Volvo: Profitable in US?

[Jamie]

Good to hear about Saabs. My only experience was that in 1988 my
highschool buddy's mother won a Saab 900 in one of those mall raffles.
It was red with a black spoiler across the back - very sharp.

Well, my friend was on a date with another couple after about 8 weeks
of owning the car. He made a curve too quickly one night, ditched the
car and twisted the frame. Insurance claimed it a total loss.

Oh the joy he had waking up mom and dad and telling them about the new
car.

 

[Bob (but not THAT Bob)]

Saabs still have fanastic reliability. It just isn't as good as it was
Pre-GM. Still better than most though.
--

I think the pre-GM reliability is a myth - if my old 99 and 900 were
representative samples.

On the other hand, my wife's '99 9-3 and my '95 9000 have been
trouble-free.

 

[Stephen Henning]

Trust me, the cars did get crash tested before they were introduced (by
Ford)...

It's all done by computer simulation.

Can you tell us more? Did the occupant's heads hit the window in the
computer simulated tests? That is what they failed on. Nothing else.
That is why making side air curtains mandatory solves the problem.

 

[Stephen Henning]

If you do some reading into IIHS, pretty much NONE of the cars do very well
(Volvo is the exception), and thus, your rates are higher.

This is wishful thinking. Many cars do better than Volvo. They like
testing because it is before the fact, but they are heavily swayed by
claims history and Volvo is not the best. It is better than average,
but not the best. The 850/V70 has the best claims history for Volvo.

 

[Stephen Henning]

Saabs still have fanastic reliability. It just isn't as good as it was
Pre-GM. Still better than most though.

Wrong, Audi just has average reliability, which is not bad with today's
cars. Volvo is in the same boat.

 

[jbincyberia]

I've heard that despite Ford's financial problems, Volvo is their "cash
cow" in the US. Is this true? Does the Volvo brand make money in the US or
are they losing their butts like, for example, Volkswagen?

There was a rumor floating around a while back that Ford was going to
divest themselves of Volvo. Ford Chairman denied it, just like the
same rumor about Jaguar. Volvo profits are supposedly down for Ford
since acquisition, but with creative accounting, who realy knows. I do
know that the dealer is VERY hesitant to replace anything under
warranty, even the completely dead front struts at 32K. I do know one
thing and that is that Ford wants to extend the model life of all the 70
series because they are really still reaping the rewards of the last
fully, in-house design of these cars...if they would just stop cutting
costs on the components, like that for-shit Marelli throttle body.