Volvo

Volvo Cars, or Volvo Personvagnar AB, is a Swedish car manufacturer founded in 1927, in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden, currently owned by Ford Motor Company.
Volvo was originally formed as a subsidiary company to the ball bearing maker SKF. It was not until 1935, when Volvo AB was introduced on the Swedish stock exchange, that SKF sold most of the shares in the company. Volvo Cars was owned by AB Volvo until 1999, when it was acquired by the Ford Motor Company as part of its Premier Automotive Group.
The first Volvo car left the assembly line April 14, 1927 and was called Volvo ÖV 4. After this the young company produced closed top and cabriolet vehicles, which were designed to hold strong in the Swedish climate and terrain. In the registration application for Volvo logotype in 1927, they simply made a copy of the entire radiator for ÖV4, viewed from the front.
Even though Volvo Car Corp is owned by the Ford Motor Company, the safety systems of Volvo are still made standard on all of their vehicles and it these safety features for which Volvo is most well known, leading the field in development in this area. Volvo has patented all of their safety innovations, including SIPS, WHIPS, ROPS, DSTC, IC, and body structures.
In the early 1970s, Volvo acquired the passenger car division of the Dutch company DAF, and marketed their small cars as Volvos before releasing the Dutch-built Volvo 340, which went on to be one of the biggest-selling cars in the UK market in the 1980s.
Volvo uses in-line, or straight engines in their production vehicles. Volvo is also known for the application of the in-line 5-cylinder engine to its vehicle line up since its introduction in 1993 in the Volvo 850.
Volvo automatic transmissions in the past were made by the ZF Friedrichshafen company, but now the transmissions are co-developed with Aisin of Japan. Geartronic is Volvo Cars' name for its manumatic transmission.
The Volvo symbol is an ancient chemistry sign for iron. The iron sign is used to symbolize the strength of iron used in the car as Sweden is known for its quality iron. The diagonal line (a strip of metal) across the grille came about to hold the actual symbol, a circle with an arrow, in front of the radiator.
As a result of the divestiture, the Volvo trademark is now utilized by two separate companies: Volvo Group - a manufacturer of commercial vehicles, etc. owned by Swedish interests and Volvo Cars - a manufacturer of automobiles owned by Ford Motor Company
One of the main promotional activities for the brand is the sailing Race Volvo Ocean Race, formerly known as the Whitbread Around the World Race. There is also a Volvo Baltic Race and Volvo Pacific Race, and Volvo likes to encourage its affluent image by sponsoring golf tournaments all over the world including major championship events called the Volvo Masters and Volvo China Open.
Volvo owners are often proud of achieving high mileage.  According to some figures, the average age of a Volvo being discarded is 19.8 years, second only to Mercedes. Reliability is considered better than average.