[preacher]

Does anyone know what the outcome was with Volvo a few months back? IIRC, they were going bankrupt, or out of business, or for sale...?

Anyways...I did another market research yesterday, and it appears that they are working on a concept...maybe based on the XC90. This time in a conference room with posters of BMW X5, MB MLK, Audi Q5, and XC90... as opposed to a showroom with badge-less vehicles and filling out surveys. This time we had cameras, microphones, and large two way mirrors...kinda stressful at first.

Their interest was styling, interior, demographics, and third row seating. They kept things very discreet, and vague....but paneled the 7 of us, mostly based on these topics. Compareing the cars we all currently drive, and almost focusing a majority of comparisons against the X5, as BMW is the prefered car of Southern California....Also, we were all married with kids.

Soo..my thoughts are possibly that they are considering "crossover" suv that is sportier than the xc90, not a wagon or a suv...but somewhere in between (not only because we were all owners of Acura RDX, Infinity FX35, Lexus RS350, and a few other similar models) based on a 6 cyl and the dude even mentioned a 4cyl turbo:banana:.

He focused on proto's with and without roof racks, smaller windows, longer tailends...mostly styling. Gas mileage came up, as well as integrated electronics, but never did we discuss drivtrain.:icon_rolleyes:

I could be totally off, and this guy could have been from another car company...and these were just some impressions given off. Keep your eyes open, as it appears that the world is watching what we really want in a car...do they really care?....only if it makes their wallet happy.

 

[YoGeorge]

Volvo was, or is in the process, of being sold to Geely, a Chinese company. Based on a quick search, it looks like they missed a Feb 14th deadline because Geely could not get their financing together, but it still seems to be the way things will go.

It will be a cold day in hell before I buy even MORE stuff from a Chinese-owned company if I have a choice not to, as much as I like Volvos. I don't think the megabuck sport ute field makes much sense in the long haul (although it seems to be popular as a short-term money grab strategy)...people are cutting back and fuel economy will become important again before too long when gas prices go back up.

George

 

[funkymonkey1002]

Too bad they couldn't have sold a redesigned ford flex as a new volvo XC model with the ecoboost+awd.

 

[2point5awd]

They already made the XC60 though. My parents just bought one and they like it a lot. I got to drive it and it was nice. Plush... a word you don't hear around the Forester community much ;-)

 

[preacher]

All three of you are right on with comments, and make perfect sense..also very intuitive of the discussion last night.

When we were being asked "first thing that comes to mind" when seeing these cars..I called out the ownership of Volvo early on, and one of the other male participants mentioned being bought but he wasn't clear, and no-one else seemed to even know. I also once mentioned the s70 (hott wagon btw), and the guy leading seemed to not even know what I was talmbout..subject changed quikly.

I once mentiond that the new GLK should been the image of MB, not their old fuzzy image of a MLK. I was honest, and maybe spoke too truthfully, but they wanted input and involvement...I semi-preached instead. I was coming from the heart, and my eweb skillz allowed me to share my strong opinions.

Last night was wierd...I wasn't prepared for sitting in a conference room....but overall an eye opening experience of how these companies get their ideas.Whatever the company was..they were looking lost, and the 3 people they asked to participate in a second survey...they will recieve an additional 2 bills to tell them what they wanna hear.

Shoulda hired me to pull their heads out. All they needed to ask is "what do we need to do to" keep cars sexy, fast & efficient, able to haul gear, be safe and get better gas mileage. No body wants a wagone, or Lg. SUV, or minivan. We leed lower, agressive/wider, lg windowed cars, that have great driving vision & no blindspots. Affordable & dependable integrated audio & nav...shoot dont get me started.

They want image....bless them. We'll see soon before later.