Volvo C90 diesel model

May 25, 2005
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We have just seen an alarming programme (Watchdog) where customers are reporting problems of this vehicle bursting into flames!!! Can anyone advise me which engine is involved? Is it the newly tweeked turbo or the former model? We have a Volvo XC 70 Cross Country and I don't want this concern as we are due to take to the road again shortly. Any advice would be welcome from forum members.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Hi Ann

I just checked the BBC Watchdog site but it is not yet updated with this story - Like you I found the lack of responce from Volvo appalling.

As for their excuse that they cannot examine the car until they have the Insurance Companies permition - that is just utter rubbish.

Someone in Volvo is sitting on this hoping it will go away!

If you Google BBCWatchdog tomorrow they should have updated the site.
 
Jun 24, 2005
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I didn't see the report but I've done 70k miles in my 2002 XC70 and it's never missed a beat. It's probably the most reliable car I've ever had. I daresay if you looked at any type of car there would be isolated instances of them catching fire but I sometimes think that Watchdog blows things out of proportion.
 
Jun 24, 2005
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I didn't see the report but I've done 70k miles in my 2002 XC70 and it's never missed a beat. It's probably the most reliable car I've ever had. I daresay if you looked at any type of car there would be isolated instances of them catching fire but I sometimes think that Watchdog blows things out of proportion.
 
G

Guest

Did not watch the whole programme, but saw this item. Evidently 3 diesel models did catch fire, this was out of 18500 models sold. a 4th model also had a fire but was a petrol model. Volvo have stated that the circumstances of each of the 3 diesel fires were not similar so at this point in time, no real connections can be made, unless you are of course a TV producer and looking for a headline. There is a suggestion that the fires were due to electrical problems concerning the battery lead. I am not sure about the XC90 but many Volvos have the battery in the boot and of course if the leads wear through for any reason, a short can occur. If I owned one of these particular vehicles then I would have a check of the battery leads and if all is fine, and no other problems have occurred, then ask Volvo to double check at the next service. I suspect that if every manufacturer recalled all vehicles on the basis of 3 incidents, then there would be few vehicles left on the road.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Good to see that this topic is taking the "heat" away from the Freelander debate.

OMG, I think I'm turning into Brian!!!!
 
Aug 28, 2005
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Ann,

The only reason this made headlines is because it involved a Volvo !! 4 cars in 18,500 sold !! Just look at either the DVLA or the Vosa site and anyone would see that every car in the UK is subject to a "recall".

These usually follow a pattern of observation, inspection, test or replacement it depends on the known fault and the severity of the issue it could cause the car, the owner or other vehicles.

Just occasionally the BBC gets it wrong and the term "sensational journalism" comes to mind - I think this is one of them.

Regards Monkeys Husband
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Hi guys

4 spontaneous fires were covered in the report. It may be sensational journalism MH, but 4 cars of the same type and model all catching fire within 3 months sounds pretty sensational to me!

All four fires were in new vehicles. Scotch Lad - the report confirmed that Volvo had not yet examined the cars - and made their statement that there was no "link" on the basis of the passengers description of events! - Why on earth has Volvo not sent a techie out to examine all four cars?

Whilst I agree that Volvo has an enviable reputation for reliability, THE REAL ISSUE WAS THAT VOLVO HAVE SO FAR REFUSED TO EXAMINE THE CARS - SO NOBODY KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT THE CAUSE WAS OR IF IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN!

As such Volvo's statement that there is no causal link between the four incidents sounds extremely hollow and lame. Relying on witness statements to give a false sense of security is really STUPID!!!

SO WHAT HAVE WE GOT HERE - ONE PROBLEM AND FOUR INCIDENTS?

OR FOUR PROBLEMS - ONE EXAMPLE OF EACH?

Whatever the real situation is - A spontaneous fire in a new vehicle SHOULD be properly investigated. If I had one of these vehicles I would be worried. If I was about to buy one I would delay/cancel. The reason for Volvo states for its reprehensible lack of action? - It needs permission from the insurance company!

