"Volvo had a fairly clear message, and a strong value proposition"
- That's a true statement, but that reputation alone was not enough to attract a sufficient number of buyers to the Volvo brand to make it a profitable independent automoblie manufacturer and consequently the Volvo car company was put up for sale. which as we all know, was purchased by Ford Motor company in 1999.

"In the lust for bigger sales, they drove their costs through the roof to bring out some more stylized cars....then had to sell out as style didn't translate into big numbers for Volvo...at least not big enough to cover the staggering new costs. "
Oh yes, Volvo (and Ford) lusted for bigger sales, it all relates to something called a "Profit and Loss Statement", if you make profits, well, you stay in business. if you continually incur losses, well then you go out of business OR you put yourself up for sale to the highest bidder and then take the money and run.(if your Volvo) or, if your Ford motor Company, you seize a great opportunity to acquire the best safety engineering talent and resources of any car company in the world with the intention of applying this technology and good old "know how" to Ford products. i.e..Did you know that the 2002 Ford Explorer has side air curtains as standard equipment which , by the way, were designed by Volvo engineers for use in the Ford Explorer ?

"then had to sell out as style didn't translate into big numbers for Volvo...at least not big enough to cover the staggering new costs. "

Hog Wash. Volvo generated a $700,000,000.00 PROFIT in 2001( 700 million dollars) ! 2001 also was an all time record sales year for Volvo.

"Volvo no longer controls its own destiny";
Volvo has the MOST autonomy of all the PAG brands,(except Aston Martin)(I know this first hand, I work in Product Development at Ford) and Ford has approved 6.2 BILLION dollars for product development for Volvo. payable at 3.1 billion a year, for the next 2 years.

"Today, Ford owns too many overlapping marques and straightening out this mess may ultimately prove impossible"

Well David I agree with you .but, I will only address the Volvo marque at this time. Volvo will be getting back to it's "roots" and will once again place emphasis on it's reputation for safety and durability. That's what I hear anyways.

"their destiny is in the hands of the people don't know why we buy European cars in the first place, people who turned Jaguar into an $8billion financial basket case. "
Ford was overly agressive in the marketing of the Jaguar brand(i.e discounted leases etc. ) and has admitted that it resulted in a diminished perception of the Jaguar brand, a loss of prestige, a loss of exclusivity. this mistake was admitted to the members of the automotive press by the Jaguar marketing people and I can assure you that this mistake will not, I repeat, will not happen to Volvo. Ford is not about to re-badge Mazda "6" sedans as Volvo V/S 40'S or whatever model you seem to think. however, they will be scrutinizing component costs and looking for opportunities to share basic generic parts across all of the vehicle lines. i.e. glovebox hinge assemblies . this is what the former head of Mazda, (and now the head of the PAG group),is his forte.- reduced cost of components without a reduction in quality and the sharing of components across all vehicle lines. .


"If we're lucky, they'll sell Volvo to pay the losses on Jaguar."

No such luck David, but I would like it if Ford sold Aston Martin, it has only made money twice in it's entire existence and then there is Land Rover....but that is a different board... I want you to know one thing David, Ford is committed to keeping Volvo as a separate and distinct brand that retains all of the Volvo dynamics that make a Volvo a "Volvo" but keep in mind that they must also make a profit, it is a business after all.
Well that's all for now, I find thatI spend way too much time on this board, but I'm not complaining.


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You will never leave where you are until you decide where you would rather be - 2002 V70 stk, /w /tinted windows