The Americans are dumping the Swedes. Ford is passing on Volvo to Geely, while GM has said it is winding down Saab - the most likely option despite the last-gasp offer from the Dutch sports car maker Spyker.

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GM was the sole owner of Saab for 10 years. Before that, it had 50-50 shared ownership with the powerful Swedish Wallenberg-family’s investment vehicle Investor.

For its part, Ford has owned Volvo for 10 years. In Ford’s case, Volvo is left pretty much in the same position as it found it, says Matts Carlson, a car expert from the Goteborg Management Institute in Sweden.

“That’s more than can be said for Saab, which was left in a very bad situation,” he says. “It only developed two cars over the past 10 years.”