Complaint Review: Volvo of Santa Monica - Santa Monica California

I feel very frustrated and sad of the stupid and shameful actions of Volvo of Santa Monica. While I was going home in the evening on De ember 23, 2008, my Volvo S80 engine started to emit a strange sound that I've never heard before. When i got home, the Volvo warning lights started to go off "Stop Engine" "No Oil". When I saw this I immediately shut off my engine and the next day immediately called AAA, to tow my car to Volvo of Santa Monica, where I usually go for repairs. They confirmed what the warning light said, the engine had completely run out of oil, and was in fact damaged and dead.

On October 04, 2008, I had just had maintenance done on my Volvo, and had only driven 3892miles since then. Feeling a bit frustrated at this, I asked one of the employees, Jesse, how could my car have already run out of oil? I told them that they must have made a mistake, and did not refill my engine oil enough, nor did they screw the lid on well enough. At my home there is a palm sized black stain where I usually park. Jessie responded rudely and threatened to not bring my to the factory if it included information on the oil leak. When I looked at the invoices, there was nothing about the oil leak. IN fact I suspect that to cover up their mistake, they completely took apart the entire engine, on the grounds of "inspecting what went wrong", no one can tell if they messed up on the lid now. I have a feeling they even took forged pictures for evidence if I decided to go against them. The manager Ewald replied that my Volvo is 10 years old, therefore it eats 1 quarter of oil every 800 miles when it gets this old.

I never hear f this weird rule before, and personally think that a big company like Volvo would of fixed such a design defect if it was present. The oil capacity for my Volvo is 7.3 quarts. So even if we do go by their logic of the engine eating one quart every 800 miles, it still means I should have been able to drive 5840 miles total without the engine running out of oil, while I only was able to drive 3892 with my engine running out of oil SO i still should have been able to drive 1948 miles, or 33% more even if we go by their calculations (engine oil capacity statistics taken from Volvo Manual). They had to have not put in enough oil or put the lid on wrong so the oil leaked out, and lied to cover up their mistake. My car is actually only 9 years old, and only about 116,000 miles on it. Before the Volvo S80, I had owned a Volvo 240 DL, which I drove for 14 years, and nothing like this ever occurred, which makes it seem ridiculous that the engine would burn all its oil suddenly and then die. It has to have been the fault of the Volvo company. And whoever's fault it is should pay for it.

Jesse, representing Ewald, made me an offer to "reimburse me." It probably made it seem like they wre bieng the good people, offering a "50% discount" for a final price of $15000 new engine, however when I inquired about the engine price in another auto-shop, they stated that a new engine only costs $7000. 50% discount? More like a 50% mark up! Not did the Volvo of Santa Monica lie to cover up their mistake and not reimburse me, but they tried to scam me also!

I feel Volvo of Santa Monica didn't lie about the prices just once through. When I said I would just get a used engine, because I did not have the funds to buy a new engine at the time. SO i went to negotiate with Don Marino who offered to install it for an original price of $6100, and would offer a 25% discount to bring it to $4575. Now the offer seems like they were trying to be nice and reimburse me, but when I checked with other auto repair shops, the regular price without discount was $4500. I feel like they just said they would give me a 25% discount when there wasn't one any way.

Eventually I bought a 65000 mile used engine, and the people who helped me install the engine was Viking Motors for an installation fee of $4500. After this, my Volvo has not had any engine problems at all.

After talking to Don Marino, I kept getting angry glares from Ewald, that his employee Jesse also noticed. It was probably because he didn't like the fact that I skipped ihm to talk directly to Don Marino. I felt indignant, so I tried to continue to persuade Ewald to reimburse me. When they refused, I sued them. During the trial, Ewald blamed me for whatever happened to the Volvo car, saying I didn't take care of it, and hardly go for maintenance. i believe I take the most care of my Volvo as I can, I usually don't even take it to work, and only drive it on free time. I take it for maintenance regularly also, making this statement false. They also presented what I suspected were forged pictures of the engine mentioned before (which is actually the first time I saw them) and tried to explain them. They should of showed me these pictures wen I asked for an explanation before, which is one of the reasons why I suspect they were forged. We lost the case, but the fact he had the audacity to try to blame everything on me is astounding.

I've driven a Volvo for 23 years in total, and 90% of the time I went back Volvo of Santa Monica to have my car serviced. However, I am astounded to find that they would lie to cover up their mistake and not reimburse me for it. I've given so much business to VOlvo of Santa Monica, and the fact that Ewald would throw all of those years of business and profits away, and even future profits to refuse to reimburse me even $2500 for a engine. in my opinion this is extremely stupid. A branch led by a manager like Ewald will hurt the entire company by driving its customer away. Also, such defects as the oil life of a Volvo decreasing by 33% over a few years should be reported to the factory, so Volvos can be improved. If such things continues I fear for the future of the Volvo brand name.