General: So Dissapointed

[craigyt4]

Hi All

I have a 54 plate V50 2.0d SE it was bougth 2nd hand with only 9k on the clock in May last year now up to 28k and with full history. I have been back to the dealers on 3 occasions for the air con booked in again on next Monday for a part replace Egr problems on 8 occasion replaced once keep upgrading software and a few other niggles.

A little bit of a moan but this is my 4th Volvo having had a 940 on a p when sold 124k on clock a V70 T5 on a P sold with 127k on clock and a V40 T4 on a 51 with 120k on clock. My gripe is that after F*** took over things are not the same the build quality is shoddy to say the least and the mechanics, sorry Technicians!! are not able to deal with problems that your local garage would find in an instant by looking at the car and not a screen of a computer.

I am so disssapointed with the car that I would gladly hand it back and have any of my old cars back in an instant as they were far more reliable and better built. From reading the forum it seems to be that everyone has had a bad V50 or niggily problems with it. I agree that they will have a fair share of issues due to the new model but Volvo is a prestige marque and you do expect more.

[El Dingo]

My V50 is on order... I hope it's going to be more reliable than yours, craigyt4! I've defected from Audi/VW, having got fed up with diminishing quality and poor dealer knowledge.
It looks like Ford will sell Volvo soon...

[Jim760]

sounds live you have defected to the same issues, dealers and everythig, they cant tell you whats up with your car, it has to go on a machine! imo Ford have ruined volvo also, cars have been ruined in generally with too many electrics and this "modern" plastic rubbish!

[Alpha206]

the mechanics, sorry Technicians!!

At least they're not calling them Engineers!

[humpy999]

Originally Posted by craigyt4

Hi All

From reading the forum it seems to be that everyone has had a bad V50 or niggily problems with it.

I do sympathise with your plight but you have to be careful about assuming that the forum is a fair representation of V50 owners which it's not. Just because people don't post everyday about how perfect their car is doesn't mean that there aren't osome cars that are perfectly reliable and a joy to own similarly with dealers. I have to say that mine has been absolutely brilliant so far.

If you bought it from a dealer can you not threaten to reject it given that they've had chances to fix it and they have not succeeded. You need advice from others that have done this successfuly because there are quite a few that have.

[pigapumbu]

Originally Posted by humpy999

I do sympathise with your plight but you have to be careful about assuming that the forum is a fair representation of V50 owners which it's not. Just because people don't post everyday about how perfect their car is doesn't mean that there aren't osome cars that are perfectly reliable and a joy to own similarly with dealers. I have to say that mine has been absolutely brilliant so far.

If you bought it from a dealer can you not threaten to reject it given that they've had chances to fix it and they have not succeeded. You need advice from others that have done this successfuly because there are quite a few that have.

You have a point here that it might not be a fair representation but somehow, I read of cars having not one but a few problems and constant visits to the dealer to sort it out. One only has to follow Shandy's posts and it not rare. A lot of 2.0D V/S40s have problems.

At first, I too was disappointed with the V50T5. But as time went on, I have come to accept its never going to be an upmarket car. That was the main problem, my expectation of the car. It just couldn't live up to the rest of the cars out there.

Now I would say, I am ok with the car and it doesn't get to me as before. I 'switched off' and I hardly read in this area. I just don't want to be reminded. Will occasionally give it a look over to see if anything new is happening but so far, nope.

That said, these new volvo's are ok when I compare them to a market sector below that of the BMW/Mercs. Just wish the price of new volvos did reflect the market sector they really are in.

cheers

[nano]

A few comments on previews posts.

First to that Posted by humpy999
"I do sympathise with your plight but you have to be careful about assuming that the forum is a fair representation of V50 owners which it's not. Just because people don't post everyday about how perfect their car is doesn't mean that there aren't osome cars that are perfectly reliable and a joy to own similarly with dealers. I have to say that mine has been absolutely brilliant so far."

We have to thing of how many other V owners having problems do not post in this site, relying to the dealer's words "That is normal to this car" or to the temporary fixes of repeatably appearing problems? How many V owners having problems do not know that this site exists? How many V owners do not notice a lot of minor or major mulfunctions of their cars? I have a lot of examples on all these.


Second to that Posted by pigapumbu
"That said, these new volvo's are ok when I compare them to a market sector below that of the BMW/Mercs. Just wish the price of new volvos did reflect the market sector they really are in. "

I do accept that new V's arent BMW/Mercs, but it does not mean in any circumstance that the new V's must be at the garage all the time. There are a lot of cars much more cheepper than new V's that visit the garage for the regular services only for a long long time.
As I see from many posts the EGR "phenomenon" must have a root, and this root Volvo has failed to find it so far (I am not sure if V has tryed to do so).

My S40 (bought new Jan 2007) is my second Volvo and has a lot of minor (I hope) problems, and every other day I discover a new one. Some of these can be found in my post, few months ago. My first V was (still is) a 460 (1995) for which an engineer from the factory (NedCar those years) came to solve a problem that the local dealer was saying "the car is OK". And he did not have succeeded. I had made some modifications on my own and the car is running fairly satisfactory for over 10 years. The worst in this case is that ALL other owners had the same exactly problem and they accepted the dealers words "This is normal for this car".
What I mean with the last is that the Volvo's policy remains the same for many many years.

[mjcourtney]

I have been told so many times that the problems with my 2004 S40 are 'normal for the car'. Including with the obscene oil consumption!

I just about give up with the local dealer now. This is my first Volvo and at this rate will prob be my last.

[craigyt4]

Thanks for the comments from those who have looked. Now due to meet with dealer to discuss issues with car so hopefully an end is in sight.

In reply to humpy999 there are 9 posts on this page alone about minor niggily issues that people have with the v50 so i think a fair representation of the vehicle is quite fair on these forums, not just this one, but all.

The vehicle can be a good car not a great one the EGR valve situation should have been sorted before the car was launched not software upgrade after software upgrade