Bought a brand new Volvo V40 1.8. He is great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The V40 was Dutch (as is Hans) from Born, Holland. It concludes the Dutch connection with Volvo. The V50 is built in Ghent, Belgium. The judgement that the V50 is better is based on Ford press releases since none have been sold yet. The V50 is a Ford. The V40 is a Volvo.
The V40 is mainly a Mitsubishi, and these are Benz and these are Chrysler! Are you really willing to ride an american car??? Sasa
It's still hardly an american car, besides, not every american car is junk, it's just unfortunate that a great many of them are.
The press releases out of Volvo/Ford say that when the new S40 and V50 get going out of the Ghent, Belgium, plant, they won't be producing any cars at the old DAF plant. "In 1976, DAF's four-cylinder Variomatic-transmission 66 model became a Volvo, heralding the introduction of the rather mundane 340 series. By 1981, the Dutch government had invested sufficient capital in the company to reduce Volvo's stake to a 30% share. The Volvo 480ES, introduced in 1986, was a front-drive hatchback which was conceptually rather similar to the P1800 ES. The 480 used a 1.7 Renault engine, and was built in the Netherlands at the Volvo BV plant. In 1988 Volvo introduced the Volvo 440 - an important new model in the intermediate class and developed by Volvo Car B.V. in Holland. In 1995 Volvo unveiled a completely new vehicle family while stepping up development efforts on new products. The compact Volvo S40/V40 - the first cars to emerge from the joint venture with Mitsubishi - were presented during the year. Volvo and Mitsubishi were building completely different car models at the Born Plant, using the same production equipment. In order to release capacity at the Born Plant, production of the Volvo 480 was discontinued. In November, the last car in the Volvo 400 Series was manufactured, after production of almost 700,000 units since 1985. Volvo's previous S40 continues to be built at Born, Holland until spring 2004, and its demise after that signals the end of Volvo's Dutch connection which began with DAF. The new S40 and its forthcoming V50 estate version, which share nothing at all with their predecessors, are to be built in Ghent, Belgium. The new S40 is based on Ford's C1 platform, derived from the current Focus, which also underpins the next Focus, the Focus C-MAX and the Mazda 3. Volvo calls it P1 (for Premium). The all new Volvo V50 replaces the current V40, which was launched in the United States in 1999. It is bigger than the S40 but smaller than the S60. Sales of the all new V50 sportswagon will begin in the U.S. in summer, 2004 as a 2005 model."
On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 18:41:17 GMT, "Stephen M. Henning" ; The judgement that the V50 is better is based on Ford press releases since none have been sold yet. ; The V50 is a Ford. The V40 is a Volvo. Don't think so... Since a lot of guys that were actively involved in the engineering of the currently produced X40's are also in engineering the new S40/V50 you might be surprised......... Time will tell........ ; Regards, Metaxaman
And their pay check comes from Ford. Volvo Corporation doesn't make cars anymore. Volvo Corporation designed the V40. Ford Motors designed the V50.
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry, my 240 roots are showing. LOL
Stephen, you may have a lot of experience driving/owning Volvo's, but I have more hands-on experience in the development, testing, production and after sales servicing of some Volvo cars (the small ones.....). I certainly know more about the new S40/V50 (I have been part of VCC for quite a lot of years, involved with 300/400/X40 models). While it is certainly true that major project decisions for the new S40/V50 and other undisclosed models needed final approval from Ford (as well as from Mazda), these cars were NOT designed by Ford.... And the last time I looked the paycheck still came from VCC. VCC transferred quite a lot of money to Ford over the past years ("the profits on selling cars they were NOT making anymore" according to you). Volvo always showed better profits than the other PAG-parttners. By the way: the S40/V40 modelline currently being produced in Born - (untill June 30, 2004 when the Joint-Venture Agreement between VCC and MMC terminates) has been the single biggest moneymaking modelline for Volvo. EVER. Closing down in Born had nothing to do with Volvo. VCC would have liked to stay there. Born is one of the better European carmanufacturers. Ford made the decision to move away from Born since they already had car production overcapacity in that area. In the Joint Venture (contract dating back to 1991) clauses existed that gave each of the partners (Volvo & Mitsubishi) the right to buy out the other partner if that partner was acquired by another party. Since Ford acquired Volvo before Mitsubishi was (partly) acquired by Daimler Chrysler MMC had the right (and did loan the required money from DC) to buy out Volvo. Regards,
On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 16:40:14 GMT, "Stephen M. Henning" ; ; > And the last time I looked the paycheck still came from VCC. ; ; And who owns VCC, Volvo or Ford? You know the answer to that just as well as I do. But that does not mean that salaries for VCC-employees are paid by Ford. It means that VCC salaries are being paid from the profits of selling the volvo cars that "Volvo Corporation doesn't make"........ (but Volvo Cars DOES). .. It just dawned on me that you may have referred to the original (pre-Ford era) Volvo Corporation here.... I wasn't............. Just a misunderstanding......... Regards, Metaxaman
