Posted on 03/28/2010 3:43:40 PM PDT by ConservativeStatement
Chinese car maker Zhejiang Geely Holding has signed a deal to buy Sweden's Volvo Cars from US auto maker Ford. "I can confirm that a final agreement on the sale of Volvo to Geely was signed at 2:40 pm," Volvo Cars spokesman Per-Åke Fröberg told AFP ahead of a news conference due around 3.30pm.
The deal was signed at Volvo headquarters in Gothenburg by Ford's financial director Lewis Booth and Geely's president Li Shufu, Froeberg said.
(Excerpt) Read more at thelocal.se ...
I just went from a 25% chance of buying a Volvo to infinitely less than zero% chance
Yep. My wife was interested in a volvo as her next car. No chance now.
I own one. But not for long.
Ugh!
Oh well, I bought mine for cash off of Craigslist, so no money would ever make it to the ChiComs anyway.
I will say this...it is probably the best built car on the market today and if you had an accident...this is the one and only vehicle that you’d want to be in. It’s only significant issue is the cost of the vehicle and the replacement parts. Now, if the company technology could stay intact...with half the parts manufactured in China...and you took thirty percent of the cost off...it would readily compete with the best that Ford has.
I was a manager in a factory that reprocessed Teflon. We bought scraps of it by the ton from various industries, ground it up, cleaned it, and then sold it to companies who could cast new produts from it, or use it as powdered lubricant.
The staff had Gautemalans, Mexicans, and Puerto Ricans. None of these people grasped the concept of quality control. It didn’t matter if some scraps wree clean and bright white and others were covered with oil, tape, rubber, or whatever. If it was Teflon, it went into the Teflon grinder. The only distinction that mattered was if the bosses might notice that they put the crappy stuff into the high grade stuff and ruined an expensive batch.
Take that mentality and multiply it times 1,000 and you’ve got China. Not only do the workers not care in China, the bosses don’t care, either. They were trained on a system that prizes only one thing: quantity. If a large quantity of goods turned out to be trash, the ideal manager will revert to old habits and hide it. We used to see it; we imported scrap from there. The condition of what we received was laughable. No one saw what they were doing, so they did the worst job they possibly could.
This might work in a system that hopes no one will complain about the complete lack of quality in computer that’s not planned to last more than a few months, but it won’t work in a car that has to drive 150,000 miles in often harsh conditions.
Everybody thinks China is going to take over the world with their cheap labor and mass production. It’s not going to happen. I give them another thirty years before they forget all the bad habits they learned under communism. Those thirty years have not yet begun.
Zhejiang Geely Holding has signed a deal to buy Sweden's Volvo Cars from US auto maker Ford.Thanks ConservativeStatement.
My math teacher (and I) prefer the term, "asymptopial nothingness".
:)
I doubt I would ever buy a Geely.
Sad to see both Saab and Volvo on their way down the drain.
Perhaps so, but the Chicoms haven’t built one yet. Let’s see what nastiness they build into them once they get hold of the reins. sd
My Buick Roadmaster is 15 years old, and I’m starting to think about a replacement.
I was thinking about Volvo but not any more.
The choices for a replacement are really getting thin.
I am glad I own a Saab (and a Jeep). Now I can thumb my nose at all those snooty Chinese car-driving Volvo owners. ;>
The funny thing Geely is more capitalistic than Government Motors; Geely is a private company (for what that is worth).
As a Saab enthusiast I was very happy that Saab escaped Government Motors. But wow, what a turn of events with Volvo. When BAIC was in on the Saab deal I doubted I could ever buy a Saab again, now with Geely owning Volvo I could never purchase a Volvo.
Griffin up!
“The choices for a replacement are really getting thin.”
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My wife and I have been very happy with our ‘04 Grand Marquis Ultimate Edition. We bought it in 07 for fourteen grand and it was indistinguishable from a new car. It rides like a dream and gets 27 mpg on the road. Loaded up with bells and whistles and they all work.
I drive a Volvo XC 70. Best car I’ve ever owned. By the time I’m ready to replace it, Volvos will be cheap, defective, Chicom crap. What a shame.
This is awful. Daughter & husband are on their second Volvo in 20 years, it’s about 12 yrs now. Wonderful car, safety, looks great. It will be junk after awhile with Chicoms screwing it up.
Interesting read! None of what you describe surprises me, but its sad to imagine Volvo under those conditions.
Old Saturday Night Live comes to mind with your post...a perfect “Emily Litella” moment...headline:
The Chinese are Buying Vulvas...continue to rant...
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