Word: volvo
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...have an auto industry. Its population of 7,500,000 is too small to support mass production of cars. Its low tariffs make it an alluring market for foreign automakers. Its wages-Europe's highest-prevent Swedish producers from underselling foreign cars at home, let alone abroad. But Volvo and Saab, two rival Swedish cars, are both speeding ahead...
...Volvo last year made a profit of $3,800,000, while Saab increased its profits from 1960's $1,557,000 to $2,020,000. Between them, Volvo and Saab hold 34% of the Swedish auto market. More important, both are increasing their sales...
...engineering of their cars. Both companies build their cars from sheet steel that is as much as 20% thicker than that used by U.S. automakers, and coat them with a hide of paint so tough that they need no garaging even in the Nordic winter. To dramatize this sturdiness. Volvo (Latin for "I roll") promises Swedish buyers that it will repair accident damage free during the first five years of a car's life. Saab tests its cars by subjecting them to the subArctic climate of Lapland, once rolled a car (with driver) down a Norwegian ski slope...
...Deviation. When Volvo built its first auto in 1927, its engineers were so inexperienced in the field that the car bolted backward when thrown into first gear. Today, however, Volvo factories swarm with lynx-eyed inspectors so uncompromising that suppliers are apt to find entire shipments of parts rejected for a minor deviation that many auto companies would let pass. Such rigid adherence to standards comes straight from Volvo's incisive Managing Director Gunnar Engellau, 55, who coldly compels his top executives to reduce their weight whenever they deviate from his specifications for the ideal male figure. Since Engellau...
...Target. Virtually excluded from the Common Market countries by high tariffs, both Saab and Volvo concentrate their foreign sales effort in the U.S. Volvo sold 12,787 cars in the U.S. last year at prices ranging from $2,295 for a sedan to $3,995 for a sports model, surged from tenth place among imported cars to fourth.* Saab, which sells mostly in the East at prices ranging from $1,895 to $2,790, moved from 19th to 17th with 4,169 sales-exactly on target with Managing Director Holm's plan to sell from...