In this gloomy sales environment, the return of Volvo’s scheduled free maintenance is putting the brand on more shopping lists, dealers say.

Volvo reinstated 3 years/36,000 miles free maintenance for 2009 models after a major push from dealers, who said consumers needed more confidence in the brand. Volkswagen began a similar program for 2009 models to allay concerns about quality and repair costs.
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Dagens Industri the Swedish business magazine reported today that Ford is in talks with an unnamed Chinese car company, whom is believed to be Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. to spin off it’s Volvo division.

What this will bring to the Volvo nameplate, noone knows. Naturally it will seem like it’s cheapening the brand if it gets sold to the Chinese. According to major publications, investor Kirk Kerkorian, would like to see Ford rid itself of Volvo, which it purchased in 1999.

It is said that CEO Mulally has began to consider selling Volvo about a year ago. Several companies have been contacted regarding the offer including BMW and Mazda.

Volvo instead of meeting their targets of selling 200,000 vehicles by 2010, are said to be closer to approaching 90,000 vehicles. Head office is in the midst of asking unprofitable dealers to leave the franchise, thereby cutting about 20% of it’s dealerships in the U.S.

Ford said to cut about 2,000 jobs across the board from the operations of Volvo in midst of it ending it’s quarter with a $151 million loss.