Ford is not going to sell off its Volvo brand, Mark Fields, Ford’s president of the Americas, has told the Detroit Free Press. He said the automaker is “pretty integrated” into Ford, suggesting a sale of the brand would neither be wise nor easy.
Previous reports indicate BMW considered making a bid for Volvo earlier this year, but decided against it. Renault has been said to have been interested in Volvo, as has Volvo Trucks. However, it appears Ford is not interested in offers.
Land Rover, Jaguar for sale
As for Land Rover and Jaguar, Ford has not denied plans to sell the companies. As previously reported, the U.S. automaker has hired investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to pursue the sale of the two companies.
The latest rumors indicate Cerberus Capital Management — the company that recently agreed to buy the Chrysler Group from Daimler-Benz — is among the companies interested in buying Jaguar and Land Rover.
Ford sold its Aston Martin brand in May for $848 million. With Land Rover and Jaguar gone, Ford’s PAG (Premier Automotive Group) will essentially be dismantled.
Room to grow
With Jaguar out of the picture, Volvo will be Ford’s sole European premium brand. As Ford’s most premium automaker, Volvo will be free to compete fully with Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz, assuming Ford choses to use it this way.
06/27, 12:41 PM
posted by:
jonnycat
Finally a smart decision by Ford.
06/27, 1:02 PM
posted by:
global_lightning
You know who should buy Jaguar? Proton. Combine it with Lotus: both are historic British marques, one specializes in sports cars, the other luxury cars.
Land Rover and Jeep together make sense, otherwise another company could put a premium off-road name to good use.
06/27, 1:12 PM
posted by:
Veda
Proton actually makes some really sharp handling cars due to its Lotus DNA. It also has some nicely done sporty visual designs both inside out though unfortunately the quality of the interior material is equal if not a bit less to Daihatsu. But due to the handling I wouldn’t mind getting one…
06/27, 3:26 PM
posted by:
1c3d0g
Agreed, johnnycat. It’s one of the few smart decisions that have come out of Ford lately.
06/27, 4:43 PM
posted by:
deutschetouring1337
Ok whoever is reporting on this particular story please STFU!.
06/27, 6:19 PM
posted by:
2008PowerStrokeF450Lariat
i think it will be a smart move for ford to sell of landrover and jaguar. and since they will keep volvo, we could be seeing some nice cars coming from the vovlo brand. like i said on weeks ago, since the new explorer will be a crossover based vehicles, they can base off ofs volvos xc90 suv. now thats a BOLD MOVE!!!
06/27, 7:47 PM
posted by:
1c3d0g
Exactly! A high-quality SUV for the masses that doesn’t guzzle fuel, looks good, does well in crash tests and performs more than adequately…is this really so hard to achieve? I mean, damn! You gotta get it right some time, right?
06/28, 3:26 AM
posted by:
04focus
Would selling Jag and LR mean moving Lincoln upmarket too? Now that would be exciting news! Think Ford+bling=Mercury, and Volvo+bling=Lincoln?
06/28, 8:49 AM
posted by:
angelo
I wouldn’t hold my breath for Volvo-based Lincolns. Although, it’s not inconceivable that some platform sharing would occur.
06/28, 1:15 PM
posted by:
Scarface03
angelo,
I hope for Ford’s sake that there is platform sharing between Volvo and Ford’s other brands. That seems to be a good start in keeping costs down.
I also wonder what use there is in keeping Mercury AND Lincoln around. I can appreciate the need to have an upmarket brand vs. just an expensive Ford trim package (think, Acura vs. Honda; Lexus vs. Toyota). But to what degree do shoppers of Mercury, Lincoln, and Volvo cross-shop the others’ cars? This is a concern to be sure, not to mention the expense of designing and developing an entire line of vehicles that, do I dare say, can be redundant.
No one asked me, but I say keep Ford, Lincoln, and Volvo. Ratchet Ford up a notch in quality to capture some of the engineering and quality goodness that arguably could have gone into developing Mercury; share platforms; DEFINITELY bring over the Europoean-styled vehicles; price competitively with few incentives, trying to avoid rental fleets; smack around the UAW, albeit gently; and then cross your fingers.
06/28, 1:43 PM
posted by:
Stuart
Sell Jaguar to the JCB owner who wanted to buy the brand last year.
Sell Land Rover back to BMW.
KILL MERCURY
Make all Ford Euro models worldwide model to be sold worldwide under the ford family like toyota, honda, etc..
Mazda should be premium small cars like volkwagen
Make Lincoln into the luxury brand to compete against Audi, Saab, Alfa etc…
Make Volvo the premium brand to compete with the Mercs and BMW’s
Share platform between ford and Mazda
Share large platform between lincoln and Volvo
06/28, 4:54 PM
posted by:
Syrax
Except BMW won’t buy Land Rover back…and Land Rover without Jag is a brand with no engine (the 4.4 and the 4.2 S/C)
06/28, 4:55 PM
posted by:
Syrax
they would have to make agreements like Ford did with BMW to get the 4.4 V8
06/28, 9:08 PM
posted by:
CarStar
I could see a continual expansion of the number of Jaguar-Land Rover dealers under Cerebrus Management
along parts sharing between Jeep and Land Rover.
Perhaps Chrysler could make use of the low-slung
Jaguar platforms for future models since Daimler-
Benz may not be so apt to share underpinnings in
the future (as it did with the donated Chrysler 300/Dodge Magnum-Charger-Challenger architecture).
06/29, 11:40 AM
posted by:
Get Real
Stupid Nasser for not making Lincoln part of PAG.
Stupid Ford board of directors that let him buy money losing companies.
Stupid Jaguar for making a Taurus/Jaguar car.
Too bad these expensive mistakes have put Ford into it’s present position of becoming a failure after 100 years of auto production.
(Yeah the Edlsel failed, but Ford had cash then)