11th Jun 2001, 19:58

I have a 2000 Volvo S40 and have experienced all the same troubles. The first week I had to take the car in because the alignment was completely off. The car only has 20,000 miles on it now and I have had to have the car taken in for a faulty airconditioner (stopped working on my honeymoon), the car has overheated, the center caps on the wheels have all fallen off twice, the rear brakes are already bad at only 20,000 miles, the trunk wouldn't unlatch and the dealer dented the trunk trying to fix it. I could go on and on but I am getting to upset.

7th Jul 2001, 18:05

Hi, I own a 2000 Volvo V40. I am getting rid of the car. In the 18 months I have owned it the following has happened:

1. Check engine light has come on 4x. Each time it is the same software problem.

2. Sunroof broke.

3. Driver side window broke.

4. The paint is awful!

Volvo does not care about these problems and will not stand behind their product. Not only that, my husbands aunt works for Volvo North America Customer Service and that has not helped us at all.

The car is going and I will never buy another Volvo.

Save yourself the grief.

20th Jul 2001, 07:29

Volvo S40 2001.

We currently have 2800 miles on our new S40. This car has been in the shop for 15 day since purchase. Volvo has had to replace the transmission. The transmission repeatedly failed to shift from 1st to 2nd and required three trips to the dealer before the problem was fixed. In the past week the engine failed and the car had to be towed to Volvo for replacement of the RPM sensor and grounding problems. The speedometer doesn't work on cold mornings.

So far we have not received satisfaction from Volvo and are about to trigger the Lemon law.

23rd Jul 2001, 13:44

I own a S40 T4 00',32 K and so far NOTHING has gone wrong with it. I travel a lot and the car has been there for me and I am very happy with my choice and the cars performance.

Thank you Volvo.

Stefan Larsson.

M_isha@hotmail.com.

26th Jul 2001, 22:57

The Volvo S40 like it's predecessor, the 440, has a few quality problems.

Since in Australia we get cars a bit later than Europe, we do get news about quality problems along the way.

Of interest, I think within 6 months of release I believe Volvo made 200 changes to the car, some of which were (I can't remember, this has been many years now)

1) Brakes were changed due to loss of braking ability after repeated hard stops as complained by customers.

2) Transmission was changed due to unreliability.

3) Sound deadening material was placed in the firewall due to excessive noise.

4) Remounting of the engine due to rough noise etc.

5) Rear parcel shelf was modified.

6) Brake lights fixed.

7) Suspension retuned.

This are only some of the changes. Remember 200 changes were made. I recall this information from Wheel Magazine of Australia which I think the article was written by Peter Robinson who I believe may write for AutoCar in Europe.

However, since Volvo is now owned by Ford, perhaps issues such as manufacturing on a large scale is better understood.

Let the buyers of a used S40/V40 beware that the early models with these problems and before the 200 changes will probably attract a lower price due to reliability problem. I would suggest perhaps the 2nd series (with 5 speed auto) could solve more of these problems, but not all.

27th Jul 2001, 14:14

V40.

This car is a total loser, software problems several times, air conditioner malfunction, electrical system malfunction, brake malfunction, wheel nearly came off, wipers broke, taillight loose, all within 14 months.

Volvo service is unhelpful, I'm going to take a big loss trying to get out of the lease.

Jlevy1@cinci.rr.com.

14th Aug 2001, 23:15

I just got a 2000 S40 off the lot for 23,000 because it was last years model. I have had the car for about 2 months and so far have a couple of problems with it:

1.) The wheel caps came off within 2 weeks

2.) The radio muffles itself for a couple of seconds at random

3.) The paint job was absolutely horrible. Within the first month it began to haze/oxidize. The red paint started having a white glint to it and the dealer had to repaint it.

4.) The wipers skip when being used on the windshield.

5.) One of the factory tires that came with the car randomly got a "bubble" in it due to a "tire defect" as stated by a Volvo technician at my dealer. Plus, the tires are constantly losing traction and squeal every time I make a turn.

6.) A couple of times the car has been having shifting problems. Like one time I let go of the accelerator to slow down and the car was stuck in gear.

That's about it. But yeah, I've had my share of problems, but none as bad as I've read above... yet.

15th Oct 2001, 09:00

I've noticed that that almost all complaints are coming from US owners. It seems that the cars are being manufactured with the same quality as Ford, Chev etc. My dealer has reported very few problems with their vehicles as they are either assembled in South Africa or imported from Europe. The SA assembled ones are definitely of better quality.

23rd May 2002, 10:18

Hi. I am really glad I found your site. I was looking for validation, and I found it here. We currently lease a 2000 Volvo S40. I must say things have gone pretty well with it, with few complaints. That is until last week, when my brakes starting pulling, making a grinding noise, and just did not feel right. We took it in, and were told it was running metal to metal, and had to replace rotors and pads. I, too, was told that this is "normal" for this particular model, and we had to pay for the repairs. I called Volvo NA, and was told they had several complaints about this model, but that, at this time,"management is choosing not to reimburse customers". This is the last Volvo I buy or lease! We have owned/leased a Volvo for the past 12 years, and have gone 35,000-40,000 without any problems with the brakes. The 2000 S40 has 15,000 miles on it. Something is wrong with this picture! I was told that in later models of the S40, they changed the braking system, so Volvo obviously knew the braking system was substandard. Thanks for the validation. Kath.