[Wimbledon]

Interesting tidbit...
http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/261510/

Designed while Ford still owned Volvo, the new V40 has been embraced Geely-appointed CEO Stefan Jacoby. The car will spearhead an aggressive new “Designed Around You” marketing campaign to “revive Volvo’s rightful place in the world”. The new V40 uses Ford Focus platform, though Volvo insists that it has re-rated the electric power steering and revised every spring and damper setting. The car is about four centimetres shorter than the outgoing model, but lower and wider. Kerb weight is still being calculated, engineers say, but it “should be lower”.

 

[icezzz]

Yes, I was assuming that it would be based on the Ford C platform, since Volvo, Ford, and Mazda spent a long time working on it together. However, each company further modified the platform to suit its needs. Will this mean greater access to replacement parts?

 

[DevolvR]

Yes, I was assuming that it would be based on the Ford C platform, since Volvo, Ford, and Mazda spent a long time working on it together. However, each company further modified the platform to suit its needs. Will this mean greater access to replacement parts?

The Ford C platform has been around for a long time, also known as P1 in the Volvo world is circa 2004 (C30,S40,V50,C70). So it should be no different, problem is as you say; Each company modifed the platform to suit it's needs. So the changes will affect the parts availability. Other than chassis, suspension being similar, most of everything else is different.

 

[MichelR]

Only platform is shared..

Design is completely done by Volvo.
No influence any more from Ford.. (thank god)..

Spoke to the Lead designer Fedde Talsma (dutch) who works for Volvo for the last 30 years.. Also designed the C30..
During the www.volvo-forum.nl Sweden trip.. where we visited all the factory's and so on..