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Volga, WV Car Consumer Discussions

Re: And NOW...for something completely different! [fintail]

by boomchek on Tue Aug 05 10:29:33 PDT 2008

The Volga is based on a BMW 850, it acutally is an 850 except for the exterior body panels. I think Car & Driver or one of the mainstream magz had an article about 4 years ago or so. Pretty cool. I like the fusion of new tech with old looks. Sorta like i enjoy listenign to classical music mixed with techno. old and new. ;)

Re: And NOW...for something completely different! [Mr_Shiftright]

by fintail on Sat Aug 02 19:52:07 PDT 2008

Ah, I remember that...I forget the name of the guys who made it. That hardtop is pretty sharp, but from what I remember it is not based on a real Volga, but on body panels made to look like one.

Re: Chrome> [andys120]

by boomchek on Sun Jul 06 23:28:09 PDT 2008

Could this be an early Volga from Russia (produced under the GAZ name I believe) circa 1960s.

Re: Another 135i pic [reality2]

by dewey on Tue Mar 04 19:18:07 PST 2008

They owned substantial liquor manufacturing businesses that served them well prior to WWII with the establishment until persecution began by the Nazis of them in the later stages of the War resulting in a loss of about 80% of my father's relatives to concentration camps and extermiination. Very tragic especially to hear it from someone whose family was so directly affected. The Pullman was certainly among the best of the best cars back then. To many North Americans Audi seems to be a relatively new brand and few will associate the name Audi with such a majestic old car like a Pullman. Regarding Russian auto sales it is interesting to see how many Lexuses are sold there. Any of the established luxury brands are light years ahead of the old Soviet luxury Volga.

Re: Movie Still> [andys120]

by magnette on Tue Feb 12 09:10:24 PST 2008

The black car is a Tatra 603 Blue - Moskvitch -412 or thereabouts White - Volga M24

Mark S, Salvation or Siberia: Number 1?

