Much of Volvo technology may not go to Ford as some of it is Ford's current
and future investment and this is causing delays in the sale. It
understandable from Ford's view point and indeed from China's. However, as
it is safety related technology should Ford be so recalcitrant? They seem
to be in the same position as China is now when Ford bought the Rover - Land
Rover technology and BMW (after getting what they wanted) released it.
One very telling thing in relation to Chinese vehicle construction was when
they tried to build the Rover 800 after buying the model and transporting
the assembly lines to China. Their vehicle failed European crash testing
abysmally. The possible reason was the type of metal used in construction.
It is understood China
used mild steel pressings whereas Rover UK had use a goodly proportion of
high
strength steel (HSS) pressings.
There is a great deal of difference between the two metals, Vauxhall (UK arm
of Chrysler) introduced HSS to UK cars quite a few years ago but didn't tell
anyone. This
came to light when repaired accident damaged cars started appearing
strongly in insurance write-off lists following minor bumps. It is
understood that Vauxhall had told its
dealers where the bodyframe HSS had been included and no-one else. Not all
dealers have
good communication between themselves and the outsourced body repair shops
they use. By far the majority of body repair shops (independent businesses)
had not been told. HSS cannot (read should not) be welded as it produces
very soft metal lines either side of a 'good looking' weld due to post
welding annealing problems but should be glued or lower temperature brazed.
Although this is now a widely known within the industry, Vauxhall received
industry criticism for their 'closed' approach.
China's HSS production (if there is any, after all it is a hi-tech
production system),
may go to their military but not to the lower ranking car industry. Buying
a current Chinese car could be buying a safety problem but sometime in the
not too distant
future they will be a product to be reckoned with.
Guy R Day
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