VOLVO Complaints

I was driving and the car started shaking and unable to accelerate. I pulled over and the car started smoking and a fire erupted under the hood. I vacated the vehicle and called 911. The car erupted in flames and burned down to the frame. The insurance inspector wasn't able to determine the cause of the fire.

Front windshield is not sealed properly. Leaks water at top of windshield and onto the steering wheel. This is not a problem with the sunroof.

While driving on the interstate 5 in Seattle, WA this Volvo rental car from National had the Multi-media screen went blank. No tell-tales nor instrument readings. The 360 camera and reverse camera systems worked as not part of the Android system. The infotainment system encountered a problem with an Android System with data corrupt. Had to reset factory data reset. Given this is a non-compliance to FMVSS Controls and Displays per Standard 101, I feel obligated to report this concern for driver safety around compatability of the Android system used by Volvo.

The contact owns a 2023 Volvo XC90. The contact stated while driving 65 MPH, the low fuel warning light illuminated and the vehicle decelerated, lost motive power, and stalled. The contact attempted to restart the vehicle, but the vehicle would not restart. The vehicle was towed to the dealer. After several attempts to restart the vehicle, the dealer was able to restart the vehicle and stated that no failure was found. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 1,000. The VIN was not available.

These headlight assemblies commonly develop significant water ingress problems as they age. Owners report issues in wet climates even when these cars were relatively new, resulting in bulb ignition problems as water finds it way into the ballasts, resulting in high-voltage shorting. The water in the headlight housings also "fogs" up the forward lens, resulting in a poor distribution of light out the front, both poor for the driver and dazzling for oncoming traffic. The headlights can work fine for weeks or months, and then a wet week comes along and 1 or both headlights fail to operate or work but poorly and blind oncoming traffic. If caught after dark in the rain the headlights often fail to function. If this could be solved with new headlight assemblies for a reasonable price, I would not consider this a major safety issue, unfortunately, they are difficult to source, astronomically priced (~$1100 per assembly), and replacing them doesn't seem to fix this problem for many owners of these cars. The way these assemblies are vented from the factory seems to be problematic for water ingress and the position of the ballasts ensures that any significant water ingress causes the ballast to short internally. I believe that the atmospheric vent on these must be positioned in such a way that they suck water in as they cool if its raining. The all-halogen assemblies for these cars work better, likely because there's no ballast for the water to leak into and more heat from the bulb to quickly evaporate the water out of the same assembly design. The poorly designed housing is "saved" by the simpler electronics and thermal output of the bulbs. Unfortunately, different factory programming is required to run the all-halogen assemblies. A recall should be issued to replace all of these gimmicky (and distracting) "steerable" xenon headlights with the halogen versions, with the reprogramming effort included in the recall.

The contact owns a 2017 Volvo XC90. The contact stated that while his wife was driving at an unknown speed, she noticed smoke from the engine compartment. The vehicle spontaneously caught fire. The coolant warning light was illuminated a minute prior to the failure. There were no reported injuries or air bag deployments. The fire department was on the scene. The vehicle was towed to an unknown location. A police report was filed. The contact called the local dealer, but the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was contacted, but no assistance was provided. The failure mileage was approximately 79,000.

The car consumes approx. 0,5 to 1,0 liters of oil per 1000 miles. The problem started around 60,000 miles and has slowly worsened. Volvo admits that there is a problem with the piston rings, and the only fix is an expensive oil consumption test followed by an engine teardown and rebuild

After we purchased the vehicle, we discovered that it did not come with a spare tire. It came with inflator kit. This is a huge safety concern to us. The inflator kit is a quick repair, a temporary tire sealer. The disadvantages with this, as we read online, is that this kit can only be used if the puncture is on the tire’s tread and is not larger than 4 millimeters. It will not work if the puncture is on the tire sidewall. We spend most of our driving in remote areas where there is no cell phone coverage and repair shops are miles away. If we were to be stuck in a remote area without a spare tire, in a 110 degree weather or 20 degree weather it will be catastrophic. We cannot call for help and on a good day, usually we don’t see another person or vehicle for hours. Also, the vehicle does not have space for a spare tire. Dealership or the manufactory needs to provide a warning label that this vehicle does not come with a spare tire. If we had known this formation, we would not have purchased the vehicle.

The vehicle locking system malfunctioned, locking itself with the keys inside the vehicle. The vehicle was in park, the engine was off, I was only out of the vehicle for 30 seconds to 1 minute in time while filling my gas tank. My dog was inside the vehicle, in the back with no access to door locks or keys, it was 90* outside, he was locked in the car for 30minutes until the fire department arrived and broke the rear passenger a window. The vehicle will go in for diagnostic testing 9/12/23 at a Volvo dealership. Volvo USA refused to note the safety concern, they believe the vehicle operated as designed to self-lock if you forget. My vehicle has never self locked in the 1.5 years of owning it, rather it sends you an alert to your phone to inform you that it is unlocked- it does not lock itself. There have been no lights to alert of any possible concerns.

The rearview camera on the Volvo continually freezes, is delayed to start or blacks out. Since I have had the car for the last year there have been multiple times a week where reverse is selected and the rearview camera loads, then when I start backing the camera image freezes two to three times before jumping and resuming normal operation. I've also experienced where the camera image is displayed, then the screen temporarily blacks out for a second and then the image is displayed again. This happen most notably when the car is unlocked and then immediately shifted into reverse. I've brought this into show the repair shop but they state it is normal behavior or they can't replicate the issue (even though I've provided them a video of the issue happening). After a year it's getting very dangerous as backing into tight spaces, a delay or black out can cause me to hit something or someone thinking I'm further away then I really am. When the car is in a deep sleep (not driven for a few days), then the camera can take upwards of 15+ seconds to load after turning on the car and selecting reverse.