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Volvo Car Press Releases A selection of press releases from The Volvo Car Corporation |
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Volvo Car Corporation achieves a profit for the third quarteViews : 3419 Replies : 16Users Viewing This Thread : |
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Dec 23rd, 2010, 14:30 | #11 | |
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Volvo were going nowhere "as a business", until Ford stepped in. They now have good, modern products that have a mass market appeal, and are selling. Volvo could not have made anywhere near the investment to bring one new model range, let alone the 4 that have come about recently. Add the background of ever increasing regulation on emissions, etc., and an independent Volvo would have become a defunct manufacturer. Whoever had brought Volvo at the time, would have done something similar to Ford, or raped them for their R & D, and got rid ( as per BMW and Land Rover), without putting in any significant investment. I, like I suspect most members of this forum, lament the "mass market commercialisation" of the brand. It flies in the face of what we all value so much about our cars, but, unfortunately, these are the hard facts. Think about this business model; You decide you want to start a car business. Your aims are to produce a well engineered product, build it very well, so it is both reliable, requiring minimum maintainence, design life of 20 years, and capable of huge mileages. Your customers are so happy they keep their cars for 10 years instead of 3 ! Your dealers are getting fat because your loyal customers maintain their cars, and the dealers profits are in the workshop not the showroom. Your cars are internationally acknowledged for their quality. Everybody loves you, and the economics are brilliant for everybody - EXCEPT you the manufacturer. You maintain a parts back catalogue for 20 years to support your customers cars. This isn`t great though, because your parts are good quality too, and last longer than the industry norm. You nearly always get repeat customers - but once every 10 years, won`t sustain your business. |
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Dec 24th, 2010, 10:39 | #12 |
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I've only ever driven a V40 but I guess if it wasn't for Ford then I probably wouldn't even be driving that. We may not agree with everything they have done and how the brand has changed but at least the brand remains and I reckon with Geely it will grow and start to build more on what once made it great. Afterall its not the Chinese that decide to make cheap stuff, someone in this country says 'Build me this for X' and then signs off on the end product!
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Dec 24th, 2010, 15:41 | #13 | |
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I understand how Volvo AB needed to sell the car business and all, as it was simply too small to survive on its own. I do however think that Ford took their eye off the ball around 2005 and allowed the company to become loss making. All of the successful cars in recent years that people think were produced by Ford (S60, XC90 etc) were actually Volvo's last independently produced models. It should also be ackknowledged that Ford pinched a load Volvo technology that went towards producing some of the successful models they have today (Ford Focus ST/RS and the majority of their US range). |
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Dec 24th, 2010, 17:14 | #14 | |
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Dec 24th, 2010, 20:18 | #15 | |
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Dec 24th, 2010, 22:40 | #16 |
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Dec 25th, 2010, 16:15 | #17 | |
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Last edited by wpg100; Dec 25th, 2010 at 18:11. |
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