by douglasr on Fri Feb 01 16:55:04 PST 2008

Lincoln sold 131,487 cars and suv/cuv/trucks for 2007. In Lincoln's best year: "...however, 1998 registrations showed Lincoln with 189,191 and Cadillac 179,009, a 7,182 margin in Lincoln's favor. This descrepancy between sales and registrations led many in the media to question who the real luxury leader was in 1998." Ford Motor Company announced May 5 of that year as Lincoln took the sales crown from Cadillac for the first time. Better days weren't ahead, no one thought that failure and misfortune were on the horizon. In 2007 BMW took the sales crown in America with 335,840 vehicles sold, 293,795 were BMW Brand. Lexus sold 329,177 vehicles, 200,334 of which were cars. Worldwide Lexus sold 35,226 LS460/460h & 600h sedans. BMW sold 44,421 7 Series sedans. Mercedes delivered 253,400 vehicles in America, and took orders for 85,400 S Class worldwide. Cadillac captured 214,726 sales leading with their V Series chassis. BMW now sells in America as many vehicles that they used to sell worldwide in 1985, and almost outpaced even Cadillac's best sales years from two decades ago. In order for Lincoln to top its best year, 50,000 new buyers must consider Mark S, and other impending products from Lincoln as the Mark T, and Mark R. The first of the Canadian built Town-Car's from St. Thomas rolled off the new assembly line January 10, cementing Lincoln as a "global" player with cars being built in three countries. In order for Lincoln to beat the competition, it must at least sell 250,000 vehicles...bettering Cadillac and pushing BMW, Mercedes and Lexus. One in five new luxury buyers will have to consider and drive away with Lincoln in order to win the game. Chrysler has handed Lincoln one sobriquet in that they have not the nerve to build the Imperial, Mr. Nardelli's team being narrow minded with respect to its 300 platform, and where it could take them. So Lincoln will not lose 40% of its potential customers to a nascent competitor. However, Chrysler has pointed the way as to what might happen once Town Car is discontinued at St. Thomas if sales should prove disappointing. "The whole robotic production line, hundreds of high-tech machines has been bough lock stock and barrell from Chrysler in the U.S." the BBC staffwriter Rupert Winnfield wrote of his inspection of the new Chrysler Sebring line being relocated in Nizhy Novgorod north of Stalingrad on the banks of the Volga River at Volga Automotive Works. Lincoln Town Car could go the way of Packard's senior cars in 1942, rumored being sold to ZIS, and later their 1956 tooling re-appearing as a Tchaika. A rolling palace fit for Putin could find its way to Minsk, or a new factory south of Moscow. Yet for several years, 25-30,000 buyers will still pony up the bucks for the traditional RWD Town Car. That still leaves a yawning gap in the market before Lincoln can ever call itself NUMBER 1 in any sense of the word. SUV/CUV sales are up 62% at Lincoln owing to the Mark X. Ford Motor sold 2,572,599 cars and trucks in America last year for '07. Cars accounted for 839,764 of those sales, the remainder from vehicles like Mark X. While those vehicles accounted for the majority share at Ford Motor, and the changing nature of the market-place with 1.7Mn such vehicles sold under the Blue Oval, one wonders how long Lincoln can sustain itself reconfigured as a "suv/cuv/truck" manufacturer when it competitors accrue so many sales to cars? Cadillac has rejoined the fray and not afraid to compete head on against "Grosser-Mercedes", "M" Type BMW's, and soon to challenge 460H/600H from Lexus with a Cadillac version of the Volt. So the arguement that the market has changed so much that cars don't matter isn't borne out by the numbers sold collectively by the competition: they got there because they built a better engineered and bolted together product, the style was a secondary consideration. There-in lies the answer for Lincoln, one that they can attain with existing and impending products. The first of the GT500KR Shelby Mustangs rolled off the assembly line on Carol Shelby's 85th birthday this last January 11 from the "assembly plant" outside of Los-Angeles. In Shelby's own words we find the answer and solution for Lincoln: "I worked with the SVT guys for several years now and I know they have the guts, the talent, and the passion to deliver the best performance Mustang's ever..." Following those remarks VP-Production for Shelby-Ford Andy Davis commented: "We aren't fixing our attention to one or two attributes, but working on the vehicle as a whole. The throttle response, power delivery, exhaust note, and the handling all work together to deliver the greatest driving experience." Thus it should be that an SVT type program for Lincoln platforms must happen. If that kind of enthusiasm could easily be tapped for Shelby, and who could blame them for not wanting to achieve and surpass the best of them, then so the same example could be applied to Lincoln. The 'Road-Race-Road-Map" is sitting in the real steel of the competition: all they have to do is flog-em and find out their weaknesses and improve upon them. O'L Shel' might even want to drive a Lincoln as such, a four-door version of his two-door fame! Ford is saying "Tata" to Jaguar, so why not replace it with a red-blooded American version called a Lincoln? It will take a lot of nerve and verve at Ford Motor to do that. Get Mr. Kuzak, Ford's man for Global Manufacturing behind the wheel, and his opposite number Mr. Fowler, the man in charge of QC. If Ford is willing to build a pre-production quality center at The Rouge for the 2009 F-150 truck, then why not do the same for Mark S? For every vehicle sold in America, Ford has a square foot of factory space on Torrence Avenue in Chicago to build the Mark S. 14 Awards from J.D.Powers say that Ford can set a new marque for Mark S in the QC department. The Mark S will only be as good as the parts supplied and the quality dialed in by the engineers for the 2,311 line workers, and the 137 salaried staff to bolt together. It doesn't help that BMW made a profit of $65,000 per employee for 2007 on their revenues of $82.8Bn at a time when Ford Motor is offering nearly the same amount of money for UAW-Buy-outs. Ford Motor narrowed its losses to $406 per vehicle last year. It will make it that much harder for the remaining line-workers to hold the morale while they torx together Mark S. Yet Ford of Europe set a record selling 1,833,600 vehicles last year, improving its position 5.4%, so all is not doomsaying within the Blue Oval. So the pieces exist and the motivated people still toil away far from the Glass House to improve the fortunes of the firm that Henry built, and for Lincoln that together with Edsel, they bought. Now is the time to prove the mettle of the men at the Glass House. Mark S can be their Salvation or Siberia, Mark S will tell. DouglasR