BMW would also gain a bigger foot hold in European markets with the Volvo network and could entirely re-structure their own ranges with their new niches taking over and getting rid of their estates for Volvo to take over. By giving and securing Volvo’s own identity for producing cars that are long lasting, safe and exciting, BMW could return to racing and develop their compact saloons. Volvo on the other hand could bow out of the luxury market and develop practical solutions such as SUVs and MPVs.

It would be great for Volvo to return to rear drive platforms too.

This will probably be the second year that Porsche makes more money with their VW shares than by selling Porsche cars. More power to Wendelin Wiedeking ;-) without him Porsche would have dissapeared long time ago.

Mini was a totally different type of deal in my opinion. Mini was a good possibility to re-create something unique – once that was successfull they expanded the range.

With Volvo the range is already quiet complete small SUV, big SUV, compact, small, mid and full size cars. A coupe-convertible, a crossover. And all on a front wheel drive or halldex basis. A complete re-engineering will cost massive amounts of money.

Besides the money, I think the main point is that Mini gave BMW a possibility to totally recreate a brand, that’s not possible with Volvo.

It could be possible in the future with for example Austin Healey, which unfortunately might be done by the chinese now.

My take is that it will make sense up to a point, and yes, BMW could expand into another market, one that also has loyal buyers, but in the same time, there will be many risks associated with this acquisition, especially now with all the financial problems.

I do remember typical discussions before Mini was acquired and what a bad idea it will be, but now….Mini makes them tons of money.

I don’t see it that way. Surely it wouldn’t make much sense to acquire Volvo and keep their cars as is. BMW doesn’t need a Volvo (“under their wings”) like Volvo cars are now today. But to push Volvo onto another level — or let’s say bring back the good-old Volvo days — by building Volvos on existing BMW platforms would be a different (and IMHO good) way. Just imagine the existing S80 with the same Swedish luxury interior, but a proper size (next 5-series platform), proper layout (rear-wheel drive, optional AWD), a proper gearbox (Steptronic or DKG) and proper engines (BMW *.*)

But I admit, that idea would also rise a question: what would BMW benefit from spending a couple of billion euros? Probably not much, since engineering-wise I don’t think Volvo has more than 2-3 things that BMW doesn’t have (or is not under development right now already). So probably negotiations will be “artifically delayed” by BMW until Ford is on their knees, knocking Volvo shares to the floor :) So for e.g. half a billion euro then BMW could acquire the remains of Volvo — the brand itself basically…

Personally I don’t think BMW & Volvo make sense. The cooperation between
Merc & BMW makes more sense, even though it doesn’t excite me that much either – despite my feelings its less risky and there are more logical synergies.

I agree that BMW & Volvo, would be a lot like BMW & Rover. Front vs. rear wheel drive and other problems that would mean A LOT of extra development costs. In the current economic environment, BMW’s best move is the cooperation with Mercedes…

if you want to see some good conversation check out

http://www.bmwblog.com/2008/10/23/obama-compared-to-a-bmw-while-mccain-gets-the-ford-title/#comment-64630

Harsh dude!
I agree with you to some level that BMWBlog sometimes report things that dont deserve mentioning, but that’s not the common.

Timesonline.co.uk reported this news today, and I saw it on a couple of places, so it IS a legit rumor. IMHO BMW would be stupid to do this, I’m sure they have enough business brains that told them it’s a good idea, but at least for us it’s a disaster, BMW will have to compromise it’s own cars to bring Volvo back (as they did with Rover and as Mercs did with Chrysler).

If you ask me (and that’s a totally uneducated opinion) I would say they should buy Lotus which will enhance BMW sporty image with the lack of a super sport car. Imagine a a Lotus-BMW-M brand, this would be a real kick ars. Or maybe they should invest into Sauber and make it a road car manufacturer in addition to F1, with something like BMW-Sauber-M1 car :)

Has the rumor been circulated a few times? Sure. Does that make it 100% false? Not by default, no.

Screw it. Please delete this comment, its just not worth trying to talk to numbskulls.

To get your panties in a wad over one of them being reported upon, especially when it was designated as a “rumor”, is pretty idiotic. If some BMW blog site posting a “rumor” is the worst thing that happens to you today, it’s a pretty damn good day.

Now rinse the sand from your vagina and carry about your business.