The drama of this afternoon was when I was sitting in our Volvo XC70 outside our kids’ middle school waiting to pick them up or at least bring home their heavy bags and my daughter’s saxophone. Suddenly, I heard something crashing into our left rear mirror and saw that the cover of the mirror with a turn signal light had fallen off to the ground.
Then I noticed a distraught and very apologetic boy on his bicycle and soon thereafter, the director of campus safety appeared out of nowhere who brought us to the Principal and then the boy’s mother arrived. Even if he wasn’t supposed to ride his bike on that road, I hope this boy doesn’t get into too much trouble and I am glad he didn’t get hurt.
As a result, I once again get an opportunity to test the service capability of our local Volvo dealer where I am writing this text. I admit that I am biased, I basically grew up in a Volvo station wagon and even if Volvo Cars now is owned by the Chinese Geely Corporation, it is still a very Swedish brand. In fact, Natasha at the service desk just told me that they are supposed to work the Swedish heritage even more going forward so I taught her some phrases such as “hej !” (= hi!) and “tack!” (thanks!). And yes, they passed the service satisfaction test this time, too, good people to deal with!
I have also had the great pleasure of bringing multiple groups of Chapman University MBA students to Volvo Cars in Gothenburg, Sweden. The students got an opportunity to test drive the latest models and ironically enough, one of my Chinese students crashed a Volvo as she veered off the demo track but thanks to the safe car she was driving, neither she nor her passenger got hurt. Now Natasha came back and the rear mirror bill will be $302.56…
While waiting, I interviewed sales consultant Ghaleb Abdallah who has been selling Volvos for 21 years. The three keys to selling Volvos he says are: safety, comfort, and durability. Plus that you get a car like that for 15 thousand dollars less than a comparable BMW! He had not seen the Zlatan Made by Sweden ad, though, but enjoyed it when I showed it to him on my phone.
So, now go get one of them good-looking Volvos! [unsponsored post…]