By 1945 Volvo had become well-known outside Sweden, but they were too expensive for most people. 54 years later, in 1999, Volvo sold the car manufacturing part of its company to Ford Motor Company, America, for $6.45 billion. Ford thought it would make a big profit from this deal, but it did not. So only 11 years later it sold Volvo Cars to the Chinese motor manufacturer, Geely Automobile.