VOLVO Complaints

There is a know defect with the chassis used for several Volvo car models. My car is a Volvo C70, year 2012. My car is affected by this defect. The defect wasn't disclosed to me at time of sale. I only learned about it literally 10 years later when Volvo of Gilbert (dealership) advised me to install a costly part on the rear suspension of my car because of "excessive negative camber". According to the Volvo repair department, they've known for years of an internal repair "recommendation" memo issued by Volvo that Volvo actually pays for on other models, but won't pay for on mine, to correct this "negative camber" on the rear of the car. ***** The negative camber causes tire walls to fail early and abnormally wear the internal edges of the tires. I've experienced early tire failure on multiple sets of tires on my Volvo C70 and never knew why. Now I know. **Volvo has always known.** I have to replace all of my tires almost every two years due to the inside edges wearing out, despite faithfully rotating my tires several times a year. My tires have worn down to the belt on the inside edges despite having plenty of good tread left in the middle of the tire itself. About two years ago I had a dangerous blowout on the freeway because of a tire that failed early -- now I know it's because of the negative camber. More recently, two of my tires wore down all the way to the belts despite being less than two years old. ***** Volvo knows about this issue. There is a good paper trail of the issue being documented both by Volvo and their customers, but they failed to warn us of the dangerous car suspension and failed to provide the fix to all of us (while providing the fix to some of their customers). ***** Please listen to this 2-minute recording with the Volvo technician (Judd) who disclosed the known defect to me: [XXX] ***** This needs to be rectified for all of us with the faulty chassis'. Thank you. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

The contact owns a 2022 Volvo XC40. The contact stated the vehicle was in park, with no accelerator pedal or brake pedal being depressed when it experienced an unintended acceleration. As a result, the vehicle crashed into a pole where it came to a stop. The air bags did not deploy. A police report was not filed. No warning lights were illuminated on the vehicle. The contact mentioned the auto braking did not engage along with the other equipped safety features. The vehicle was restarted and driven to the owner's residence where it remains. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The local dealer and manufacturer were notified of the failure, and a case was opened with the manufacturer. The failure mileage was 33,710.

Interior (center) rear view mirror glass migrates over time to point downward, so you see the backseat rather than out the back window. Have to manually adjust it to point back up approximately every 500 miles. Suspect it happens as you drive over bumps. Have had two dealerships look at it (Gorges in Omaha, NE and Willis in Clive, IA) and both reported no issue found. Obviously, neither of them had a tech drive the car 500 miles. Issue has persisted since purchasing the car in 2017 with 12,800 miles on it.

On a travel trip to Seattle, we stopped at few stop, and when my sons tried to exit the rear doors, both would not open. Neither from the inside or outside. Nothing worked. Upon searching, this is a very common issue with the 2016+ models. When inquiring with volvo, it will cost anywhere from 1000-2000 per door to fix the "locking" mechanism which they say can corrode. Ridiculous. This is a major safety issue if passengers can't exit. I've never had a car which a door can't be opened.

The contact owns a 2007 Volvo XC90. The contact stated that the air bag warning light was illuminated on the instrument cluster. The local dealer was contacted, and it was diagnosed that the failure was due to the air bag module. The vehicle was repaired, but the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, but the result was unknown. The manufacturer was contacted, and a recorded message referred her to the dealer. The approximate failure mileage was 80,000.

I ordered this vehicle brand new in October 2022. I took delivery May 1, 2023. The problem presented itself instantly the first moment I drove the car at night. On low beams, the headlights project a very large "V" that is cut out of the upper left hand corner of the projected headlight beam. This creates a very distracting and absolutely very dangerous driving condition. The easiest way to explain this is as follows: 1) in foggy conditions, the headlights cast a triangular voided area into the foggy road ahead and the voided out area will move all over the place if you turn on the headlight turning feature. 2) in normal night conditions there is a constant voided out area in the upper left hand corner of the light beam. 3) when driving up hill at nighttime, the headlight beam will aim lower because of the fact you the car is accelerating uphill, when this occurs the voided out area I talk of gets exponentially larger and becomes not only violently dangerous, it is crazy anoying and distracting. The car can be seen anytime at my personal address. The problem has been reproduced at Alan Byer Volvo in Syracuse NY. They have a video of it and have told me that because the car is produced in such small volume they have no way of comparing it to another vehicle and therefore are unable to help me. There are no warning lamps that have ever come up on the car which now has 9500 miles on it.

The brake systems have failed repeatedly on this vehicle, and have been replaced by the manufacturer TWICE since purchase (April 28, 2023). Brakes continued to intermittently freeze or lose pressure, so car is now classified as a lemon. However, as we have waited months and months for the lemon process to complete, the transmission began to fail. At first, we had incidents of the car seeming to shift into neutral at speeds of 30-40 MPH. The car’s engine would rev and yet forward propulsion would become coasting. Lifting foot from accelerator and then putting fit back on would often result in the gear “catching” and the car lurching into gear. On the most recent and dangerous iteration of this transmission/engine problem, when merging onto an interstate and traveling at 45-50 MPH, I attempted to accelerate and merge. Instead of downshifting to give me more power, the car entered a seeming neutral state (both hands were on the wheel, indicator said I was in Drive). The engine revved and yet the car coasted. I was unable to pull into traffic, on a very short entrance ramp. I pulled my foot off the gas pedal, waited a second, and put it back on. The car lurched into gear and shot forward. We have stopped driving this car while awaiting Volvo’s agreed upon lemon law payout. The dealer will not fix the car, given its lemon status. The buyback company, Sedgwick, takes no responsibility. We are fortunate enough to be able to afford a new car while awaiting the payout. But had we not been able to, these transmission/engine problems could easily have caused an accident. No other person should be in danger from these cars. The service manager at our dealer states that they are in the process of multiple XC40 buybacks right now. Volvo has a problem and it is simply buying back these cars. I will list the date of the most aggregators transmission issue (the merging problem) below.

While entering a parking spot my car suddenly accelerated and crashed into the wall in front of me in spite of my pushing my brakes 100%. The car never went into the automatic braking system before I applied the brakes, the seat belt never engaged and the air bags on the driver's side did not deploy. If I had not braced myself against the steering wheel my chest would have sustained a major injury. I am being treated for pain in my neck, arm and leg as a result of the crash. The sudden unintended acceleration has occurred in prior years of this model and after my model year as well and have been reported to NHTSA. Both my insurance and the manufacturer inspected the car. There were no warning messages or symptoms of a problem before this incident.

During rain, water is leaking inside the car from the driver’s side windshield while I’m driving, obstructing my vision.

I have an ongoing but intermittent problem with door and hatch releases on my 2022 Volvo wagon. The car has been looked at several times and the dealer can't find the problem. My hatch popped open while driving on RT 395 at 55. My doors either won't open from the outside or alternatively from the inside using the remote. Both remote keys have been tested with the same results. Driver's door and front passenger door are the most frequent problems. As soon as I click on upload my documents the link disappears. I have video of attempts to open the doors both from the inside and the outside. I am most concerned about being stuck inside the car in an emergency but outside in the city at night is also a concern. I was working in a high crime area in Baltimore.