Comments on: “Volvo can be the luxury brand of the future because… the world is turning Swedish.”

By: rjones

rjones — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 03:38:05 +0000

Great idea Ford. Volvo made a profit in 2006 so why not $%^&* it up?

Volvo should stick to what they know. Just because they have great seats and interiors second only to Audi doesn’t mean they can play with the big boys. Volvo will lose if they try to go head-to-head with BMW, Mercedes and Lexus because no one associates the Volvo brand with luxury. People don’t by a Volvo for the prestige; Volvos are for people who know that no one gives a rat’s ass what you drive.

The Volvo brand means safety, and to a lesser extent longevity, although less so these days; the 240 was discontinued almost 15 years ago and the current models aren’t nearly as solid. Not slagging them though. My wife and I share two Volvos: an XC70 and an S60. Safe, practical and relatively reliable? You bet. Luxurious? Not so much.

By: yankinwaoz

yankinwaoz — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:31:23 +0000

Hmmmm… that song had nothing to do with Japan. The song is about masturbating while stuck in prison or jail. Listen to the lyrics and it will make sense.

By: Eric_Stepans

Eric_Stepans — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:27:12 +0000

The song was “Turning Japanese” by The Vapors. One of the classic “One-hit wonders” of the 1980s…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpCcelpvkps

By: stuki

stuki — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 19:15:44 +0000

If turning the world Swedish means equipping Volvos with Ohlin’s suspensions, Dux bed comfortable seats and Eleiko weightlifting bar production tolerances, I’m all for it. If, on the other hand, it means IKEA built interiors upholstered by H&M……….., the whole adventure will likely end about as happy as a Bergman movie.

By: guyincognito

guyincognito — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:13:16 +0000

Volvo has been the shining star of the PAG (not saying much) and has even been profitable, Ford procedures require that not be allowed to continue. Also, it has to move upmarket to support the future badge engineering with the now upward moving Lincoln.

By: 26theone

26theone — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:43:27 +0000

I hope they dont try to take Volvo there..

We bought our XC90 because of the great features, safety, etc and the fact that it wasnt shouting “look at me” like an Escalade or Mercedes.

By: starlightmica (Richard Chen)

starlightmica (Richard Chen) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:16:42 +0000

I’m not sure Volvo has been terribly successful with their product range. They have a couple of hits in the XC90, XC70, and C70, possible hit with the C30, but lots of sales duds with cash on the hood.

By: Sajeev Mehta

Sajeev Mehta — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:54:51 +0000

As long as they don’t try a VW Phaeton, it has a chance of working. You can’t argue with Volvo’s success in most every undertaking.

Horbury: “Volvo is bought by somebody who is self-confident enough to make their own decision.”

How ironic, that’s how the slab-sided Lincoln Continental advertised itself over Cadillacs back in the 1960s and 70s. Total bummer for Lincoln.

By: jthorner

jthorner — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:46:32 +0000

Volvo isn’t a luxury brand and is failing at trying to be one. The whole point of the Volvo brand is practicality. Paying slightly more for a rugged no nonsense product and planning to run it for a very long time whilst snubbing the world of fashion frenzied posers. Sort of a slightly upscale version of what a VW used to be.

By: slateslate

slateslate — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:36:31 +0000

Memo to Ford:

As countlessly stated at TTAC, if Jaguar shriveled on the vine during the greatest boom in luxury car history (1993-today), what can you realistically do with Volvo?

By: Brendon from Canada

Brendon from Canada — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:23:31 +0000

The wife and I spent a couple of days last week with an XC70 (3.2L V6) while her Land Rover (Freelander) was in for service! It felt big on the outside and small on the inside; the 3.2 felt rather anemic, yet is the same engine in new Freelander/LR2, which we both felt was relatively punchy (though this could simply be relative to her current Freelander – I would think the same would apply to the Volvo though). The interior was definitely simple – no luxury feel that I could ascertain, and the handling/road feel was similar to most large NA rental cars. By the end of the second day my wife was looking for the “sporting” feel of her Freelander… given that she drives a Mini Cooper “S” in the summer, to be missing the sporting feeling of a truck in comparison to the XC70 said it all!

By: veefiddy

veefiddy — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:08:28 +0000

What a bunch of meatballs. My Volvo isn’t luxurious. it’s practical, well designed, solid, quiet, comfortable, easy to drive and safe. Those are good things for a family car. Perhaps even Swedish things. But are they luxuries? A hot tub wasn’t even an option on my wagon.

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:46:15 +0000

Does this mean we are going to have to learn to enjoy canned fermented herring?

Note for the uninitiated: My college age kids have bought IKEA furniture for their student apartments. It is really cheap. And it works … for a while. But do not bother to try to move it because it will disintegrate into a pile of Swedish matchsticks. That is OK, because, as I said, it is really cheap.

By: jward35

jward35 — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:44:22 +0000

Saab is near dead – flogging restyled versions of old cars based off an even older GM platform.
‘Last one out turn off the lights’ as The Sun newspaper here in the UK once memorably said.

By: Strippo

Strippo — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:41:39 +0000

Volvo is the elite “sensible” brand. That is its niche, much to Subaru’s chagrin. Any attempt to move away from that niche will render Volvo a brand that is neither fish nor fowl. You know, like Saab.

By: BerettaGTZ

BerettaGTZ — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:20:18 +0000

Good luck. Ford was unsuccessful in getting Jaguar to take on BMW, so now that task is on Volvo’s shoulders. I’ve spent the better part of a week tooling around in a $50K S80 V8 AWD, the top of the line Volvo. About all I can say is “nice powerful V8 in a car that feels and drives like a middle-of-the-road midsize American sedan.” And if the interior embodies the design aesthetic “simplicity over all else” it comes across as cheap and generic. GM’s Saab is way more Swedish than Volvo.