It was only a matter of time, we all knew, before Ford flogged off Volvo to the Chinese. In this case, it is Geely who picks up the charismatic division. In theory Volvo gets lots of money to continue its comeback and the new owners get access to loads of cutting edge tech for their own offerings as well.

Ford gets money to pay off its debt, and can continue to focus marketing and engineering resources on its core brand—the irony being that Mercury is pretty much a total waste of said resources, except as a sop to its dealers, who usually also carry Lincolns.

Ford is estimated to get $1.8 billion for Volvo; in 1999 they paid $6.45 billion for the company. As sad as some of us in the industry might be to see the deal completed, Volvo’s fate is much better than that of their Swedish cousin, Saab, who looks set to join the growing list of storied brands that just cant compete in the new world order.

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