Now I am certain that this excuse is a load of spherical objects. No Insurance company would object to the vehicle being inspected by the manufacturer!

But it is nice to see that Volvo as a marque has the same sort of enthusiasts that Land Rover enjoys. After all, those of us that drive LR's are often accused of "blind loyalty" and that the Hi-ways and Bi-ways of the UK are littered with broken down Freelanders, 90's, 110's, Range Rovers and Discoverys.

Good to see such "Blind Loyalty" exists in others!
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Ann,

The only reason this made headlines is because it involved a Volvo !! 4 cars in 18,500 sold !! Just look at either the DVLA or the Vosa site and anyone would see that every car in the UK is subject to a "recall".

These usually follow a pattern of observation, inspection, test or replacement it depends on the known fault and the severity of the issue it could cause the car, the owner or other vehicles.

Just occasionally the BBC gets it wrong and the term "sensational journalism" comes to mind - I think this is one of them.

Regards Monkeys Husband
You know - I could have won money on you! I bet my good lady that you would respond thus!

LOL!
 
Jan 19, 2008
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I find giovanni's reponse quietly amusing. Nobody says that Volvo has to reply to the BBC but at least they could show some responsibility to their customers and reply sensibily to them. How will Volvo find a link if they aren't interested and poo pooed the problem by the description of what happened from their customers. Rightly as Clive says, what a load of sh*te that they can't check the vehicles without the insurers permission, it's just laughable and so are the people who believe that cr*p. Monkeys Husband says every car in the UK is subject to a recall, I take it he means with the exception of the Volvo XC90. After paying around
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Hi LB - Good holiday I hope?

Yep - we are all our predictable selves!

As for Gio!! - Only he could read the posts and then get it SO COMPLETELY WRONG.

How does he do that? Nobody actually said ANYTHING LIKE what he infers?

Still nice that his orbit swings by Earth every so often!

JOKE!!!!

LOL!!!
 
Mar 14, 2005
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This should probably be on Chit Chat but what the heck:-

"How do you make a a Volvo sound like a dog?"

"Just take it for a drive and it will go "woooof" "
 
Jul 12, 2005
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Whats all the fuss about?

So 4 volvo's went up in flames!

4 out of thousands does not mean a problem in manufacture or does it mean the car is a bad one. If it proves to be an issue then Volvo will recall and fix it.

Its about time we stopped paying for the BBC, its hit the bottom when it thinks it can bully manufacturers into admitting a problem that has not been proven to exist by anyone other than 0.0001% of its owners (that figure was made up!)
 
Mar 14, 2005
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I think the problem is that Volvo were stating that they were not allowed to examine the 4 cars - blaming insurance companies - load of rubbish Steve - Volvo says no link - but how would they know?

With such a catastrophic failure and 4 cars of the same type in as many months all with fires in the rear area of the car where the battery is stored on that model is a tad worrying!

I think we are all disapointed in Volvo's responce
 
Mar 14, 2005
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But you got to admit that as a supposedly caring company that makes ultra safe cars - its response and excuse is hardly that of a professional organisation.
 
G

Guest

The following link may be of interest. It does apply to the US market so I cannot confirm if the same is relevant to UK supplied cars.

www.volvoclub.org.uk/xc90recalls.shtml

I cannot offer any explanation as to Volvo's action in this instance, and from a PR point of view it does not seem the best approach. However, Volvo are Ford owned and I assume that their legal advisers would be giving them the correct action to follow to avoid any suggestion of liability, or otherwise. It would be easy for a good lawyer to argue that if Volvo showed the 'interest' that was suggested, then liability was being accepted prior to any actual cause being determined. I would also assume the insurance companies concerned will be making rigorous checks to see whether any liability is attributable to the manufacturer, or will they just pay out the money and 'close' the books?

