THANK GOD: Ford may sell Volvo to BMW (fwd'd post)

GW Chimpzilla's Eye-Rack Neocon Utopia wrote:

Subject: Ford May Sell Volvo to BMW

Ford turned Volvos into tinny gas-guzzlers, and it is now losing money
by the
bucketfulls.
- - - - - - - - - -
The Swedish newspaper Göteborgs-Posten reported that Ford plans to
sell its
Volvo cars operation and that BMW is a possible buyer.

Ford bought Volvo's automotive operation from the Volvo Group in 1999.
The Volvo
Group serves the heavy-duty on-road transportation market as well as
off-road,
stationary, marine and aerospace markets.


Ford's Premier Automotive Group, of which Volvo is a member, lost $327
million
in 2006.

[more]
http://www.gp.se/gp/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=913&a=348746

 

My understanding is that the Volvo part of Ford's PAG generally has made
good profits whilst the British Patients, Land Rover and Jaguar, chalk
up the red ink.

 

Well that's Ford for you, kill one of their top selling cars, then sell off
one of the most profitable companies they own. I never did care much for the
Taurus but people were buying the things in droves, what were they thinking
stopping making them?

 

Ford ownership of Volvo if anything been a net positive for the
company. Whether BMW ownership can provide any improvement is at
least an open question. I'm sure that some will see having the name
BMW affiliated with Volvo as being a de facto benefit, but the
Chrysler/Daimler debacle is a clear example that a fancy name can
result in less than fancy results During the time of Ford ownership
I've seen several interesting good looking Volvo cars that represented
significant improvements over earlier models.

Whether the PAG as a group lost money is not relevant but whether
Volvo made money within that group is relevant and indeed they are
profitable.

 

For the last several years the vast majority of Tauri were sold to
rental and other fleet customers, which are generally not very
profitable sales.