Just two short years ago, Volvo’s press flacks were talking a big game about Volvo’s luxury aspirations, saying things like
We want to continue to compete with Mercedes, BMW and Audi. We’re working to improve the premium-ness of the brand and our products.
Even as recently as this year, Volvo execs have made much of the need to “not damage the Volvo brand.” But, having been bought by the Chinese automaker Geely, the Swedish brand has changed its tune. Autocar quotes Volvo’s new CEO, Stephen Jacoby, saying
Let’s ditch this talk about premium. It sounds like a pricing strategy and it’s got an expensive ring to it. We need to focus on elegant Scandinavian simplicity, our own unique identity, and not copy our competitors.
We could have seen this coming based on Volvo’s decision not to chase China’s booming luxury market with a large luxury sedan. Geely’s strategy seems to be to make Volvo a volume player in China, (with 800k global units planned by 2020 according to the WSJ [sub]) but this “anti-premium” approach may come as a bit of an unpleasant surprise to Volvo’s clientele in mature markets. Can you see Volvo surviving in the US and Europe without premium products?
Was Volvo ever really a premium brand? Perhaps that was Ford’s biggest failing with Volvo, treating it like Jaguar or Aston Martin. I’ve always seen Volvo as being like a Swedish version of Volkswagen before VW went on its current quest for Toyota. Better than average, but not premium.
Exactly my thoughts. I’ve never understood how/why people are willing to pay Audi-like prices for a car that is really no better or different from a VW, Acura, or (now) a Hyundai. At some point, you’re going to reach the limit of people who will overpay for a badge. Volvo has a lot going for it–they lack VW’s unreliable reputation (even if they’re very close or worse!), have a long brand history of innovation in safety (even though most mfrs are just as good now), and they have the best seats in the business.
This is an intelligent move. I really like Volvos…for 20% less money.
The Volvo brand used to have (in the 1980’s) credibility as a well-built, reliable value-for-money vehicle. If it was a little more expensive than the cheap junk, that was only because it was built better – not because the badge had any ‘status’ connotations. It was only in the mid- to late-90’s that the perception shifted into the cheapo-luxe category.
not because the badge had any ‘status’ connotations.
Sure it did – it was the car of choice for the prosperous and educated upper middle class.
But that status wasn’t as a premium brand. The original Mini had status but it wasn’t a premium brand. Nor was the original Beetle. The word most people think of when you say Volvo is “safety”. The original stereotype of the Volvo owner was the college professor with the jacket with the leather elbow pads. Perhaps that is where the Volvo achieved its status; on college campuses back in the day?
I am with Jimal. The only status that Volvo ever had was to show its owner as practical and safety-concious, and willing to pay a little more for a better built car.
Trying to turn Volvo into a “premium” brand was Ford’s biggest error with Volvo. Volvo was an appliance. A very safe and well built appliance, but an appliance nonetheless.
Maybe they could become a feature designer for other car companies. So Ford could tout “Taurus, now with Volvo seats and Volvo safety belt technology”.
I welcome a move back to elegant simplicity (wonderful, two-word design brief). I was a long-time, loyal Volvo owner until they went modern “premium” which I date to the S80/S60. A return to understated design with a great greenhouse, solid reliability, and an emphasis on basic safety will put Volvo back on the map where it belongs.
putting it where it belongs indicates lack of progressive vision but yeah, I hear you. I drive a 240DL and I don’t clamor the new Volvo models, not after checking their sticker price. Plus they are following the Honda/Toyota scam of eliminating genuine wagons in favor of bloated SUV, i.e. the path of deficiency. And nobody can assertively tell anymore that Volvo’s durability is any different from Hyundai.
I think this is a smart move. As good as Volvos may be (which I know they have their moments) they really consistently aren’t a premium level car. If they return to being a good solid car with excellent reliability they might almost do better than trying to chase the premium buyer.
I agree, which is why I bought my ’04 S60 pre-owned for significantly less than the new sticker price. 4 years and 80K miles later I have never once regretted my purchase.
My car stickered for $34K new, which was nuts. At the $19K I bought it for, it’s been a fantastic value and a great car. If they can lower the prices on their new cars to the point where they become the sensible choice again I think they’ll thrive.
I’m with findude, except that I was skeptical when Ford took over the brand, and I’m even more so now with Geely.
Does anyone really care about Volvo ?
Sure, do you want to live in a world that only offers various forms of Sonata, Accord and Camry?
Forget “Premium” “non-Premium” They are but labels.
Just go back to rear wheel drive.
A brand used for mass market consumption in one market and premium pretenders in another? That’s crazy talk; that would be like having Mercedes Taxis or BMW cop cars.
Oh wait…
+1
+1
My Brick ram like a champ for 13 years with nagging stops along the way for seat foam replacement and cruise control refusing to be fixed ever. AC was nothing to write home about either. My V70 has comfy seats, but a growing list of nags including the leather wearing through from a far too thin wallet, door locks working when they feel like it, and dash dimmer not working- but what car brand is flawless?
