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dealer service integrity - experience?

I have become more and more leery of taking my S80 T6 in for service, as it seems that EVERY time I do, the car 'develops' some new (and very costly!) malfunction. The last two times I have taken my car in for an oil change have resulted in the car breaking down within a matter of miles, once for a mass airflow sensor problem and once for a coil pack failure. The car was running perfectly fine prior to the oil change service each time. And then there was the time that I get my car home after an oil change and notice HUGE pools of oil on my garage floor when it has never leaked a drop before. So I take it back to the dealer and ask them what they did, and they said "OH! You have a terrible leak from your turbo oil return line....we can fix that for about $400...." All in all, I have replaced 3 coil packs, two mass airflow sensors, one MAP sensor unit, various belts and hoses.....and ALL after taking the car in for just routine service! I've owned various Audi, BMW, Acura, and Mazda vehicles over the last couple of decades and NEVER have I spent this kind of money on a supposedly higher-end luxury sports sedan. I've been tempted to purchase a new S60 R, but with the issues with the dealer I am not real comfortable doing this. A friend of mine has purchased new Volvo cars and SUVs from this dealer for years, and he has told me, "It really IS sort of interesting....I NEVER have any trouble with a car that is factory warrantied, but let them get out of warranty and it SEEMS that there is ALWAYS something they can find wrong...." It just seems suspicious to me.

Reply to
bajaman
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I avoid dealers like the plague. Your story is one of many that have been posted here that support my policy. But that doesn't exclude the indie garage from such behaviour by any means. Finding a good indie Volvo mechanic who you can trust is worth his weight in gold. I am lucky to have two in my area. Where are you located?

cheers

RS

Reply to
Rusty

Sounds like a bad dealer.... ours has trouble finding problems with our 960 even when we ask them to look over the whole damn car for stuff to replace (its a 1993 so some stuff like bushings, and rubber bits are bound to be going - not to mention things like pumps, brakes, belts, shocks etc...).

Hell they called 2 times to tell us we needed new front rotors - once to say we needed them and a second time to tell us they reduced the price of their original quote on them (the price was knocked down again when we got to the dealer) - this was as the car was at the shop getting new shocks they said we "don't really need, but would help the ride of the car" when we complained about the cars handling and ride smoothness (yes the new shocks brought it back to its normal good level of ride comfort/handling)

I'd try a different dealer

Reply to
Rob Guenther

We have several good independent Volvo mechanics but they are only good on old Volvos. They really mess up on new Volvos. They are great on talk but not so great on results.

When I buy a new Volvo, I interview the shop and make sure they have a good setup and good mechanics. The garage I bought my last 3 Volvo's from had to pass a test before I would deal with them. I had an '81 240 that would start right up in the morning but would stall as soon as you tried to go. It would restart and run fine all day then. I took it to our regular dealer and he kept throwing my money at the problem but never came close to solving it. I went to another dealer and told him that if he fixed the problem I would buy my next car from him. He did and I did. This dealer has been very good. I recently went through a period with a problem which stumped him. He kept at it and when someone on this group came up with a solution, he swallowed his pride and fixed it for half price.

Reply to
Stephen Henning

that sucks benjaman...how many mile on the s80? what is the name/location of the dealer?...

Reply to
~^ beancounter ~^

The car has around 90K on it now. I'd rather not specify where I am located as I think it not unlikely that people from the dealer could frequent this board and then God only knows what they might do to my car...lol! I am in the Midwest in an area where the largest city only has about 200,000 living in it, with ONE dealer and NO independent Volvo mechanics. The closest other dealer is over 3 hours drive away.

Reply to
bajaman

I think the 3-hour drive to the other dealer would seem pretty reasonable after that little episode and some of the other "coincidences". I have to drive two hours because there are no dealers near me. I just do some shopping at the computer stores, etc, while I'm in the big city for service.

Reply to
L David Matheny

What serpentine belt requires an engine to be taken apart? Sometimes they just use a general mechanic in training to do such simple tasks. Such a person would not be qualified to replace a timing belt.

I think I go to a good dealership and they have several Volvo mechanics with different levels of abilities. One is very good but slow and another is not quite as good, but much faster. They assign different jobs to them as the demands vary. Also, sometimes the mechanics may help each other.

Typically, serpentine belts are changed every 60,000 miles. Timing belts are typically changed at 70,000 miles. Shortcutting the interval will extend the normal interval if you change at the next recommended service. For example if the recommended interval is 70,000 miles. Then if you do it at 60,000 miles (like you are not supposed to) and 140,000 miles (like you are supposed to), the second interval of 80,000 miles is risky.

Reply to
Stephen Henning

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