Ford to Sell Volvo to BMW. Or Not.
Forget End of Days. I reckon this is The Beginning of Speculation. The Sunday Times [UK] is pulling rank on the ranks of the autoblogosphere’s recent anonymous attribution afffliction, quoting “senior car-industry sources” for their “story” that FoMoCo is busy selling Volvo to BMW. “Sources close to Ford and BMW said yesterday that there had been preliminary talks between the two automotive giants, although that was denied by the companies. ‘No talks have taken place,’ said a BMW spokesman.” As the non-news spread through the Sunday internet, Ford felt obliged to quash the rumors. Speaking to the Associated Press, Ford spokesman Tom Hoyt said the American automaker wasn’t commenting on speculation about Volvo’s future. Later in the day, he commented, issuing a denial that the Ford was selling their cash-sucking Swedish unit. “To my knowledge, we are not in negotiations with anyone about the future of Volvo,” Hoyt almost clarified.
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JJ> What if Volvo could be the slightly upmarket VW:s with RWD? That's Volvos traditional position, and one that could be great in the future too.
Voice of Sweden> Most BMWs sold in Europe are 4-cylinder 1 (hatchback) and 3 series...In the Netherlands, a VW Golf 2.0TDI 140HP comfortline (2nd trimlevel out of 4) goes for EUR 29.115, while a base model BMW 118d (2.0) 143HP goes for EUR 30.250. There's not much between it as it is. You can have a base model Golf 2.0 TDI with 110HP for EUR 26.115 but even then, the price difference is not big enough to justify another model in between IMHO. So basically I think my point stands; a lot of BMWs volume is already made up by offering a slightly upmarket VW with RWD, so there's no space for Volvo there. To make matters worse; a base model Volvo C30 2.0D 136HP goes for EUR 30.900. So that is even slightly more than the comparable BMW.
Look what BMW ownership brought to Mini, a rise from the dead. Granted BMW and Volvo are a lot closer in brand foot print but it's not something that a clever product development and marketing cannot solve. As somebody already pointed out in US the the respective images are almost the exact opposites; BMWs are for selfish a**holes and Volvos for wholesome families. The situation in Europe would be more problematic but still not unworkable in my mind. As somebody said already the ideal parent would be Honda but since Honda doesn't seem to be able to figure this out BMWs might be good enough.
JJ> You can't look at small non auto producing high tax European countries like the Netherlands and Denmark and claim that your prices are valid throughout Europe. The cheapest 1-series the 116i 3-doors costs 20924 EUR in Sweden. The 118d is 23577 EUR. The C30 1.6 petrol costs 18111 EUR and the C30 1.6D costs 20614 EUR. So the BMW is 15% more expensive. And with both brands under the same ownership Volvos could become somewhat cheaper and the BMW:s somewhat more expensive.