Thursday at Ford begins, as ever, with a management pow-wow in the Thunderbird room. Today's meeting at the Dearborn, Michigan, HQ may be dominated by the planned disposal of Volvo to China's Geely. Talks are reported to be faltering on concerns over piracy.

Such jitters are understandable. Great Wall vs Fiat, an intellectual property battle currently being played out in the Chinese company's home province of Hebei, is the latest in a series of such clashes with western manufacturers.

But Ford has better reasons than real or imagined abuses for holding off on the sale of its one remaining international brand. The US car market may be in a wretched state, but Ford isn't. It has gained total vehicle market share in 11 of the past 12 months. While its three core brands – Ford, Lincoln and Mercury – recorded lower year-on-year sales in September, Volvo was up 12 per cent. When Ford put the Swedish company on the block in December, short-sellers held one in eight shares; now they hold about one in 33.