Volvo CEO Claims They Can Be A Top Brand

First day on the job. What do you think he is going to say. Good luck Stefan Jacoby.

Larry B.
Key West.

Good luck. Larry's right.

I think Volvo can be a top brand. But to do this they need to make a few changes. Their styling is good both inside and out. One thing that needs improvement is it's chassis and suspension. They need to go to BMW school. You can still tought safety and be fun to drive.Next they need a halo coupe to generate more excitement.The smaller cars S40,V50,C30 etc need to be a little bit larger(at least more roomy inside. The C30 should be offered in a coupe/fastback style and it should be about 3 inches lower.The C70 should be based on the new S60. AWD should be standard on all models.

Mr. Hard Charger shows up without any sales forecasts? Hardly an honest mistake.

They can be!!! But a top brand in what catagory? If you want to go up against the Germans, that's one thing. If you want to go up against the Asians and just sell a lot of cars, that's another.

If they pick the Germans, they will need to do the following:

Pick a direction and stick to it. It's okay if people find you different or quirky at first. It gives your brand charm and character.

It must be a core philosophy within your brand to settle for nothing less than absolute perfection and understand that it's something you can only get close to and never really achieve.

Hire the best engineers money can buy and lots of them.

Go to Italy or GB and steal, (if you have to) the best designers money can buy.

Be prepared to loose money for some time while you sell your high value products for a lower price than the more established German competition.

Don't buy engines or share old platforms from other brands. Build your own reputation on it's own merits. Use the highest quality materials and worksmanship. It will show when you do.

Be prepared to go racing. Even if you fail early on, you build street cred just by being there and your engineers will learn a lot. If you can show signs of improvement over time instead of complacency, you will build a following. Humans still love an underdog.

Be prepared to spend cash....LOTS of it. That's one thing the Chinese have plenty of which is what makes the idea possible in the first place.

Do they have the balls to do it? We shall see. It takes more than a CEO chanting to the press about it. Everyone in the organization has to be on board.

ROFLMAO

Volvo will always be Volvo, hopefully. They shouldn't need to aim to be a 'top brand', just a better Volvo. To say that Volvo is no longer tied to a major manufacturer is total bunk; Geely is gargantuan, and the brand should take advantage of that.

I am sure they will be a top brand in China over time.As "never follows" says Volvo has to make some serious changes in it's philosophy. It can't simply be only Safety. It must be Safety with Fun to drive. In order to do that the need to go racing or rallying or both. They started to go their with the 242 GT back in the late 70's and early 80's but then quickly abandoned the course. One thing they could do is consider RWD.