Volvo is now a Chinese car company

Danny Tse

From the BBC

Ford has agreed the terms of the sale of its Swedish business, Volvo Cars, to China's Geely.

Ford said "some work still remains to be completed" but the deal will be finalised early next year ahead of completion soon after Easter.

Ford put Volvo up for sale a year ago to help pay off its debt and make its business more focused.

Geely was named preferred bidder in November. If completed, it will be the largest purchase by a Chinese car firm.

Agreement has been reached at last. Volvo will almost certainly be sold to Geely.

Ford said that while the "substantive commercial terms" had been settled, financing still needed to be completed and government approval was also necessary.

The update on the sale is necessary for Geely to apply for government approval of the deal and with it, it is thought, the firm's financial backing.

No details were given of how much the deal is worth, but it is widely rumoured that Geely will pay Ford $2bn (£1.2bn; 1.4bn euros), less than a third of the $6.45bn Ford paid for Volvo in 1999.

Ford said it expects to continue co-operating with Volvo Cars, but did not intend to retain a shareholding in the business after the sale.

Industry observers say the sale is good news for Volvo.

obieone

1st Hummer, now Volvo. Granted, Volvo was not really an American brand, but....
Give it 20 years, and China vs. U.S. living standards will be reversed.

BlueFox

obieone wrote: »

1st Hummer, now Volvo. Granted, Volvo was not really an American brand, but....
Give it 20 years, and China vs. U.S. living standards will be reversed.

Then maybe China will outsource engineering jobs to the US.

The Chinese are interested in world domination, and it appears they feel it is easier to do it via the economic backdoor instead of by force.

Danny Tse

obieone wrote: »

1st Hummer, now Volvo. Granted, Volvo was not really an American brand, but....
Give it 20 years, and China vs. U.S. living standards will be reversed.

And they already got KEF, Celestion, Quad, Mission, AudioLab, Wharfedale, etc.

Jetmaker737

China is an amazing place. I've been there a number of times. All that human energy combined with all that money. They just may kick our butts if they don't pollute themselves to death first.

jflail2

BlueFox wrote: »

Then maybe China will outsource engineering jobs to the US.

The Chinese are interested in world domination, and it appears they feel it is easier to do it via the economic backdoor instead of by force.

It'd be nice to see them get with last century and actually free float their currency. They've kept it artificially low for far too long. I'd be curious how hard they bounced if they ever actually let market demand determine the value of their currency....

And I hope this isn't a bad move for Ford in regards to vehicle safety. I thought that was one good point in acquiring Volvo; adaptation of their R&D and safety standards. They make some tough vehicles....

bobman1235

obieone wrote: »

Give it 20 years, and China vs. U.S. living standards will be reversed.

I don't doubt the power balance will continue to shift in China's favor, but that will NEVER translate into living standards changes. Way too many people in a tight space, and way too much government control and corruption over there, it ain't gonna change in a scant 20 years.

inspiredsports

bobman1235 wrote: »

I don't doubt the power balance will continue to shift in China's favor, but that will NEVER translate into living standards changes. Way too many people in a tight space, and way too much government control and corruption over there, it ain't gonna change in a scant 20 years.

Never say never.

I agree they won't come up to our standards, but with all the Mao lovers in DC, will we reach parity by sinking to theirs?

What JetMaker says was us not too many decades ago.

AsSiMiLaTeD

inspiredsports wrote: »

Never say never.

He didn't say never, he said not in the next 20 years

ben62670

Yep keep buying Chinese **** and see where we are in the next 5-10 years. Way to go Americans:(

Sami

inspiredsports wrote: »

What JetMaker says was us not too many decades ago.

Poverty inspires people to work hard and settle for less. With high standards of living comes greed and laziness, unfortunately. It's an inevitable cycle, just like is the rise and fall of empires. Eventually the American empire will fall and be replaced by another world power. China is on their way there but they will eventually face their own fair share of problems and might never get there. I will suspect the power cycles to be fairly short in years compared to the times of the Romans, Greeks and British.

gtu2004

ben62670 wrote: »

Yep keep buying Chinese **** and see where we are in the next 5-10 years. Way to go Americans:(

so you dont buy chinese ****?

kingtut

There goes the safety standards for Volvo, along the line of pet food, baby formula, lead tainted toys, etc.

ben62670

gtu2004 wrote: »

so you dont buy chinese ****?

Actually I do happen to read where my stuff is made;) WalCheese is almost never used.
Cheers

BlueFox

ben62670 wrote: »

Yep keep buying Chinese **** and see where we are in the next 5-10 years. Way to go Americans:(

Aren't Polks made in China?

ben62670

An American company still. BTW the only thing I have ever bought from Polk is replacement drivers. It would be very hard to find a speaker as well engineered and affordable as Polk still made in America. The problem is share holders want more profits and push companies into the ground. Long term effect we loose jobs. If people can't see that buying Chinese is a problem their **** muscle is putting to much pressure on their cranium.

dave shepard

It's a dam shame but that is what they are doing buying everything we own and we are in sooo much debt to them they own us, that is a fact. We couldn't repay our debt to them if they called it in, no how/ no way. So they are and have been taking all our work and making a total mess of it. The steel we get from them is total crap and now the cars are going to get even more crappier. Volvo makes one hell of a well built auto, I've worked on a couple and fell in love with their build quality. I just hope that wont change but I'm sure it will eventually and that is just sad.

Dave

Sami

Both Swedish makes Saab and Volvo used to be that way. Unfortunately their business model is hard to make successful against mass manufactured cars so they remained a niche car outside of Scandinavia.

Neither have been what they used to, long before today. Saab was sold to GM in 1989 and soon made into generic GM automobile. Volvo was sold to Ford in 1998 and suffered pretty much the same fate.

Luckily Saab and Volvo as companies are still around and in Swedish ownership, just no car manufacturing anymore.

inspiredsports

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

He didn't say never, he said not in the next 20 years

Not to argue on Christmas day, but in post #7, in the first sentence, in capital letters; he DID say NEVER.