‘I bought a ‘reliable’ Volvo V60. It’s been a complete nightmare’
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Dear Katie,
I have had an exhausting and stressful experience with buying a four-year-old Volvo V60 after my old car died this summer.
I took it to a garage, which took five weeks to decide if it could fix it or not. We were able to manage with one car for a short time but we live rurally, and as a family of five depend on having two vehicles.
Then our daughter won a scholarship to music school in central Edinburgh and, as a result, needs to be dropped off by 8.20am every morning. We needed to buy a new car within a week.
We decided to invest in a used approved Volvo V60. We needed reliability and security if anything went wrong, and the 12-month warranty seemed to give us that.
We decided on car features we would like, set a budget and narrowed the choice down to a handful of models. We found a car available at a dealership in Winchester, Snows Volvo.
My wife made the arrangements to purchase the vehicle and because I was on a business trip, she made the journey from East Lothian to Hampshire via train and coach to collect it.
From the journey back it was clear that the windscreen wipers were not working well, the spare key would not function and, within a week, the engine/service light came on.
I reported all of these things to Snows Volvo Winchester immediately, but struggled to get anyone there to return my calls or emails. After much persistence, we were told to take it to our local Volvo dealership and get a VAT receipt for the key and wiper repairs. But we could not get anywhere with the service light problem.
After four weeks of calling, emailing and online chatting, we got nowhere. No-one has been willing to help us at John Clark Volvo Edinburgh. On top of everything else, the car has since developed a particulate filter fault.
I called the John Clark Volvo Edinburgh again and said I was worried. It put me on to “Volvo assist” which supposedly fixed the fault. But it can’t have worked, because the fault returned that same day.
My car is now sitting in John Clark Volvo Edinburgh and communication from the garage has been awful. I’m being told that the particulate filter problem could be a result of the way I drive, which is utter nonsense. It says Volvo in Winchester needs to authorise the repair. Neither have responded to my emails or calls asking when and how I will get my car back.
In the meantime, I am struggling to make arrangements for family life. We are commuting four hours a day with family help, and using public transport.
I am really concerned about how to move forward with this. The garage is now threatening to charge me for the repairs, despite the warranty still being in place, and us only having had the car for six weeks. The garage won’t even give us a courtesy car.
MS, via email
Dear reader,
You invested £15,500 in this car because you thought it would provide your family with reliable transportation for many years to come. However, as it has gone catastrophically wrong within weeks, you feel you have made a terrible mistake which you can ill afford.
Although the vehicle was four years old, with a one year warranty in place, you had a reasonable expectation not to be left in this position just six weeks after driving it away from the dealership.
You say some of the issues, namely the wipers not working properly, became apparent on the car’s first ever journey under your ownership, suggesting they were pre-existing, and should have been picked up and fixed ahead of the sale. However, they were not and now you are paying the price.
Not only were you sold a lemon, it seems, but the various Volvo garages you were dealing with refused to offer a courtesy car, which to my mind, was very poor indeed. The fact that you bought the car from a garage in Hampshire, when you live in Scotland, has not helped matters.
You’ve been passed around the houses and, it seems, the branches were unable to collaborate to provide a reasonable resolution to your problem. I could see the stress and inconvenience that buying this car was having on your life, and felt this situation needed resolving fast.
I was only too happy to contact Volvo’s UK headquarters on your behalf.
When I asked you how you wanted this resolved, you said you wanted a courtesy car while the V60 was repaired. And following my involvement, you received a phone call from Volvo offering you a courtesy car with immediate effect, although you say you feel this was done reluctantly.
You were told your Volvo V60 might be repaired and ready to collect within two days, however this turned out to be wishful thinking.
Someone from head office has now liaised with both Snows Volvo Winchester and John Clark Volvo Edinburgh, and agreed that the garages will jointly cover the entire cost of the repair. This repair will be expedited, I have been assured, so although it is not yet fixed, you will have your car back as soon as possible.
Further to this, in terms of the particulate filter fault which is not covered under warranty, Volvo has offered you a 10pc discount towards the cost of replacing the inlet manifold.
A spokesman from Volvo said: “We would like to apologise for the issues and inconvenience that Mr S has experienced.”
