Volvo to Geely: Not true unless Dearborn says so

In a wild orgy of he-said-she-said-it-whispered, Chinese media, from China Daily, to Shanghai Daily, to car186.com, all the way to Motor Trend (with the help of the ever so reliable Google Translate) this morning reports yesterday’s news of Geely buying Volvo. However, not to the surprise of the connoisseur of the Chinese news cycle …

The China Business News (via Reuters) takes a contrarian view: “The parent of Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd, Ford Motor and its Volvo car unit all issued statements on Wednesday denying media reports that the Chinese car maker had an initial agreement to buy the Swedish car maker from Ford.”

The official Volvo denial carries an interesting slant:

“An announcement related to the sale of Volvo Car Corp. would only come from Ford Motor Company. As of today, neither Ford Motor Company nor Volvo Car Corporation in Sweden has made any announcement regarding the sale of Volvo. Reports of such a sale by any media outlet are speculative and, therefore, are not accurate.”

Translation: Don’t believe anything unless it’s dateline Dearborn. Are we saying the reports are utterly baseless? No. Just “not accurate.”

As the camshaft spins…