Volvo do not take significant (potentially fatal/disabling) safety issues seriously. For this reason alone, I would not purchase a Volvo again as I do not have confidence in the safety of their vehicles.
My 2020 Volvo XC40 developed a fault in November 2025, where the only symptom was the smell of fuel coming from the front of the car. I took my car to a local independent reputable garage where they diagnosed the fault as a fuel line crack, where petrol was leaking on the underside of the car, near to where the exhaust is - posing serious risk of combustion. The reputable garage I went to advised that this was a manufacturing fault due to the bracket within that area not having a rubber grommet (since new) and therefore slowly rubbing away at the fuel line over time, resulting in eventual crack and the issue I encountered.
Prior to repair, I discussed the problem with my local Volvo garage who were unhelpful/uninterested, so I contacted Volvo UK for further advice. They too were not interested in investigating the issue, stating irrelevant reasons such as the car is out of warranty (a less than 6 year old car should not be at risk of spontaneous combustion due to manufacturing fault) and hasn’t been serviced by Volvo (not mandatory under European Block Exemption Rules and unserviceable part affected).
Following this, prior to repair, I took detailed videos and photographs of the fault which I sent to Volvo UK in an official complaint email / form (containing detailed descriptions). In addition, I kept the defective part in my garage (which still, is in my garage un-inspected), expecting that they would want to inspect the part (which ended up not the case). Also of note, the replacement part fitted to my car (ordered through Volvo), is exactly the same (with no rubber grommet), so I expect the issue will recur unless action is taken by Volvo.
Following completion of detailed forms and emails by myself, I received a generic response from Volvo simply rejecting to reimburse the cost of repair / to investigate the fault. The response/s did not address any of the points I had made or questions I posed - simple generic rejection with no explanation, other than to escalate to the ombudsman. I later found, following contacting the ombudsman as advised that they are unable to help with cars outside the manufacturer warranty. The ombudsman admitted that manufactures do this, knowing full well escalation to the ombudsman will be pointless.
After 6 months of emails, phone calls and completing forms I’ve given up trying to get my money back for the repair and for Volvo to investigate the fault. However, I’ve written this review to highlight that Volvo do not take safety seriously as advertising would have you believe. They have failed to investigate a serious manufacturing defect, which potentially could have had a fatal/disabling outcome for me but also others in the future. I understand this is not an active recall (on the petrol version) but by not taking incidents such as this seriously, defects will be missed and lives put at risk.
Claim your business profile now and gain access to all features and respond to customer reviews.
