Would Volvo re-imburse a customer for a repair that is done a week after the warranty expired, or are they rigid about their policies? Does anyone have any experience dealing with Volvo on a barely-out-of-warranty claim and was it successful? I'm specifically talking about an S60, that's why I put it in this forum.

I'm not sure if this is in the right forum, and I apologize in advance for being a newbie, but I thought maybe someone could help me. Basically I'm doing a response in a business communication class where I am pretending to be a Volvo manager responding to a customer who's warranty just expired. Personally, I would re-imburse the customer, but I wanted to add a touch of real life experience since I don't have any experience dealing with Volvo. Here is the full details of the issue I have to respond to if you are curious:

"June 9, 2005

I am the owner of a 2003 Volvo S-60. It's my third Volvo automobile, and I've been very pleased with the car until just recently.

My car has a mannual, 5-speed transmission and about ten days ago, while driving home from work, I discovered that I couldn't shift the car into second gear. The clutch worked fine, and the shift lever would move into any gear except second. The next day I took the car back to the dealer, Gary Ortman Imports, 2117 West Genesee Street, in Syracuse. After examining the transmission, their chief mechanic said the receiving fork in the shift linkage was bent and would have to be replaced.

With parts and labor, the repairs came to $987.65. I wouldn't be so upset about this, but the warrant ont he car expired June 1, 2005. I took delivery of the car June 1, 2003, and the sales agreement has a 24-month, 24,000-mile limited warranty. The odometer now reads 18,471 miles.

Mr. Barry Quinlevan, the service manager at Ortman Imports, tells me that it is most unusual for a shift for to fail anytime during the first ten years of operation in the model automobile. I am a careful driver and certainly haven't abused the car in any way. He was sympathetic, but said he wouldn't be allowed to submit the part for a warranty claim.

I am angry and more than a little frustrated about this. It just doesn't seem right that I should get stuck with a bill for $558 in parts, $391 in labor, and $38.65 tax, all because that part failed less than a week after my warranty expired. Is there something you can do for me, or should I have bought a Lexus?"

 

First of all, wether it was a Lexus or Volvo or BMW Or whatever Stuff will fail and break. These are mechanical machines. Reguardless of how easy or hard one drives them, one never knows when they will fail! 1). What year is the vehilce. 2). How many miles on the vehicle when this happened. I'm not sure about your question but was your vehicle purchased at a Volvo dealership or was it an "import" used lot. Where has the vehicle been serviced at and how frequently was it at the same place. If the warranty was under Volvo, then if the vehicle has been maintained at the same place for a while even if it's a thousand miles out of warranty (factory warranty and I have seen upto 5k out of warranty) then it's up to the service writer and and/or managers' discression to file for "good will warranty".. essentially what a "good will warranty" is that a vehicle that has gone out of warranty BUT has been maintained at a factory store will be covered under "good faith" that the issue is a defect...Now if the warranty is one thru an outside agency then it's a case by case.. Most of the manufacturers have this for their good customers. So that's why I asked those questions in the begining.

 

In response to your questions: (1) The vehicle in the hypothetical situation is a 2003 Volvo S-60, and the situation takes place in 2005, 8 days after the standard 2 year warranty expires. (2) The car had 18,471 miles on it and the warranty was for 24,000 miles. (3) The car was purchased from a dealer as new, and there is the assumption that it underwent regular scheduled maintenance int hose two years.

Thanks for the response. I actually provided that information in the original post, though, and this is more of a hypothetical situation than a real one. Basically I'm asking if anyone has had experience with an out-of-warranty Volvo repair and how it went. In the hypothetical situation I was assigned, the customer was 8 days out of warranty and I'm supposed to pretend that I'm a Volvo manager responding to a letter he wrote asking for reimbursement.