Re: XC70 Future (Johann)
I don't know that I buy that for several reasons. When you break it down, the XC70 and the V70 2.5T AWD (was 2.4T AWD) differ only by body cladding, suspension settings, wheels, tires, seats and that little handle on the center console. That's it. That means, by manufacturer standards, it's cheap to develop and cheap to make adhere to various market rules and regulations if the V70 AWD is also being prepped for that market.<p>Further, it sells. We'll have to watch the numbers with the XC90 on the market, but in the USA, the XC70 outpaces the V70 by a significant margin. Go into any recent month's news index on this site and look at the sales figures writeup (table at the bottom) and compare. The USA is Volvo's biggest market, so I'd guess the XC70 is going nowhere.<p>Also, we've all heard that the V50 will spawn an XC50. I think the XC70 offers continuity to the brand without having to develope a whole new vehicle and heavily doubt it's going away.