Daimler "Not Interested" In Volvo. Neither Is BMW
On Monday, the German magazine Der Spiegel will report that Daimler had looked at taking Volvo off Ford’s hands. But after trying Volvo on for size, the good folks in Stuttgart decided it’s not a good fit. “Daimler boss Dieter Spiegel has carried out a close examination of a possible purchase in the past few weeks and acknowledged a series of possible drawbacks,” the German weekly will say. According to Der Spiegel, Daimler scoffed at problems with harmonizing Volvo with its own Mercedes cars. The article is not even out yet, and it has already been shot down by a missive from Stuttgart. Two days before the report was to appear, Daimler said it’s a fabrication. “We were never interested in Volvo,” a Daimler spokesman said to Reuters. Not interested doesn’t mean they didn’t look.
Der Spiegel says, Volvo has also been rebuffed by BMW. With little hope of finding a buyer in Europe, der Spiegel now floats China’s Changan as a possibility. Reuters also writes today: “A Chinese newspaper last month named Ford’s China partner Changan Automobile Group as a potential buyer for Volvo. Ford declined to comment on the report.”
The flirt with Changan, Volvo’s joint venture partner in China, has been thoroughly reported by TTAC. We also covered the rather flimsy cover story of Ford execs which had met Changan execs simply to inform them “as a courtesy” that Ford was looking for a Volvo buyer. Since then, a row of other suitors from China and India had been trotted out, only to say a few days later that they are not interested. So after pimping Volvo across a couple of continents, the story is back where it begun: At Changan.
Ford said last month that it was “reviewing strategic options for Volvo in response to the significant decline in the global auto industry particularly in the past three months and the severe economic instability worldwide.” Ford said the review probably would take several months to complete. Apparently, it does. The Chinese are in no hurry.
And don’t you just love it when carmakers start talking “strategic options?” In milspeak, the strategic option is when you start lobbing ICBMs at the other side. In fordspeak, it’s “people don’t buy enough cars, so we need a sucker who gives us $6b for a brand we have left over. We take less. Make an offer.”
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Lucky for Volvo... they must not have any cash that Daimler can take, screw the company up, and then sell it to some idiots.
@Andy D The 850 FWD was the beginning of the end for them. Actually, the 850s were exceptional cars, particularly the Turbo and R models. The cargo carrying capacity is quite superior to any other Euro wagon of the era (and likely bested all but the massive final generation of GM's B-body wagons), and the performance was quite good. The only way the 850 might be construed as "the beginning of the end" for Volvo is that one could interpret it as the beginning of Volvo's ill-considered march up-market. In all other respects, FWD or no, the 850 was a very good model for Volvo.