it’s turnaround plan. Land Rover continues to make strong profits in difficult times for SUV makers and JLR has more impressive tech than Volvo with things like e-terrain technology which is designed to reduce Co2 emmisions significantly on future models from 2010. The hard works been done at JLR but Ford’s only just kicking this off at Volvo. Finally in JLR Ford owned two premium brands but now it only has one sub premium brand in Volvo (excluding Lincoln). Margins are so much hiher at Land Rover than Volvo. So why on earth did Ford sell JLR first at a bargain price? Poor decision making in my view.
Let’s see if I’ve got this straight. Volvo used to be what Subaru is now; a good utilitarian vehicle. Volvo tried to run with the Audis and BMWs but couldn’t. So Ford is dialing back Volvo to be what Mercury is now. Mercury is being dialed back to a small car brand. Is that about right?
To be totally honest, a 244 with a Mustang 305 and a 5-speed is pretty much my dream car.
I thought your dream car was an El Camino. My bad.
1998S90 :
August 13th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Mercury is being dialed back to a small car brand.
Well, that ain’t going to work. Mercury doesn’t even have a small car right now. They have a mid-sized car (Milan), two full-sized cars (Grand Marquis and Sable), and two SUVs (Mountainer and Mariner). They are going to turn this into Scion? Good luck with that. Whiplash changes in brand positioning (of anything, not just cars) always fail.
For a car example of failed repositioning, see the disaster that is Saturn (although in terms of GM, Saturn is failing the least of all their brands currently (they were “only” down 13.6% in July, the “best” of any GM brand, although Year To Date (Jan-July) they were down 17.9%, which was worse than Caddy, Chevy, or Pontiac)). Saturn went from selling Corolla-clones to selling everything except Corolla-clones (the Astra is a hatchback only, and pretends to be a “European hot hatch”, although it’s not quick at all). So, now they have fewer sales with five models than they did back when they only had one. (Seriously. Saturn’s July 2008 sales (five current models, plus a few leftover Ions and Relays) were 17,603. The Saturn L-series (their first non-compact) was introduced in July 1999. They sold 222 in a partial month’s sales that month-and 20,057 of the original Saturn S-series Corolla-clone.)
And FWIW some Volvo Brand Fun over on Jalop
http://jalopnik.com/400362/volvo-safety-center-crashes-cars-and-rides-on-air
I thought it was just GM which had too many overlapping brands (sarcasm alert).
Hey, Mr. M. and Mr. F., how about this, from a seasoned, old auto industry observer?
Make Ford the bread & butter make worldwide. A la Toyota and Honda. But with some trucks (not all trucks and SUVs), much like Toyota. You’re doing that. Good. Bring over the Euro-Fords. You’re doing that. Good. (BTW you should never have STOPPED doing that but we can’t go back 20 years and insert brains into the then-management).
As for Mercury, give it a rest. Instead of bringing Euro-Fords over badged as Mercury, bring them over badged honestly – as VOLVO, and build them here to save dough ray me. So the plan to have the Volvo BRAND compete in the $25k to $45k market should be tweaked, to move it downmarket to the $20k to $35k market (and dump the unreliable SUVs already). This will mean Volvo competing against the Lexus, lower end Audi, maybe Volkswagen, dare I say it, upper end Hyundai buyers (Hyundai is nobody to laugh at, having just made #5 global auto manufacturer earlier than their self-described goal by several years).
Lincoln should mean American style luxury CARS, thanks. Even if they are engineered underneath in Australia, whatever you’ve got to do. Otherwise, kill it.
Mazda is not broken, so don’t “fix” it.
menno :
I say two brands good, three brands bad. GM: Chevy and Cadillac. Toyota: Toyota and Lexus. Ford: Ford and Lincoln. Daimler: Mercedes and Maybach. I mean, AMG. Or Maybach. BMW: BMW and MINI. Chrysler: Chery and Infiniti.
veefiddy :
“And FWIW some Volvo Brand Fun over on Jalop”
Really interesting link. It shows that Volvo puts really invests a lot of money and effort in safety.
I think Ford’s idea to bring Volvo back to its roots is brilliant. Thinking that Ford should have only two models ignores the fact that Ford is an international brand. Europeans or Asians are not any more interested in Mercury than they would be in Rush Limbaugh.
Volvo should take back the Toyota crowd. Sell as safe hybrid with a long warranty. As long as people don’t have to pay for repairs, they will be more tolerant of a few glitches with the radio or some such.
I am on my fourth Volvo. I have owned a P1800S, 142E, 240 wagon and now an S40T5AWD. All manual trannies. I loved them all. I often lament that I can’t buy a new S80 for $25k instead of 35k. That is exactly where Volvo needs to go.
Just get rid of both SAAB and Volvo, nobody’s really going to miss them Neither one has been on the public radar screen since what ….the late 80’s-early 90’s ?. Volvos are about as exciting as a box of Lincoln Logs.
Unless I’m losing my mind, I recall reading about two months ago that Volvo was improbably planning to move upscale, possibly ditching the C30 and riding straight into BMW/Audi territory. I’m equally dubious about this latest rumor, and at any rate I strongly suspect that Ford will unload Volvo as soon as auto sales improve and credit loosens enough for Ford to get a decent price. All this debate about brand positioning will then become moot.
Much of the unreliability of many modern Volvo comes directly from excess complexity poorly executed.
The same is true of many other Euro brands … that and the fact that they are all chock full of Bosch electronics. For years people have made fun of England’s Lucas electronics, but I’ve had more trouble with various Bosch bits not to mention the real POS Bosch dishwasher we finally scrapped when it was only six years old.
Speaking of which, what is it with German plastics being so short lived? Our four year old German made Whirlpool front loader recently broke down because the plastic door latch failed mid-load. When I had a Scirocco years ago certain plastic clips started failing on a regular basis only a month after I bought the thing. The previously mentioned Bosch dishwasher routine coughed up failed internal plastic parts. Do the consumers of Europe just expect and accept this kind of thing?
Volvo is and has been for sale for some time (just not official). Time will tell all. Volvo further, is a dead brand rolling, has been for some years. The car simply is akin to Chrysler, just not much to be had, so patrons go elsewhere.
As for Lincoln, whew what a re-labeled, thin skinned Ford in funky clothing.
Ford’s auto divisions (Mazda, Lincoln, Mercury, Volvo, Ford)are a complete impasse (as are several others companies autos). We will continue to see strange change in the US automotive landscape.
Areitu :
August 13th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Terrifying depreciation and a sparse dealer network are a bit of a turnoff. Maybe they could try to “IKEA” the brand and capitalize on it’s scandanavian qualities. Or is that SAAB’s thing already?
SAAB has a thing??? You mean besides a 40 year history of butt ugly styling? If GM traded Ford the SAAB name heads up for Mercury it would be a hard call as to who won that deal. The only advantage Mercury has is Ford spends only about $10 on new badges to make a Ford into a Mercury while GM spends a fortune making SAAB’s no one wants.
Taking Volvo back to it’s European Subaru position is the only hope.
Volvo has a great car in the V50/S40. S60 not so much.