I'd mentioned this to George on the S80 thread, so seeing how it's a broader issue across the entire Volvo line I'll raise it again here.
To me, Volvo Marketing has forgotten an important market segment in their effort to focus on the lux-car buyer. To me, they've forgotten the performance-minded buyer who has a limited budget and would rather spend their last available $$$ on the performance items instead of the lux-o items.
In my case it was the S60 T5 without the sunroof or leather seats. BUT I had to order the car TDS to get it that way (and I HATE the vinyl inserts they put into the T5's stock seats.) But at least I got the T5.
For the 2002, Volvo mandated the sunroof as standard equipment and jacked up the price accordingly. That's great for the lux-minded buyers, but ignores the performance-edged (read--cheap) ones. [Hey!! My car got totaled and we weren't even halfway in paying off my wife's S80. NO WAY could I afford a fully loaded S60!]
But Volvo's marketing has totally ignored the pure performance segment, like the folk who wants just something better than a Mustang but can't afford the full-blown S60.
Besides, to me PAG has two lux-minded marques, the Jag and the Volvo. Why not steer one to the lux-end and the other to performance to take BMW head-on?
I say give us the decent cloth seats, drop the sunroof and get the car affordable again and break into a new market segment.
Am I the only one who thinks this way? How many S60/S80/V70 sales have been lost because of corporate's push to the luxury-end of the market?
Any thoughts on how to improve Volvo's marketing? They have a very hard time breaking the brick/college prof image, even with the S60's great styling. To me they haven't succeeded as well as they could have. To me, a push in the performance arena, say with a lightweight C60 coupe with 280 hp on tap would wake up the naysayers and get the folks into the showrooms.
My $.02
Your thoughts and mileage may vary.
To me, Volvo Marketing has forgotten an important market segment in their effort to focus on the lux-car buyer. To me, they've forgotten the performance-minded buyer who has a limited budget and would rather spend their last available $$$ on the performance items instead of the lux-o items.
In my case it was the S60 T5 without the sunroof or leather seats. BUT I had to order the car TDS to get it that way (and I HATE the vinyl inserts they put into the T5's stock seats.) But at least I got the T5.
For the 2002, Volvo mandated the sunroof as standard equipment and jacked up the price accordingly. That's great for the lux-minded buyers, but ignores the performance-edged (read--cheap) ones. [Hey!! My car got totaled and we weren't even halfway in paying off my wife's S80. NO WAY could I afford a fully loaded S60!]
But Volvo's marketing has totally ignored the pure performance segment, like the folk who wants just something better than a Mustang but can't afford the full-blown S60.
Besides, to me PAG has two lux-minded marques, the Jag and the Volvo. Why not steer one to the lux-end and the other to performance to take BMW head-on?
I say give us the decent cloth seats, drop the sunroof and get the car affordable again and break into a new market segment.
Am I the only one who thinks this way? How many S60/S80/V70 sales have been lost because of corporate's push to the luxury-end of the market?
Any thoughts on how to improve Volvo's marketing? They have a very hard time breaking the brick/college prof image, even with the S60's great styling. To me they haven't succeeded as well as they could have. To me, a push in the performance arena, say with a lightweight C60 coupe with 280 hp on tap would wake up the naysayers and get the folks into the showrooms.
My $.02
Your thoughts and mileage may vary.
