China’s Geely only one after Volvo?

By Alborz Fallah | September 01st, 2009

With Jaguar Land Rover sold to India’s Tata, Ford’s attempts to lean up even further and go solo are still in progress. However the sale of Volvo is proving to be a little more challenging than originally thought.

According to newspaper reports in Sweden, China’s Geely Automotive is currently the only company to have submitted a valid offer for Volvo. The Swedish brand has been losing money for some time and was put up for sale by Ford more than nine months ago.

The blue oval is expected to announce which suitor it has chosen to begin final takeover negotiations with some time this month and the hand over should be finalised before the year’s end.

Tomas79

Vulva, new identity again??

“It says a lot about the reputation of the Volvo brand that no other car company wants anything to do with it.
A orphan, like Saab and Skoda”

You are an idiot!!
Carfanatic

Skoda are not an orphaned company, they are owned by Volkswagen Auto Group and Saab will be snapped up by Koenigsegg.

Tomas79

Exactly, unlike quite a few companies around, SKODA Auto is highly profitable!!

Wheelnut®™

Tomas the reason people refer to Skoda as being “an Orphan” [despite the fact that they are currently owned by VW] could be because: Not long after WWII Skoda [Auto] were sepperated from their parent company Skoda Works.. which meant that between 1945 and 1990 they didn’t really have the funds or the resources to develop thier cars and keep up with modern trends etc.. as a result their cars looked like they were designed 20 odd years ago – just like they do now

Tomas79

Wheelnut, thats a load of rubbish you just blabbed!!
There is really no intelligent reason behind your, and BM’s multiple identities calling the Skoda orphan!!

When Skoda separated from Skoda Works, just like all companies in a communist run economy, it and Skoda Works were both government run and owned. Both were completely funded and run by the government. The reason they fell behind when compared to the others in the west, is that the communist economy didn’t really promote healthy level of competition, especially with the west. Also, since everybody was working for the government, it was really hard to get fired, and there was no real personal incentive to work hard, as nobody else did. As the workers back then used to say “We will pretend to work as long as the bosses pretend to pay us”. Anyway the Skoda vehicles were much better then anything else comming out from behind the iron curtain!! Also there was not much incentive to improve upon the existing SKODA models, since they already had a year long waiting lists!!

Tomas79

That kind of explains why I hate Government Motors Holden, and having to pay Tarrifs (A Fine for buying foreign) .
Wheelnut®™

It was a load of rubbish – yet you also mentioned that Skoda Auto was Sepperated from Skoda Works.. which means that I was right in some aspects.

Yes After the sepperation Skoda were run by the Czech govt – and that’s why they didn’t have the funds or resources to develop their cars like they did when they were with Skoda works [a major engineering and manufacturing company making artilliery & heavy off road / military vehicles].

Because where does the govt get its money from? taxpayers and seeing as the workers weren’t being paid much [that is those who were lucky eought to have a job]the govt couldn’t exactly tax them that much.
Yet Skoda Works continued to sell its products to other international countries [its how they got their reputation for solid reliable vehicles] which means they had more money coming in from various sources.
Wheelnut®™

Therefore; despite the fat that they were the best quality cars to come out from behind the iron curtain – when they were sepperated from Skoda works they were at somewhat of a disadvantage as they had to make do with a lot less then what they were used to.. just like an orphan does when they are sepperated from their parents.

The Govt couldn’t /didn’t help them as much as Skoda works could /did
Wheelnut®™

As for your coment about their being no incentive for Skoda to iprove their cars given that there was a year long waiting list.

Well I suppose then that the same applies to Ferrari; Aston Martin and a number of other companies who build prestigious high performance sports cars?
Because they to have a year long waiting list for some of their cars [in some cases up to 5 years] however; every year they release a new model with new features; a car that is so much better than the previous model that in the end it creates yet another waiting list.

By sitting on your laurels and not improving your products – even though they may be the best in their class’ you’re at risk of being overtaken by the competition. [a bit like what is happening to Toyota with the Corolla] you lose the impetus & have to start playing catch up

Not only that by staying the same people can start to lose interest – they think why buy a 2010 model when its just going to be the same as the 2009 model? therefore sales fall as do your profits & market share
Wheelnut®™

Not everybody in Czechoslovakia worked for the government – there would have been a small number of people/peasants in the rural areas who were merely farmers – just as there are/were in Communist China or Russia.. I mean the people in the cities had to get their food from somewhere!
Tomas79

Seriously wheelnut, why do you continue type up long essays over a topic you clearly have no understanding about??!!

Wheelnut®™ says: “It was a load of rubbish – yet you also mentioned that Skoda Auto was Sepperated from Skoda Works.. which means that I was right in some aspects”

Thats probably the only part during your 2 minute wiki research you could understand!!

Wheelnut®™ says: “Yes After the sepperation Skoda were run by the Czech govt – and that’s why they didn’t have the funds or resources to develop their cars like they did when they were with Skoda works [a major engineering and manufacturing company making artilliery & heavy off road / military vehicles].”

