After the Ford Motor Company's abrupt sell-off of Aston Martin last March, there's been much discussion about possible sales of Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo, too &mdash and a lot of talk about buyers. Sources have reported that BMW has been mulling over a purchase of Volvo, but apparently the Munich company's new CEO, Norbert Reithofer, isn't mincing words: "Let's put it this way, BMW is known as a rear-wheel-drive car company, a certain Swedish manufacturer makes front-wheel-drive cars, so where are the synergies?" Still, drive-axle synergies aside, it's tough to ignore the huge advantages of a BMW-owned Volvo. Despite the likelihood that it will part ways with Ford, which has owned Volvo since 1999, the Swedish automaker is in rare form these days, with a well-regarded lineup and a fiercely loyal fan base &mdash not all that dissimilar from BMW, in truth. BMW could profit from Volvo's famed commitment to occupant-protection technology, and Volvo could certainly use a dose of BMW-style dynamics and quality control.
Read more after the break.
Sources: Reuters, Reuters UK.
So is Reithofer bluffing? Entirely possible. (It wouldn't be the first time a company said one thing and did the opposite.) BMW's acquisition of English motoring icon Rolls-Royce, after a fierce and costly battle with Volkswagen, is bearing fruit, and although the company got burned on a misbegotten purchase &mdash and subsequent cut-price sell-off &mdash of Rover, it managed to emerge from that debacle with one particularly pretty pearl, Mini (a brand, if I'm not mistaken, that's associated with front-wheel-drive cars). Talk about synergy.
Soon-to-be stablemates? The Volvo C70 (top) and the BMW 335i Convertible.
