Chery approved to purchase Volvo

[L. ed foote]

Volvo hasn't made an interesting car since the 80s.

I wouldn't mind owning a S70/V70

[93JC]

I'd buy a C30 if it was priced more in line with a Rabbit or Astra.

[565]

I don't buy the hype that Volvo is somehow so much safer than the modern Japanese or other competition.

Sure maybe back in the day when they made absolute tanks, and their modern crash tests are good, but they aren't anything different from the stellar marks that a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord or similar mainstream midsizer gets.

Ford is smart to be unloading the brand.  I never understood why Ford (and the other domestics) owned so many random auto companies and made mediocre cars in all of them.  Getting rid of Jag, Aston, and now Volvo will help the car company make alot more sense.

The three need to adopt the formula that helped Toyota become so successful in the past decades.  A single mainstream brand and a single luxury brand are all they need.  GM should just have Chevy and Cadillac,  Ford should just have Ford and Lincoln, Chrysler should just have Dodge and Chrysler.  Instead of making a million and a half car models that are just slightly different and all rather middle or bottom of the pack, they should focus on making every model count.

[NomisR]

I don't buy the hype that Volvo is somehow so much safer than the modern Japanese or other competition.

Sure maybe back in the day when they made absolute tanks, and their modern crash tests are good, but they aren't anything different from the stellar marks that a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord or similar mainstream midsizer gets.

Ford is smart to be unloading the brand.  I never understood why Ford (and the other domestics) owned so many random auto companies and made mediocre cars in all of them.  Getting rid of Jag, Aston, and now Volvo will help the car company make alot more sense.

The three need to adopt the formula that helped Toyota become so successful in the past decades.  A single mainstream brand and a single luxury brand are all they need.  GM should just have Chevy and Cadillac,  Ford should just have Ford and Lincoln, Chrysler should just have Dodge and Chrysler.  Instead of making a million and a half car models that are just slightly different and all rather middle or bottom of the pack, they should focus on making every model count.

Well, Toyota only had one brand for the longest time globally until Honda came up with the Acura idea.  And I guess Toyota has 3 brands now in the US althought Scion is more of a rebadged Toyota since kids don't want Toyotas.

[hotrodalex]

And I guess Toyota has 3 brands now in the US althought Scion is more of a rebadged Toyota since kids don't want Toyotas.

They don't want Scions either.

[MX793]

They don't want Scions either.

I see a lot more young people in Scions than Toyotas.  Scion has a pretty high average age of buyers, but I suspect in many cases they are bought by a parent for their teenager, which kind of skews the owner base.  The buyer is older, but the primary user is typically pretty young.

[565]

They don't want Scions either.

Apparently Scion has the lowest median buyer age.

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2008/06/25/091151.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scion_(car)

Also here is an interesting comparision of Volvo and Scion.

http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/f37/scion-already-bigger-than-volvo-suzuki-lowest-median-buyer-age-industry-49168/

"In retrospect, it should surprise no one that such a well-conceived and thoroughly executed plan worked as well as it has. In 2006, though just three years old and boasting a lineup of only three models, Scion sold 173,034 vehicles. That's 50,000 more than Volvo and 70,000 more than Suzuki over the same period. More important to Toyota is the average age of the people who are buying: At 30, Scion tC buyers have the lowest median age in the industry, and the Scion brand isn't far behind."

So even when Toyota brings over fugly ass boxes and sells them to the hardest to market to segment, they still manage to make the domestics look foolish.

[ifcar]

I'd be curious to see how Scion's median age compares to those of other economy cars. Young people tend to favor the types of vehicles Scion sells, and it's the brand with only that type of product.

Perhaps the Pontiac G5, for example, has the same median age as the Scion cars. That's diluted by all the older customers buying other Pontiac models. If the Pontiac G5 were its own brand, it would be right there with the Scions.

I don't think Scion would have done any worse if its models were sold as Toyotas. But they wouldn't make a measurable impact on the Toyota brand's median age even with the same number of youth sales.

[Raza]

Where did the safety angle come from?

I was talking about your moral indignation:

So you won't buy a car from people who don't value human life, but you'll happily buy stereos, cell phones, jeans, etc...?

Oh, you mistook my self-preservation for moral indignation.  There is where you're confused.

[Raza]

Your iPhone is made in China. The Battery is made by BYD, a chinese company.

Yes, but my gun is made in Austria, so I'm okay in the long run.

[hotrodalex]

I'd be curious to see how Scion's median age compares to those of other economy cars. Young people tend to favor the types of vehicles Scion sells, and it's the brand with only that type of product.

Perhaps the Pontiac G5, for example, has the same median age as the Scion cars. That's diluted by all the older customers buying other Pontiac models. If the Pontiac G5 were its own brand, it would be right there with the Scions.

I don't think Scion would have done any worse if its models were sold as Toyotas. But they wouldn't make a measurable impact on the Toyota brand's median age even with the same number of youth sales.