No, during the socialist period of Czechoslovakia, both Skoda and Skoda Works were owned and funded by the government!! Skoda wouldn’t have anymore funds allocated to it, if it was part of Skoda Works… As a matter fact, it was separated, so that it could became a more focused, better funded entity in the socialist planned economy. Also as a result of cold war, Skoda works mostly sold it’s technology (such as nuclear reactors, turbines trains etc…) to eastern, and middle eastern economies… While Skoda still enjoyed some exports of it’s vehicles to the west.
As a matter of fact Skoda even built in NZ, which is unheard of for a communist company to do!!

Wheelnut®™ says:“Because where does the govt get its money from? taxpayers and seeing as the workers weren’t being paid much [that is those who were lucky eought to have a job]the govt couldn’t exactly tax them that much. ”

In a communist run government, just like Czecholovakia, every single bussiness was government owned and run. Profit made by Company A, goes to government coffers, and then (if deemed necessary by the planned economy) can be used to prop up or expand Company B.
Not to mention before WW2, Czechoslavakia was the world’s 7th richest nation,and this is not just per capita, so Czechoslavakia had fair bit of cash saved up, for communist muppets to waste!!

Wheelnut®™ says:”[that is those who were lucky eought to have a job]”
In Czechoslovakia there virtually was no unemployment, as government always found you a job…

Wheelnut®™ says: “Yet Skoda Works continued to sell its products to other international countries [its how they got their reputation for solid reliable vehicles] which means they had more money coming in from various sources.”

You kidding me?? Skoda Works in terms of vehicles, only made trucks and buses, and during that period they were sold strictly to communist states..
Seriusly Wheenut, why do you bother??

Wheelnut®™ says:”when they were sepperated from Skoda works they were at somewhat of a disadvantage as they had to make do with a lot less then what they were used to.. just like an orphan does when they are sepperated from their parents. The Govt couldn’t /didn’t help them as much as Skoda works could /did ”

Are you kidding?? Skoda and and even Skoda Works both became disadvantaged because they became nationalised, and government run. Skoda was actually better off separated from Skoda Works inside a planned economy!! There fore you can’t be too bright to call the government owned and run Skoda orphan!!

Also as a matter of fact, Czechoslovakia became communist, purely because of Russian occupation after WW2, not because of free democratic will!!

Wheelnut®™ says:“As for your coment about their being no incentive for Skoda to iprove their cars given that there was a year long waiting list. Well I suppose then that the same applies to Ferrari; Aston Martin and a number of other companies who build prestigious high performance sports cars?”

Nope, those cars aren’t cheap cars, nor is the companies run in an communist economy…
If they fall behind their competition, the orders will soon dry up, and be canceled, and the company will die!!

Anyway, what’s your point?? Like I have said already, durring the communist period, majority of the Skoda were sold behind the Iron curtain, where it was better then anything else, so there was no real incentive for the Skoda’s to improve!!

So to some up, only a complete idiot would call a Skoda orphan!!
Tomas79

Wheelnut®™ says:”Not everybody in Czechoslovakia worked for the government – there would have been a small number of people/peasants in the rural areas who were merely farmers – just as there are/were in Communist China or Russia.. I mean the people in the cities had to get their food from somewhere!”

Wheelnut, don’t confuse mostly industrial czechoslovakia, with rural China and or Russia… Even the communism wasn’t the same…
As I have allready said, everybody worked for the government!! Look up collective farming!!! In Czechoslovakia most families had a holiday home in the country, which usually had a tiny bit of land, where you could grow things. But that was purely for recreation, as there were no venues, nor was it legal to sell your produce anywhere…..

Anyway Wheelnut, don’t forget this is a car site!!

Tomas79

Also speaking of orphans, I don’t exactly hear anyone knocking on Government Motor’s door,wanting to bid for a Holden!! When was the last time they made profit again?? I guess just a matter of time before it dies, the orphan death of a pontiac!!

Wheelnut®™

You say that you haven’t heard anyone knocking on Government Motor’s door,wanting to make a bid for a Holden!! What are you doing on the other side of GMs Door????

The reason for that could be because GM haven’t announced that Holden is for sale.

In fact on a number of occassions; ever since their financial problems started and they announced their restructuring plans GM have said that Holden is one of their subsidiaries that will remain part of the GM family. So GM can obviously see that Holden has a lot of potential.

As shown by the fact that GM let Holden design & build a car on an all new platform which could be used under other GM cars [like the Camaro]
Unlike Toyo-oz who are left having to replicate a car which is already being built elsewhere in the world.

Then there’s Holdens input in to the R&D of the Camaro as well as a number of other GM products not to mention the Holden Engine Company

Proof that Holden means more to Detroit than Toyo-Oz means to Tokyo

I just would have liked to have seen them hang on to Opel and get rid of GMC instead – afterall having two companies making similar sized and similar specc’ed vehicles is one of the reasons they ended up in the sh!t in the first place.

Tomas79

A little off topic, But got to say CARADVICE, love the new page setup!!

The anti-thomarse

Now it’s easier to ignore Thomarses trash, just skip down to a valid post.

Wheelnut®™

I just hope that they don’t take Volvos design back to the 1970-80s so they end up looking ugly and outdated. I really like the look of the current Volvos particularly the AWD V-50; XC-60 and XC-70.. Although the C-30s rear end still needs some work
Carfanatic

Yes Wheel nut, they got the look right, now they just need to sort out some reliability issues that plague them and perhaps drop the price a little to gain more market share. Shame Volvo are not wanted by anyone other than the Chinese.