1991 Volvo 940 Turbo 4dr 16k Original Mi,auto,4cyl,1 Owner,garaged,museumquality on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Volvo aiming for a stock IPO by the end of 2021

Volvo Cars is "making good progress" toward a potential initial public offering by the end of this year, the chief executive of the Swedish premium auto brand told Reuters on Wednesday. "We are looking at the possibility of doing an IPO before the end of the year," listing shares on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange, company CEO Hakan Samuelsson said in an interview. Samuelsson and other Volvo executives on Wednesday laid out an extensive road map to becoming a fully electric car maker by 2030, including plans to sell 600,000 battery electric vehicles at mid-decade and build a European battery gigafactory in 2026. Volvo earlier this year scrapped a proposed merger with the company's Chinese parent, Hong Kong-listed Geely Automobile. In March, Geely said Volvo would explore capital market options, including an initial public offering and stock market listing. Many startups have gone public in the United States and China over the past two years, following electric vehicle market leader Tesla Inc in taking advantage of investor enthusiasm to raise cheap capital to compete with established brands such as Volvo. Samuelsson said Volvo and Geely will continue to share vehicle architectures, internal combustion powertrains and other components. But the companies will do so at "an arm's length distance," consistent with the way independent companies do business, he said. During Wednesday's briefing, Volvo also said it plans to equip many of its future vehicles with self-driving technology, including standard lidar sensors from Luminar Technologies Inc and computers from Nvidia Corp. "Our goal is to build the safest cars possible, using all available technology," Samuelsson said. As it launches new electric vehicles, Volvo also plans a slew of related products, including insurance and vehicle subscription payment plans offered directly by the automaker, Samuelsson said. "The whole vehicle business will be recurring revenue," Samuelsson said. In Europe, the company plans to change its retail operations so that customers order new electric vehicles directly from the manufacturer, with dealers paid commissions to deliver them, Samuelsson said. In the United States, where laws protect existing dealers, Volvo will still sell vehicles through franchised retailers. For its future electric vehicles, Volvo is working with Swedish partner Northvolt on a new generation of batteries with higher energy and designed to be packaged as a structural element of the vehicle.

Volvo recalls 460,000 cars worldwide for potentially deadly airbags

Volvo and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have released an expanded recall for just shy of 260,000 of its S60 and S80 sedans. Including those 260,000 cars in the U.S., the recall worldwide numbers about 460,000. The recall affects 2001-2009 S60s and 2001-2006 S80s, which have airbag inflators that could have degraded and could blast shrapnel into occupants. If that sounds familiar, it's because the monumental Takata airbag recall was for the same basic reason. But these Volvo devices aren't Takata airbags. Instead, these airbags were manufactured by ZF, the company that builds all varieties of automotive components but is probably best-known among car enthusiasts for their transmissions. The inflators use a material that, when exposed to high levels of moisture, can start to break down and form dust-like particles. These can ignite rapidly, more so than the component was designed for, which can cause the component to break and release metal shrapnel. According to the Associated Press, this material is different than the ammonium nitrate used by Takata. According to the NHTSA documentation, there has been one incident reported concerning the airbags, in which a person died. Volvo will replace all affected airbags at no charge to the customer. The replacement airbag apparently uses a different type of propellant, so it likely won't need to be replaced again. Dealers have already been informed, and owner notices will be going out at the end of November. If you have an affected Volvo, you can call 1-800-458-1552, and the recall number for Volvo is R10125. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Car subscription services: A slow, expensive start — but the potential is huge

Americans are used to paying for subscriptions — to magazines and cable television, for instance — but experience shows they'll cancel when the price of admission gets too high, or there are more tempting alternatives. Cord cutters ditched nearly 1.5 million pay-TV subscriptions in 2017, according to a survey by Leichtman Research Group. Cable TV started out cheap with basic offerings, and then got expensive. The auto industry's subscription offerings are new, but they're starting out costly, and not price-competitive with traditional leasing. The upside is that they take the hassle out of car ownership for busy people by letting the service take care of maintenance, insurance, licensing and taxes. And they give consumers choice, often allowing relatively painless switches between different cars in the automakers' lineup. Subscription services also point the way toward an ownership-free auto experience, and offer an easy transition to a potential world where ride- and car-sharing will be dominant. Subscriptions are here to stay, but consumers may take a while to "get" them. Lincoln's subscription service for lightly used 2015 to 2017 models, offered through the Ford-owned Canvas beginning this year, got off to a slow start. Many early subscribers canceled. Last month, Cadillac announced it would " temporarily pause" its $1,800-per-month Book subscription service for "adjustments" as of December 1. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Snags with the back-end technology used to support the service made some customer-service functions tedious and time-consuming, adding costs for the company." The challenge for automakers is to come up with a strategy that offers consumers a compelling, affordable option to regular ownership, and one that can also make a profit. I think they'll find that sweet spot, but they're not there yet. Jack Nerad, former executive editorial director at Kelley Blue Book and author of " The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying or Leasing a Car," points out that "A lot of people expected that subscriptions would be very valuable for people who wanted inexpensive transportation, but the reality is quite the opposite. Subscriptions are offering more choices for the wealthy.