The XC90 is not the only Volvo to have the battery in the boot, the S80, V70 and S60 have similar layouts, so the total number of vehicles with this system is extremely high. If the information given in one of the Posts that 2 fires were underbonnet and one was in the boot is correct, then that appears to make a common cause, apart from electrical, even less likely. I think we have all seen vehicles on the road that have been the subject of fire due to electrical issues, the only thing they may have in common was a short somewhere in the car wiring system.

This also not the first time that Watchdog have shown 'interest' in Volvo. They recently ran a feature on 'failure' of ETM systems in early S80 models. The actual parts were sourced from an outside contractor, as is normal for all manufacturers, and in this case were shared with Audi who also had similar 'problems'.

I agree that a manufacturer is responsible for the suppliers he/she uses and one assumes the parts have been tested thoroughly before being approved. The XC90 has been around for quite a while now so whether there is an inherent design fault, as was suggested, is still up for discussion. I am sure we will hear more in due course.
 
Nov 1, 2005
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I have extolled the virtues of Volvo before on this forum, as I have always believed them to be 2nd to none. However, I know three people with new Volvos ( more anecdotes for Clive) and they've had more than a few problems. The cars are an s60 and 2 s40s. I know this is only three cars, but they happen to be the only three I have any contact with at present, and three breakdowns in three new cars doesn't look good.
 
Mar 14, 2005
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Its nice to be able to agree with CliveV. I think Volvo have shot themselves in the foot, not by building a few cars that self combust but in their mealy mouthed response when they do. Their public relations department must have gone for an early Easter break allowing the guy that sweeps up to be their press spokesman. The statement they gave to Watchdog portrayed them as a company who do not seem overly concerned when one of their
 
Aug 28, 2005
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Lord Braykewynde,

If you peers weren't so far removed from life you would know that every car in the UK will at sometime have a "recall" it is based on the severity of the issue at hasnd .

As the manufacturer doesn't want a PR disaster they usually do something about it. The case with Volvo is 4 fires with 18,500 cars - all were made at different times and because Volvo builds to order they aren't in batches. If every manufacturer investigated every car that caught fire they probably wouldn't have enough resources.

So your Lordship when does manufactures responsibility end at year 2 ,3,4, 5,6 ..12 years ??

I discussed the case with some colleagues and we would all er on the side of faulty instalaton rather than a part issue but it's a guess and the problem with fires is they destroy a lot of the evidence.

The thing that really made me laugh is that LR have a comprehensive recall according to VOSA on all Discovery TD's made between 2000-2003 for guess what engine fires!!, it's not a case of singling out LR either because it's the same for nearly all manufacturers - It's called product development !!

Monkeys Husband
 
Aug 28, 2005
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But you got to admit that as a supposedly caring company that makes ultra safe cars - its response and excuse is hardly that of a professional organisation.
It's the same "supposedly caring company that makes ultra safe cars " amd "professional organisation" that owns LR!!
 
Aug 28, 2005
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Clive,

I not sure about the loyalty thing because the best make I think I owned was a Renault (Scenic )(a car I probably still have if it hadn't been written off by an uninsured driver!!)

The car had two or three recalls in the three years we owned it from new. So may be it wasn't reliable. But the recalls we always dealt with in a really professional manner by a very good dealer who always arrange a courtesy cars etc.

It was the first time I've owned a car which had to recalled without a service being involved but I felt comfortable with Renaults approach something that I wouldn't have been say with Fiat's ( but it's about perception)

I've only owned one Volvo but my parents have had quite a few over the years and still have one almost for sentimental reasons with well over 250K on the clock. Will my next car be a Volvo..who knows it could easily be a Ford, VW, Citroen, Renault etc I don't by a car for the badge I buy the car for comfort, reliability, safety , running costs etc.

Regards Monkeys Husband
 
May 25, 2005
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Thanks everyone for your responses. All very informative. The cars with problems, however, were the C90 people carriers, not the XCountry V70.

My husband had Saab's before going 'Volvo'. He still thinks the Volvo has the 'edge' and we are now on our 5th!!! Great towcars.

We did test driver other vehicles when replacing our last Volvo (6 months back) but none came up to the V spec.

Again, thanks.
 

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