Will Volvo make a smart move?

Went to see the new 2004 Prius yesterday which had just arrived at the dealer. Truly a futuristic car in every aspects! Too bad Volvo is still lagging behind! By narrowing theit market to sport/luxury, they may very well paint themselves in a corner...

Richard Bouchard.

Reply to
Richard Bouchard
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Look at the all "new" S40 and on Dec 3 the "new" V50.!

Reply to
Robert J. Veldkamp
Reply to
Richard Bouchard

; That's exactly my point : Sporty, luxury cars... What else? ; ; Richard Bouchard. ;

SUV, Coupe, more coming up.........soon

Regards,

; ; ; "Robert J. Veldkamp" a écrit : ; > ; > Look at the all "new" S40 and on Dec 3 the "new" V50.!

Metaxaman

Reply to
Metaxaman
Reply to
Richard Bouchard

Hard to believe since those vehicles are their big profit makers, can you cite the source of your statement?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Because of the current email spam attacks my email account is not included, reply via the newsgroups or ask for a valid email address.

Reply to
127.0.0.1
Reply to
Richard Bouchard

With Ford's forcing their supply chain to cut 3-5% in costs every year (nice how they can demand it suddenly be cheaper), expect every brand owned by them to suffer greatly in quality. This new 40 series is going to be a bunch of thin sheetmetal and plastic.

Reply to
Joseph Oberlander

Richard Bouchard.

That's what a lot of people want, including myself. Personally I'd love to see them go back to the boxy RWD designs with added creature comforts, but I know that won't happen for a while, the bubble mobile seems here to stay for a while.

Reply to
James Sweet

Richard.

Seems when I looked at the Prius I thought hmm, interesting technology, but then the fuel economy was about 50 mpg, much better than the average Volvo of course, but then it's a much lighter car. My family had an '82 Topaz Diesel that could do almost 60 mpg on the highway and that was over 20 years ago, it had decent performance too, not nearly as sluggish as most older diesels. I don't see the new hybrids as being all that impressive with today's technology, I would expect things to have improved to >100 mpg by now.

Reply to
James Sweet

In Europe/UK Volvo produce "Bi-Fuel" cars with LPG/Petrol (Gasoline) systems. They have produced these for a couple of years now. There is experimentation with LPG enhanced Diesels.

Cheers, Peter.

Richard.

"127.0.0.1" a écrit :

Reply to
Peter Milnes

They already do. The new S40/V50 will share the C1 platform with the Mazda 3 and European Ford Focus. That isn't necessarily a bad thing...

Reply to
Timothy J. Lee

They tried to build a hybrid 850, didn't like the prototype, and abandoned the idea. That might be just as well, when you consider how well Volvo does electrical stuff. ;-)

Reply to
Michael Cerkowski

So let me ask you all this: If Volvo brought back the 240 (with some updated features but otherwise the same car) would you buy it?

I mean, my 240 Turbo is a luxury sedan, a jeep, an SUV, a light truck, and a sports car. It's also 20 years old so, while many of its parts are now old and much of the polish has lost its lustre, it has demonstrated that a well built car can serve you for a very very long time (I'll eat my hat if an S-anything lasts 20 years).

But to offer a 240 Turbo now with all the extras (trimmings AND mechanical features) it might cost $40K or more. Would you buy one?

I can say in a heartbeat that I would. Trend or no trend, there must always be a market for sturdy reliability and comfort. I recently heard that at least a few of the 240 assembly plants around the world were shut down rather than re-tooled...could they be fired up again?

Wishful thinking, perhaps, but I think THAT would be the smartest move of all. Blurp

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 11:47:35 -0500, the illustrious 127.0.0.1 favored us with the following prose:

Reply to
blurp

Would I buy a new one? Probably not, but I wouldn't buy a *new* anything. I would however look into buying one that was 4-5 years old if such a thing existed, unfortunatly the newest 240 anywhere is a decade old, and they haven't been available with a turbo in 18 years.

Granted they have a niche market, people who own them love them, people who don't generally can't understand the appeal. That said, virtually everyone who's driven mine wants one.

Reply to
James Sweet

Never.

I can't imagine buying another rwd vehicle. I certainly don't want to go back to having to carry spare fuel pumps and wrenches around in the trunk. I do miss the squeal of the AC fan. A car just doesn't seem like a Volvo without the AC fan squealing. The main reason for dropping the 200 series was to increase safety and that is the main reason I started buying Volvos. I would never go back to the safety level afforded by the 200 series design when such major advances have been made by the newer designs .

Reply to
Stephen M. Henning

You're kidding, right? RWD vehicles, what are BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Honda (S2000), Nissan, Lexus, et. al. thinking? Spare fuel pumps? I replaced one in the last

15 years of owning 240s, never considered keeping a "spare" (fuel pump relays on the otehr hand I keep in the glove box). The blower motor... I'll give you that one. As far as safety, the 240 as the "zero fatality" vehicle even without airbags, SIPS. Not that there haven't been design improvements in energy absorbing crumple zones and impact load distribution but I suspect that the 240 is still better than many "clean sheet" new designs. An "updated" 240 (much like Porsche has done with the 911, recognizable but a brand new design) might be interesting but the main factor killing off the 240 was proft (FWD is usually cheaper and the newer models were designed with reduced manufacturing costs in mind.) Bill
Reply to
Bill Bradley

Yeah I dunno where he got that information, RWD is a blast IMO, I've driven both and can't think of any compelling reason for FWD but lots of reasons against it. I replaced my first fuel pump a few months ago, the car was almost 20 years old with close to 200k on it, that's about as long as I'd expect any pump to last, though we've got an '86 with 220k on the original still, engine has never been opened up, runs like new. Blower motor is now squeeling a bit in the morning but it gave 16 years of trouble free service.

As for safety, the 240 is still arguably one of the safest cars on the road. Volvo has likely made some advances but compared to other stuff out there, I'd rather be in a 240 than just about any other make of car in an accident.

Reply to
James Sweet

Unless you're somewhere with a lot of snow I guess...

We had a 240 (DL Estate Auto) from when I was 3 to about 13 - a good 10 years. We only changed it when the cylinder head cracked, and it was no longer economical to repair (well, it probably would have been, but it'd done nearly 250,000 miles, and we needed a change! The bodywork was pretty good, and the garage repaired it and it did go back on the road!). In that time very little went wrong... the fuel pump went maybe 5 years after we got it (8 years into its life) and it had a horrible habit of refusing to start when the weather got hot! Still, it had character, and despite it being as economical as a Challenger 2 tank (and nearly as big) it did us well.

It would have been nice with PAS... and even better if when you put your foot down it actually moved - maybe we needed the turbo! Otherwise it was great!!

Mark

Reply to
Mark Seeley

That's all in the tires, well that and driver skill, not nessesarly more skill than FWD, just different skill, the car will definitly behave much differently but put on a set of good snow tires and stick a couple sandbags in the back in a plastic tub and it'll go just about anywhere. Good weight ballance and high ground clearance, I can't count the number of trucks and SUV's in ditches I've driven past, a well setup 240 feels sure footed and unstoppable.

Reply to
James Sweet

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