Volvo Car Group Reviews 

Extremely Disappointing Experience – Not Fit for Purpose

I spent £80,000 on a new XC90 last year and genuinely expected a premium, reliable ownership experience. Instead, the car has been nothing but a source of stress and inconvenience. The vehicle no longer comes with a spare wheel, which means you are completely dependent on the manufacturer for assistance every time you get a flat tyre — something that now seems to happen almost monthly.

Most recently, I phoned for assistance at 4pm, only to be told that no one could help me until 8am the following day. I needed the car the next morning, so I called back, and instead of simply sending someone with a spare wheel to fit, they sent a full recovery truck to take my car away — despite me clearly explaining what I needed.

To make matters worse, the recovery driver told me that he regularly picks up this model because tyres keep bursting due to the vehicle being too heavy. Hearing that from someone who deals with these breakdowns daily was extremely concerning.

At this point, I’m genuinely worried that the car is not fit for purpose, and I’m seriously considering switching to a different manufacturer altogether.

For the price paid and the expectations that come with it, I have been let down very badly. Overall, a deeply disappointing experience.

Summary. Bought a brand new EX90. Charging port broken after a few months. Taken in to Volvo by Volvo assist roadside. Left with no car. Promised rental, but no returned calls. Chased and sent in several directions by Waylands Bristol, by Volvo Assist. By the rental agency who they asked me to call, after me spending over £100k on their flagship model. Service have said that there are many cars with the same issue. Some have been waiting for the parts for over a month. They have no curtesy cars available and Volvo has a policy they must be Volvos, hence why with none available I am unable to get a loan car. They can’t tell me when mine will be fixed. I am left without car. No returned calls. Unable to take my daughter to school or get to work tomorrow.
Nobody takes responsibility. Called Volvo customer service direct. Left on hold, then a message saying everyone is on training, then the call cut off.
Terrible service and clearly a faulty product. And no resolution.

The absolute worst customer service from any car manufacturer. I prepaid for 3 services. Completed the first 2 and now won't honour the third because apparently it's lapsed. My infotainment screen tells me when a service is due, and it's just popped up. The dealership on the Gold Coast closed and the next closest was 55km away. So to get my car serviced was a 110km round trip. They recently opened another dealership on the Gold Coast and didn't notify me as a Volvo Owner. Absolutely disgusting. I've owned 5 Volvos over the past 8 years. I will never buy another ever again. Chinese built garbage!

I have a 2020 xc40 Inscription. For two years my right side outside mirror moves randomly. For no apparent reason it moves out of position usually pointing too far in or out. Every day I have to reset it numerous times. I’ve taken it to the dealer regularly and I’m told every time their computer system shows no problem. Overall I’ve been pleased with the car but due to this problem and Volvo not being able to fix it I would never buy a Volvo again

some of trucks costs so much, why so? i know , it is good quality, but..

Pre Ordered EX30 from website then telephoned to check order had been placed properly. Spoke to Ben from sales, he could not have been more helpful. Ben offered excellent advise then followed up with further telephone calls, when I changed my mind about the colour I had ordered he changed the order for me without any drama. Ben is a credit to the company, well mannered polite and respectful.

Production quality poor, new delivered EX30 : logo on tailgate applied crookedly, rear camera not working, it showed wrong camera installed at the factory Ghent.
Rust prevention at forward jack points poor, hollow beam will get filled up with mud and dirt from the front wheels in time.
Weld seams along the roof filled up with filler kit, and painted, this is prone to cracks in the future.
Car drives great however money savings went too far.

cars are fine, cant say they are the most reliable, but they tend to last very well. I had one in the past and it was pretty good, the engine was fine. just need better pricing

Volvo service plans are a route for Volvo to maximise full potential profit for little or in my case no work. I was sold at the point of sale a plan and that I thought would be an interim and a major - all good - NO, the mileage is low and after 24 months they now call this service ‘adaptive’. What that means is another quick look and the minimal of maintenance. I have been in contact with Listers who sold me the car and plan - they have failed to respond. Contacted Volvo UK customer service and to be brutally honest they are not helpful in the least, I’m not entirely convinced they know what they’re doing, they contradict themselves intentionally in order for you to believe them.
The plan is a total waste of money - when you realise that they have all the tools in the box to protect themselves not you on any recourse. I would not ever consider purchasing anything from them again.

