A Brief History of Volvo
Volvo owners in Escondido pride themselves on standing apart from the crowd. Volvo was created as a subsidiary of Swedish company SKF. The first Volvo car completed production on April 14, 1927, and was called Volvo OV 4. Then, the Volvo PV444 passenger car was released in 1944 and entered production in 1947. The first Volvos entered the United States in 1955, starting in California before expanding to Texas, and by 1956, they had spread throughout the entire country. In the 1970s, Volvo acquired the passenger car division of the Dutch company DAF and released the Dutch-built Volvo 340, which became one of the bestselling cars in the United Kingdom in the 1980s. In 1986, Volvo sold a record 113,267 vehicles in the United States. Now, it is common to spot Volvos on the road in Escondido, CA, San Marcos, CA, Hidden Meadows, CA, Oceanside, CA, Rancho Bernardo, CA, and all over the world.
In 1999, Volvo Group decided to sell its automobile manufacturing business in order to concentrate on commercial vehicles and buy a 5% stake in Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors. That same year, on January 28, 1999, the buyout of Volvo Cars by Ford Motor Company was announced for $6.45 billion. Today, the Volvo logo is used by Volvo Group, a manufacturer of buses, trucks, and construction equipment by Swedish interest, as well as by Volvo Car Corporation, a manufacturer of automobiles owned by Ford Motor Company. Under Ford, Volvo cars became more upmarket, among the lower end of Mercedes and BMW. The result was the Volvo S80 and the small crossover Volvo XC60. However, the economic crisis of 2008 put Volvo in a financially withering position, and Ford sold the company to Geely Group Holdings Co. in China.
