Comments on: Ford moves to boost Volvo profitability ahead of potential sale

By: autonut

autonut — Wed, 21 May 2008 01:49:35 +0000

Victor, I concur that Mustang is the best looking car Ford produces. But it is retro look of a 40 year old car. The program manager for the original was Lee Iaccoca who was so well treated after most successful product lunch he left Ford.

By: VictorRaikkonen

VictorRaikkonen — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:49:12 +0000

^^^ Ford is “nothing” period as far as I am concerned. The mustang is the best looking car in all of their brands, not inclusive of Mazda, and I personally thing the car is ugly as sin. But, when it comes to Volvo, they never made what one could call attractive cars to begin with. Prior to Ford’s acquisition, all of their cars looked as if they crafted the concept car out of legos and then decided to run with it. Anyway, if there is a boring car company that needs to purchase another boring car company, it is Honda’s Acura division.

By: 1c3d0g

1c3d0g — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:02:57 +0000

Ford’s last mistake would be to sell Volvo. Without them, they are nothing. Ford, don’t do something stupid and regret it later!

By: kitko

kitko — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:41:13 +0000

In other words, the only profitable part of Ford family is Mazda, which, unlike Volvo Cars (completely under Ford ownership), is only an affiliate, since Ford with around 35% of shares is just a single largest shareowner.

Interestingly enough, Mazda reinvented itself immediately after the departure of Ford’s Mark Fields who turned the company that gave us headturning Mazda MX-3, MX-6, amazing Xedos 6 and 9, and amazing European 323 series (replaced in 1999), into a company still producing excellent and reliable cars, but the cars that were so anonymous and, let’s face it, dull looking, that nobody took any interest in….

Interestingly enough, Mr. Fields was charged with heading Ford’s luxury division comprising, ehm, Volvo and Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover…. Now that’s a resume

By: DialM4Speed

DialM4Speed — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:01:03 +0000

Oh here we go again huh Ford? Wait till someone wants to buy the products then sell the company off! Yeah makes great sense… not!

By: howsmydriving

howsmydriving — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:09:37 +0000

Death to Volvo.

By: stick2clutch

stick2clutch — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:03:24 +0000

cookie, you’re right… it’s almost like they make it a point to hold on to unprofitable companies. once profitable they get rid of it. i think there might be something wrong with that logic.

By: stick2clutch

stick2clutch — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:01:29 +0000

cookie, you’re right… it’s almost like they make it a point to hold on to unprofitable companies. once profitable they get rid of it i think there might be something wrong with that logic.

By: xyunya

xyunya — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:59:53 +0000

I think it is a wishful thinking. You cant rape a brand and then expect it to be profitable. Why would Europeans spend more money on Volvo if they can get the same content in Ford? That is were “expensive” money is. On this side of the pond Volvo stuck with collecting cheap dollars for product manufactured with expensive krone. How do you make it profitable? There is no Volvo plant in Mexico. You can build that, but not in 18 months and I doubt that this would elevate the brand and price, i.e. profitability.
I believe that 50-60% of Volvo sales came from US. And Volvo are very nice cars, but they had some cache when it was family run smallish car company. Once it is became Ford, why would one buy it? They do have good station wagon line-up, but expensive and not any better or worse then Lexus, Infinity and Acura luxury CUV/SUV. Their SUV is overpriced and underpowered compare to competition. And I think the same can be said about car line-up. Folks who shed 40-50K for a family car usually don’t street race, but they maybe aware that Volvo at least 30-40 ponies behind Japanese competition and since Ford days quality did not exactly jumped up.

By: cookie4me

cookie4me — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:40:26 +0000

Funny how a manufacturer would wait to increase profitability when contemplating a sale. If they had made the necessary changes long ago, the increased margins would have eliminated any consideration of a sale.

By: johnnycanuck

johnnycanuck — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:38:21 +0000

Volvo needs a halo car in their lineup. Perhaps something along the lines of the ‘world’s safest sports car’. I realize that’s pretty unlikely given the current prospects, but maybe something for the next owner to mull over. I don’t know why, but I can’t help but feel Ghosn may have something to say before it’s all over.

By: Veda

Veda — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:08:55 +0000

The new S80 is an impressive car at a very nice street price. Hopefully Volvo will be able to find a good parts supplier once it’s out of Ford’s hands.