Any body run into this sort of thing besides me?

Two years ago I moved my son to a small town in Oklahoma. (Nice town and college by the way!) A few months later his one year old battery dies. I make the four hour trip up and run over to a NAPA, pick up a battery and ask if they can check the alternater if I bring the car back once the battery is in. No problem - until I pull up in my boy's S70. "We don't service Volvos!" Eventually I was able to cajole him into checking the alternator (which was fine).
Fast forward to last week. He had taken my S80 to school this semester while an oil leak was being repaired on his car - eventually that battery dies. He calls around and was told "We don't work on Volvos!" by his first to shops before finding one that would swap out a battery.

I mean it's not like I'm asking for a transmission rebuild here, folks. But If it ain't American they don't want to mess with them, I guess. I may have to buy him a Ford pick up to finish school in.

So anybody else run into people afraid to touch a wrench to a Volvo??

 

I lived in the Mid-West for about 10 yrs (this was awhile ago..) and there is definitely a prejudice against dem furrrinn cars!!

 

Yes. I actually like it because I get good deals on them used. but it would suck for the kids that are less experienced with negotiating stuff like that.

 

Think that it might depend upon geography. I've lived in a couple of smaller (less than 100k) towns and have always had both dealers and independents who'd work on volvos and such.

Up here in Wisconsin I've discovered that everybody works on volvos! Its like apple pie and baseball.

 

Volvo's do good in the horse shoe shape states pattern. East and west coast, northern states. In the south, not so good. This is pick up truck country. We do have a lot of Volvo's around, just not a lot of places to get them worked on. In the Little Rock, AR area there is only one dealer in a 150 mile radious.

 

Yeah, that makes sense. Even more so since I've noticed that more and more smaller volume marques are being absorbed into much bigger dealerships. You ultimately have fewer dealerships as the smaller ones are going away, and the lines they carry seem to be changing. As a "mid-player" price wise, volvo doesn't seem to fit in well the others. They don't go well with the low end. And they don't seem to be getting picked up by the high end dealers either. It's unfortunate. I think they could and should, but they aren't.

 

Up here in eastern Massachusetts Volvos are pretty common, and in addition to the dealerships, there are a fair number of independent garages that specialize in them. These Svedish cars feel right at home with New England winters ;-).

 

In Chicago, Volvos are all over the place as well as independent shops that will work on them. I did, however, run into a shop where the guy would not touch my 240 (cross threaded a spark plug and need the head re-tapped). He said that he just worked on domestics. Funny thing was is that I pulled in with my Mustang and asked if re-tapped heads, he looked at my car and said, I won't touch that one. However, he was working on a newer Crown Vic which also has the same 4.6 V8, go figure.

 

I think he just didn't like the looks of you. LOL

 

Hi

There is a general fov in Australia but there is also a general dislike against them as well

This Dislike is against them because the marketing first used and there not the over hyped local made cars(ford/holden)

Plus the miss informed response that they and to hard to and cost to much to maintain

But saying this I have converted a few people to become volvo owners aswell

 

I'd think my 98 v70awd would be a great runner on the outback .