As the purchaser of a new Volvo xc90 that has been immaculately cared for, I was disappointed to learn that the vehicle needed a $5000 AC evaporator replacement. The vehicle was out out of warranty, and both the dealer and Volvo refused to help at all. This is our first Volvo, and we thought that we would always own one. Not any more....the vehicle quality is not up to par and the service is terrible when there is a major problem.

😠 A Dangerous, Unsafe, and Unreliable Experience with the Volvo XC40
​Rating: 1/5 Stars
​We purchased a Volvo XC40, touted as the "safest car in the world," and have been met with nothing but danger, frustration, and poor service from day one.
​Upon collection, the main console screen was already faulty, requiring us to perform a repeated lock/unlock cycle to turn it on—a worrying sign of things to come. More critically, we immediately spotted a large, loose wire and panel material hanging near the accelerator pedal, which the salesperson merely pushed back up, claiming it was "fine."
​Since driving off, the problems have escalated dramatically:
​Serious Safety Hazard: The car's automatic braking system repeatedly engages for no reason while driving at speed (e.g., 30 mph), causing multiple unrequested emergency stops with traffic behind us. This has almost caused serious accidents, demonstrating a terrifying lack of reliability and proving the car is not safe.
​Major Electronic Faults: The main console screen is now completely non-functional after being intermittent, adding significant inconvenience and further confirming the car's poor quality.
​Appalling Customer Service: The salesperson failed to follow up as promised. When a review was posted, he only called back to express concern about the review, promising engineers would call—they never did. Weeks later, we called them only to be told to deal with the issue ourselves by calling the RAC.
​As a Mobility car, this unpredictability and complete failure of the safety systems have caused extreme inconvenience. Today, we are refusing to drive it due to the safety risk, forcing my wife to take an Uber for a medical appointment while I, a carer, must wait at home for the RAC.
​After driving a BMW for five years with no issues, I've never felt safe in this Volvo. For a company to claim they sell the "safest car in the world" while delivering a vehicle that performs unrequested, dangerous maneuvers is unacceptable. I do not trust this car and strongly advise potential customers to look elsewhere.

What a shame that Volvo UK decide to money grab when lease cars are handed back - £160 for a barely visible 'scratch' on a door sill - what on earth is 'wear and tear' if not on a part of a car designed to be trodden on. I would not use Volvo UK again and recommend keeping away from their lease deals.

‼️Will never lease or purchase from Volvo again.‼️

In June 2023 we took out a 4 year "subscription" with Volvo for a XC40 Ultimate dark.

Our first issue came with Volvo, when they changed the subscription we had with them to a lease. Because of this they sent us a "buy a gift voucher" of £50 as an apology, because we felt we were missold the car as the subscription came with a service plan and the lease did not.

Our Second issue came with Volvo 4-5 months later (November 2023), when volvo contacted us, asking for us to change our contract and offered us £100 to do so.
We declined, as we were happy with our terms and conditions and no longer trusted Volvo.

Our third issue came this year in August,
Volvo offered to allow us to come out of our agreement with no early exit fees.
This was just after we had serviced the car and renewed two front tyres at a cost of £600.
We explained to Volvo we would be out of pocket and would not be beneficial to us,
We declined their offer.

Our fourth issue came this year in October.
Volvo sent us a letter (which we had to sign for) stating, as of January 2026 Volvo would be changing the terms and conditions of our contract and would be taking the car back. At this point we were fed up of Volvos dodgy behaviour and asked Volvo to pick up the car at the end of October, Volvo agreed.

On collection the car was inspected by an independent inspector and given a grade 1 inspection.
Volvo emailed us during the day (31/10/25) to thank us for taking great care of the vehicle, we thought that was the end of it.

