No More Volvo V70 for U.S. Market
Volvo will drop its V70 wagon from the U.S. lineup for the 2011 model year. The V70 will continue to be sold in Europe. Only 1,800 V70s were sold in the U.S. last year.
DETROIT — Volvo has confirmed for Inside Line that its V70 station wagon is going away in the U.S. for the 2011 model year. “We sold only 1,800 V70s last year,” said Volvo Cars of North America spokesman Dan Johnston in response to an e-mailed query on Friday. “Kind of hard to make a living on that few units. “Our XC70, XC60 and XC90s account for about 42 percent of total sales, while V70 is only about 2 percent. Buyers voted with their pocketbooks and chose an XC over [the] V70 in our market.”
Johnston said the V70 will continue to be sold in other Volvo markets such as Europe. The news of the V70’s demise in North America was greeted by the European automotive media with such comments as “Americans Hate Wagons.” Johnston noted that later this year, Volvo will bring out an XC70 front-wheel-drive model. But he said pricing on that is unavailable at this time.