A few days ago we published a rumor submitted to us by a Ford insider regarding Volvo's new C30 being shipped back to Sweden due to slow sales.
Apparently, the rumor is not true and the Spies can only surmise at this point that our source is a disgruntled Ford employee trying to stir up trouble.
Here is the response from Volvo PR.
I've followed AutoSpies.com since its inception and, while I find the site to be often entertaining and informative, the site's credibility is compromised when a false story is published. The claim that Volvo C30s are being shipped back to Europe is bogus and, I can only surmise, has to be a total fabrication.
Here's why: Every vehicle shipped to the United States is, of course, a U.S.-spec car. That means it meets the standards set by the U.S. Government. European countries have different standards for things such as emissions, tire noise, safety, software, headlights, instrument clusters, etc. Common sense should make it clear that a U.S.-spec car won't be sold in Europe and a European-spec car won't be sold here. The time and money spent by a manufacturer to retrofit a car would be astronomical.
I will point out, too, that May and June were the two best months ever for C30 sales in the United States. Our 2008 sales are very close to our projection.
From a journalistic perspective, I'm surprised the writer didn't call us to do any fact-checking or ask for a response. The only "source" for the story was someone inside...Ford?!? That's sloppy reporting and your readers deserve better. Whoever wrote the piece deserves a proverbial tongue-lashing from you because the story served no purpose, was untruthful and misled your readers.
The decision to keep the story on your site rests with you. By keeping it on your site, though, you risk losing your readers' trust.
Geno
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Geno Effler
Vice President, Public Affairs
Volvo Cars of North America
Geno,
We do our best to check our sources and in this case the source couldn't have been any stronger.
But what we can't judge is the INTENT of why certain people say certain things.
We report, people decide.