Volvo to ditch premium tag

Leonard Hofstadter

Music to my ears.

Volvos are not the same as German cars so they should stop trying to copy them. The whole point of a Volvo is that it is not the same as everything else.

Can't wait to see what Stefan Jacoby does once he gets a bit of time to do things his way. Hopefully while Volvo are busy going back to doing what they do best, they will have old school Volvo standards of build quality and reliability as well.

http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/254306/

Tabnabs

Two things, that's his personal opinion and the Chinese are now pulling the strings and seem to have a very different outlook on where they want Volvo to go.

Leonard Hofstadter

Hopefully he will get his way though.

He seems to have an innate understanding of what the brand should be about.

Anyone who buys a Volvo clearly is able to think for themselves and is not willing to follow the herd. Some people buy them precisely because they are not the same as everything else.

That's the way it should be. I don't want to buy a Volvo because it's a slightly less expensive German car, I want a Volvo because of the old and traditional ideas of what Volvos are meant to be about. They are not a mainstream brand. They never have been and they never will be.

VolvoMan

What he's saying doesn't exactly make a lot of sense either. It can't be argued that Volvo always were a posher car brand, particulaly in the 80's with their big estate cars such as the 760. If you were an upper middle class family with kids back then you either bought the Mercedes or the Volvo.

If he is saying the brand is going to ditch being premium then I presume he means they are going to return to the days where they had actual quality and not just perceived like Audi or VW.

Stinicker

My view of Volvo was always of a safety conscious brand so I hope they continue on this aspect.

dr.fuzzenstein

I just had to...:cool:

thats not gone well

who says you cant get laid driving a volvo?;)

EPM

Personally I think Volvo always fell down with the size of their cars. They always seemed to try and cover all bases with cars that never really fitted into any one segment.

VolvoMan

EPM wrote: »

Personally I think Volvo always fell down with the size of their cars. They always seemed to try and cover all bases with cars that never really fitted into any one segment.

Volvo had a tradition of keeping the older model in production as a cheaper alternative to the new one. When the 700 Series was launched in 1982 for example, they continued to produce the 240 Series for a further 11 years. This was then superceded in 1992/'93 by the very successful 850 and the 900 Series (essentially an updated 700) continued in production, having the 850 as sort of a sportier and youthful alternative, competing with the 3 Series in some respects. It was this overlapping and replacing of superceded models over the years that led Volvo to have the confusing model range that it has today.

Regarding Volvo's premium status; I remember in 2003 that no one batted an eyelid when XC90's were changing hands for seventy grand and robbing sales from BMW and Mercedes. People seem to have awful short memories.

Ali Babba

Looks like they dropped the "There's more to life than a Volvo" line too, has to be the worst sales slogan ever.
I know which I'd prefer to have out side my door and it wouldn't be an XC90 either.

Ali Babba

thats not gone well wrote: »

who says you cant get laid driving a volvo?;)

Laid out more like i'd say.....looks more like it mowed somebody down!