Our fifth issue, today 01/11/25 we woke up to an email (sent at 9pm) from Volvo to say we have to pay Volvo £166 for a distance correction and it would be coming out of our direct debit. Fortunately for us we had cancelled the direct debit after our lease payment for October.

The cheek of this company is laughable,
It states on the contract we are allowed 10,000 miles annually, not 833 per month.
We were in our third year with this car. It is below the 30,000 at 24,291. If volvo continues to harass us for this payment, we will be contacting trading standards and the financial ombudsman.

It states in the Volvo contract 10,000 miles annually not 833 miles per month.
Meaning as long as the user is within the 10,000 miles at the end of the contract, Volvo can not charge for this. Volvo decided to end the contract and we should not be penalised for this. It is their mistake of pricing the selling price of the car to high at the end of the lease, not ours.

Volvo also states on the contract an "excess mileage charge at the rate of £0.20 (20p) per mile"
No where does it state plus vat, yet they are try to charging vat on top of the £0.20 per mile.

I have never dealt with a bigger shower of cowboys and can see why they are losing customers and money.

I honestly hope this post stops others from going through what we have.

We recently purchased our new Volvo XC60 Ultra from Volvo Cars Stourbridge and couldn’t be more delighted with both the car and the outstanding service we received.
From start to finish, Chris Brown made the whole experience a pleasure — he was professional, knowledgeable, and genuinely attentive to our needs. He took the time to answer all our questions and made sure we felt confident and excited about our new Volvo.
The entire team at Volvo Stourbridge were welcoming and helpful, but Chris truly went above and beyond to ensure everything ran smoothly. We are absolutely thrilled with our XC60 and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Volvo Cars Stourbridge to anyone looking for exceptional service and a fantastic car-buying experience.

I just wanted to test this safety that everybody was buzzing about. The package of my model was decent enough to consider the car for buying. What I was seeking deep in my heart, is the situation when I can test its safety features, mainly the automatic slide from the main road, in case the driver falls asleep. It happened accidentally, but it worked. I was tired and my alarm started buzzing.

I’m really disappointed with Volvo. It feels like they’re always looking for ways to take more money from me through unnecessary fines and charges. Instead of focusing on customer satisfaction, they seem more interested in squeezing extra costs out of loyal customers. Because of this experience, I definitely won’t be recommending Volvo to anyone else.

I purchased the 2026 Volvo XC40 ultra black edition fully loaded. Picked it up at 11am on a Saturday. Made it 40km and 35 minutes and the whole infotainment system failed. Took them two days to get Volvo to get a tow truck to pick it up, and still waiting for them to decide to give me my money back. Terrible vehicle stay away

From the day after ownership, I tried to get Volvo to repurchase this lemon and was shot down for 3 months. Finally had to trade it for a loss with only 3k miles. STAY AWAY. Drivers seat moves while car in motion, interior lights don’t work when doors open, backup cameras intermittently error out, apple car play doesn’t work most of the time, the cruise control never gets the car to the desired speed, and many more electrical issues. Volvo made me wait two months while they “reviewed my buyback request” just to deny it. In the meantime the cars value dropped significantly. I will never buy another Volvo and will NEVER recommend anyone else buy one either. Also, TASCA Volvo in Cranston, RI was completely useless post-sale. Do NOT recommend them either!!

Volvo V90

Brake has stopped working - no nearby Volvo Garage can look at the car for three weeks!

If you are going to stop independents from mending Volvo cars, you should provide faster repair service.

WATCH OUT!!!!! Volvo infotainment systems fail!!!!!! Appalled to find that the Infotainment system on our 4 year old Volvo XC40 is totally defunct and needs to be replaced at a cost of £2000. It stopped working from one moment to the next and cannot be fixed. This is clearly an underlying fault not a wear and tear issue. As a result the car is not safe to drive because nearly all of car controls are managed from the infotainment system. Volvo customer service totally unhelpful. This is a brand that prides itself on reliability, quality and safety. Very disappointing and very poor. Would not buy a Volvo again.