[Familyman 90]

Excellent pictures, very illustrative. It's a shame, because Ford have made some dynamically excellent cars in recent years, and theyre far from being cheap any more.

They don't exactly sit upon the same chassis. Some components are shared, or more likely modified onto the Volvo which minimises design costs, but the "platform" is an architectural concept thather than a of physical piece sheet metal.

Scalable platforms work in the same way, but take the dimensional relationships further so stuff can be made bigger or smaller and still be produced on the same line.

There will be certain dimensional crossovers. For example, door hinges, suspension pick up points, engine mounts, etc, will share the same relationship in 3D space. This means suspension components engines, etc, transmissions, can be shared between the designs and even built in the same production line with minimal disruption.

As such, Volvo are able to design their monocoque to drain better, to use superior quality steel, and to use whatever anticorrosion processes they fancy instead of being restricted to directly using Fords sheet metal with all its shortcomings. Thankfully Volvo retained sufficient freedom of action under Ford ownership to be able to do this, and weren't forced into the indignity of having their products plop off a Ford production line on alternatve days with the Focus or Mundano.

Indeed, considering how badly Ford mismanaged their ownership of the PAG companies Volvo did pretty will to retain some integrity with their product.