Car Breakdown - Dealer Cannot Find Fault

alan08

I was driving with my family on a motorway nearing the end of a four hour journey in my 11 month old Volvo XC90.

As it was evening, my headlights were on and I noticed them flick off, then on again. This happened again within a few seconds.

A few seconds later, the headlights went off again, this time accompanied by all electrics – dashboard, headlights, etc.

More importantly I also lost the use of the power assisted steering, power assisted brakes and the engine cut out.

Fortunately, I safely manoeuvred the car into the inside lane (there were roadworks, so no hard shoulder).

Broken down on a busy motorway, with no hard shoulder, I tried to restart the vehicle.

The car started after a few attempts and I drove the vehicle a few yards (lucky again), onto a slip road, where the vehicle once again died, in the same way as listed previously.

The vehicle was then recovered by Volvo Assistance.

I booked the car in to my local Volvo dealer to fix, being less than a year old, it is still under warranty.

They tried to replicate the fault, without any success.

They now want me to take the vehicle back, as they cannot recreate the fault.

The dealer, understandably, cannot guarantee that the fault will not happen again.

I am very concerned about taking the vehicle back without any 'fix' being made. Should the fault occur again and we are not on a straight road like the motorway, my wife or I could find ourselves behind the wheel of a vehicle out of control (steering and brakes the biggest worry!).

Can anyone give any advice as to what we should do?

Should we take the car back and hope the fault does not occur again?

Should we refuse to take the vehicle back?

Should we contact Volvo's main HQ nationally?

Any advice would be most grateful.

Thanks,

Alan

Tucker

I think you have every reason to be concerned and personally, I would refuse to take it back until they have resolved the fault.

That's almost like the main fuse has gone, to lose all electrics. It happened to me on a works van and the car died, power steering everything and that was the main fuse that blew. Not a nice situation to be in and I wouldn't want to be waiting for it to happen.

Do they want to be resonsible for a potential fatal accident? Worth asking them the question and I'd expect a courtesy car until they've positively solved it.

alan08

Tucker wrote: »

I think you have every reason to be concerned and personally, I would refuse to take it back until they have resolved the fault.

That's almost like the main fuse has gone, to lose all electrics. It happened to me on a works van and the car died, power steering everything and that was the main fuse that blew. Not a nice situation to be in and I wouldn't want to be waiting for it to happen.

Do they want to be resonsible for a potential fatal accident? Worth asking them the question and I'd expect a courtesy car until they've positively solved it.

Thanks Tucker. Your suggestion is how I am feeling, I'm just not sure of my rights and whether I will get anywhere with this approach.