The guy who compared it to VW is right. Not a top shelf car, but top shelf seats and decent suspension choices make it close enough.
Volvos always seemed pricey. As it happens I have a Time magazine in my office with a Volvo ad from 1990 offering leases of $2000 down and $250 a month for a 240 and $3000/$260 a month for a 740. A 760 turbo was pushing $450 a month.
You have to remember that the 88-90 760 was very different from the more proletarian 240 and 740. Base model 740’s could be very spartan on the accessories and had solid axles vs. 760’s didn’t even have options (in the US) other than V6 or turbo-4, every model came loaded and had things like IRS and computer-controlled climate control systems.
I have always had good luck with Volvo, the XC70 I have now has been a great car, albeit pricy, but they all are IMO. That said, this will be the last one, now I am looking at Ford after GM fumbled the Regal GS…again, my opinion…it will probably be a screaming success.
I am not going with Volvo again because I do not believe we should be supporting a Communist regime. It is that plain and simple. I always purchase non-Communist made material, tools, etc if available, even at a higher cost.
If they run from “premium” then lets see those prices come down. Not gonna pay bimmer prices for a gussied up volkswagen
Great news! Volvo was a bit of a poser in the near-lux segment, and while that may have been more profitable and a better direction for a small manufacturer, it really didn’t represent it’s core values very well. I’ve always felt that they’re really the more conservative of the two Swedish brands. Nothing flashy, just well engineered nordic Volkswagens for people who are looking for the polar opposite of an Italian car. If it takes Chinese corporate overlords to make that happen again, then that’s what it takes.
When I opened the hood of a V20 all I could see was a Ford Focus.
volvo saab
I have always seen Volvos being driven by educated snobs and their soccer-mom wives.
That being said, they’ve always been overpriced, especially for a company that just nearly but never quite made it to Merc/BMW territory.
As someone here said before, Subaru came in as a 2nd mover and completely ate Volvo + Saab’s lunch; price Volvo + Saab like Subarus and the brands will have a shot at survival.
Right! We hate educated people because they’re snobs! Good thing we all saw the true path to enlightenment and chose to not get educated.
Srogers: I wondered about that myself, like the term Poser, Poseur, etc. Does that mean someone that has something just for show? Like 4WD SUVs that never see dirt? Or fat out of shape people that wear athletic shoes and a Tapout shirt?
@srogers: Hahahahah! :), didn’t really mean it that way. Text is indeed a difficult medium with which to convey tone.
(And apparently there is always a member of the Internet-snark-Brownshirt/Sharptonian/Grammar Nazis just waiting to misinterpret things, so they can jump all over it.)
–What I meant was more akin to the nerdy, tweed-jacket-elbow-patch, liberal-arts-college English/Econ professor upper-middle-class -type.
-Who differ, at least slightly, from the more badge-whorish BMW/Merc yuppie I-Banker Finance-crook crowd.
Snobs of any type, educated or non, are repugnant; even irono-stache-sporting, indie-lo-fi-band-obscurity-mongering, fixie-riding Hipsterbags from Williamsburg.
Definitely not arguing against education. I’d assumed that permutation was so implicitly ludicrous that no sane, secure person would ever consider it…
-Oh, wait…
I have always seen Volvos being driven by educated snobs and their soccer-mom wives.
That being said, they’ve always been overpriced, especially for a company that just nearly but never quite made it to Merc/BMW territory.
Educated, maybe, but hardly snobs. Until about 1995, Volvos used to appeal to those who fancied themselves to be rational and down-to-earth to the point of reverse-snobbery. The cars themselves – especially the interiors – were usually refreshingly plain and sensible, at a time when the Japanese competition was getting a little too fond of the Boombox school of interior design. In the latter half of the 90’s, Volvo started chasing the douchebag demographic and sort of lost the plot.
They were always a more expensive compared to the Camry/Accord/Taurus competition – because they were perceived to be somewhat more solidly built, and not because of “status”. They always were significantly below the price of a similarly spec’ed Mercedes or BMW.
With styling this bland and nondescript, premium is the last thing that comes to my mind!
I got a brand new 08 V70 during the financial crisis at about 35% off sticker. I still can’t find anything that beats this car at that price ($29k).
So… Yeah, if Volvo drops their premium pricing they’ll do a lot better.
Volvo and Saab started out making cars for the common man, but were forced to retreat to the premium segment, especially by ever growing Japanese brands in the 80’s and 90’s. There simply was no way they could become big volume players and start pumping out Corolla, Accord or Golf competitors by the millions. It was a case of move over or get run over.
Saab is of course already doomed, as their business plan demands an increase of the profit margin on each car sold, meaning they must become a true luxury brand, which I really can’t see happening. Saab has little, diminishing or no presence in the US or China. Volvo on the other hand could perhaps still do something interesting with Geely backing them up financially, but I’m pessimistic.
Volvos days are numbered since being purchased by Geely. The Chinese and the Indians (Tata) are dooming some of the world’s premium brands to oblivion.