| Winds of change in volvo
parts availability..............
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| Genuine Classic Parts'
price increase on spare parts.
PV- Klubben (Swedish 444 club) Took the Initiative for a Protest Letter to Volvo by Lars Hjertberg Volvo Parts A.B. transferred all Volvo original spare parts for older Volvo cars (from the 1800 series back) to the private company Genuine Classic Parts in Jönköping. At the same time permission was given to remanufacture and sell these parts. The reason given was that Volvo needed to make room for storing spare parts for the many new car models that have been introduced in recent years. The spare parts are distributed as previously through Volvo dealers around the world. In March of this year Genuine Classic Parts raised the price on certain spare parts by over 100% over night. Anyone can figure out what that meant to our members. Our hobby suffered a devastating blow. The price of fenders for PV (444, 445, etc.) are the most worrisome because these are among the most important in a restoration. Fenders were raised overnight from Sw.kr. 1600 to 3700 ($ 210 to 487). If the price goes up much on fenders, the effect will be that fewer cars are going to be restored on the grounds that the cost is too high. This in turn leads to reduced sales of other parts, and that doesn't seem like a good business idea. In the end it would result in more parts disappearing from the market. Volvo's pricing idea was to sell fenders cheaper in order to stimulate the market for other parts. An increase was therefore anticipated, but nobody believed the rise would be that much. |
If this high price level can not be lowered, PV-Klubben is open for discussions on taking over manufacturing and sales of PV fenders. No dialogue Genuine Classic Parts has professed that they will cooperate with the clubs, but the effected price increase is a good example of that they don't care what the clubs think. There has on the whole never been any dialogue between Genuine Classic and the clubs regarding the price increases. Two weeks before the increases went into effect, SVIS (Swedish Volvoclubs United) had aboard meeting that was held at the Genuine Classic Parts facilities in Jönköping. A representative from the company participated and all the Volvo clubs in Sweden were represented. This was a golden opportunity to discuss the price hikes and receive direct response to them, but not one word was mentioned. This hardly encourages dialogue or trust. Protest letter The Volvo clubs have now sent this letter (next page) to AB Volvo in an expression of disappointment with how the spare parts for our "cultural treasures" (Volvo PV/Duett) are handled. It concerns both the way Volvo handed over the parts and the way Genuine Classic handled the parts after the transfer . Many foreign clubs wanted to sign on, but the time was short, since we wanted the letter to arrive in conjunction with AB Volvo's board meetings. All clubs were in agreement that this is a wounding blow to our hobby. No results yet We have not yet received an official answer from AB Volvo, but hope it will come shortly. We know that the letter has begun a process inside Volvo. Now we want to see results, otherwise the protests will increase. It is easy to understand that many are enraged. |
