hmm ok i will bite...

so what your saying is that nothing in a s40 comes out of ford except dimensions for mounting points etc..ok lets think about that for a second...WHY..

The only answer would be that this allows you to test one chasis design and develope that thus saving on R&D cost accross the group...BUT we all know chasis design is a WHOLE lot more that dimensions of mounting points, it relies on every componant, steels used in the chasis (i.e tortional stiffness / resonant frequencies etc)....so to be honest that idea simply doesnt add up to me...(thats my OPINION)..

We KNOW ford are using comon source compnanats on their lux cars form the UK and USA (Lincoln and Jaguar) ..down to common door handle sourcing...

I find it very difficult to credit (and what i have read would suggest) that they are not performing enonomy of scale operations on VOLVO too...certianly the rest of the car industry is...

Obviously wihtout taking two cars apart and compairing the peices its difficult to tell for sure...

Obviously you have somesort of inside track on this. perhaps you could help us all out and explain in more detail how the 'common platform' concept works and your qualifications for making the statements you do...