The Volvo Cars is integrated into Ford `s Premier Automotive Group (PAG), which also consists of Lincoln, Jaguar and Aston Martin. The first two and Volvo will share more components and even platforms in the future in order to reduce cost. The next S70 s replacement won t be affected, but the joint venture project with Mitsubishi - S40 / V40 - is likely to be based on the next Ford Mondeo / Jaguar X400 platform. 

Talking about the joint venture with Mitsubishi, that is, Ned Car, it started producing in the mid-90 s in Netherlands. The project is deemed to be unsuccessful because both the S40 and Carisma were not engineered to meet expectation, especially is the S40 which is supposed to be a Mercedes C-class / BMW 3-series / Audi A4 contender. In addition to the cost sharing policy by the new owner, the venture is nearly certain to be axed as soon as the S40 is replaced. 

Needless to emphasis, Volvo is renowned for producing the safest cars in the world. Its research and development in this field paid off when S40 and S80 scored the highest marks in European NCAP crash test. It has many innovation about safety, such as SIPS (Side Impact Protection System, that is, strengthened A, B, C pillars and floorpan to provide protection against side impact ), inflatable curtain air bag, which covers the whole side windows to prevent passenger's head from knocking into the side windows, WHIPS (Whiplash Protection System), which helps preventing whiplash injuries by moving the backrests backwards in case of a rear impact, and lastly, the reversed baby chair. The angular share also helps establishing an image of solid build. Undoubtedly, the safety image is the most valuable thing of Volvo.

It concentrated on medium price to luxurious cars until the arrival of PV444 in 1947, the first small cars for Volvo. It doesn t appears for technology, but the 4-cylinder car was aggressively priced. It was also the first mass production car for Volvo, resulted in 100,000 sales in 9 years. The next small car, Amazon (called 120 in overseas), was born in 1956. 667,000 units were produced during its 14 years life. 

With PV444 and Amazon, Volvo expanded rapidly from the late 50 1s to the 60 s. A larger plant at Torslanda was built to add an annual capacity of at most 200,000 cars.  

The products were still conservative, excluding the P1800 sports car which was born in 1961. Today the 2-seater is still the only sports car Volvo ever produced. It was assembled in UK and powered by a 4-cylinder 1.8-litre engine.  

In 1966, the Volvo 144 started establishing a reputation for safety. It had disc brakes all round, 3-point safety belts, crumple zones front and rear and fail-safe dual-channel brake system. A more important model, 240-series, was presented in 1974 and continuing serving the company until late 80 s. The 240 turbo was the first turbocharged Volvo and even performed strong in motor racing. 

Volvo 760 / 740-series was born in 1982 as the company `s flagship model. Its angular shape dominated the company s design philosophy until today s S80. Its PRV V6 engine was developed jointly by PSA, Renault and Volvo itself. The relationship with Renault was extended to a talk for merger but eventually broke down. 

Volvo also had a factory in Holland, which was mainly owned by the Dutch government. It was used to produce the "small Volvo", 440 / 460 / 480 series. In the 90 `s, Mitsubishi joined the venture by taking 18.3% stock. The factory became "Ned Car" and produces Volvo S40 and Mitsubishi Carisma today. 

The Volvo 850 of 1991 changed the company `s image from a conservative car maker to a dynamic brand. It was tuned to deliver a good handling. The modular 5-cylinder engine was developed by Porsche and in its hottest form, T5R, delivered 250 horsepower. Even so, the car still preserved the leading edge in safety by introducing a side impact protection chassis structure (SIPS). 

The S80 of 1998 is undoubtedly another peak of Volvo. The same year also saw Volvo departed from its mother group and was sold to Ford.