Blown Tire Puts Volvo To The Test

My wife and I recently became an all Volvo family with the acquisition of a 2008 Volvo XC 90 to join our 2002 S60. We love both cars but are currently down on Volvo. Here is the reason.

This past weekend we packed our three week old son into the 2008 Volvo XC 90 with just over 2,000 miles and headed from Portland to Seattle (180 mile trip). A little over halfway to Seattle we blew out a tire….no big deal unto itself….nails are on roads and once in a while they puncture tires. This event set in motion a chain of events that I never could have dreamed would happen with a Volvo.

There are two core areas where Volvo fell down were:

1.) Volvo OnCall
2.) The stock Pirelli Tires and the Continental Spare

So here go the gory details

The rain was pouring down on Interstate 5 as big rigs roared past us pulled over on the side of the freeway. We were in no position to change the spare on our own…not to worry I thought…we have Volvo OnCall!

I grabbed my cell phone and dialed the toll free number. After a maze of voice activated menus which included the absurd requirement that you speak your VIN number into the phone (IVR has a hard time deciphering numbers and letters in such a long string) I finally reached a live person. They informed me there was no record of my car in their system based on the VIN or VOLVO ID which I entered twice. I protested, but the car has only 2,000 miles on it and it says here that I have coverage for 3 years or 40,000 miles. My son was starting to scream and spray from the trucks was getting greater while she had the audacity to tell me that my VIN was not in the system and she was unable to help me.

I was disconnected and thought to myself this isn’t right so I called back. The next person who answered found my VIN number right away, confirmed I had coverage…identified my location and then said help was on the way.

With a sigh of relief we settled in to read a Peter Rabbit Book while waiting for the tow truck. About 40 minutes later we got a call from the tow truck company and noticed a bizarre area code…but dismissed it as dispatch being located in another state. It was the tow truck company trying to figure out where we were….we had given the mile post where we were located along with the state to Volvo. As we visually described the landmarks it became clear that the tow truck company was at the same mile marker looking for us but in California instead of Washington.

While on the phone with the California Tow Truck company a member of the Washington State Patrol pulled up behind us to see if everything was ok. They summoned a local tow truck to get us and we were haled off to a service station. I called Volvo On Call back to ask them about the fact I had to obtain my own tow truck and they told me to mail my receipts to a PO box in Massachusetts and they might reimburse me based on my letter of explanation.

This was only the beginning of our ordeal. As we were being towed to the service station where it was safe to change the spare tire I called our dealership’s service department where a very helpful advisor gave us the number of a ½ dozen places to call nearby that should stock the tire we needed. I called everyone including all the dealerships in the Seattle area and not a single tire store or dealer carried the stock Pirelli tires sold with my 2008 Volvo XC 90.

I asked one of the tire stores about putting a different full size tire on until the replacement arrived and they said this could not be done due to the all wheel drive transmission. He said the system required four identical tires in order to avoid “binding up.”

I thought to myself “hmm the spare is much smaller, made by a different manufacturer (Continental) and clearly has a different tread pattern…would that be a problem? I called the dealer back and confirmed that the spare actually was not a good idea to use on the XC 90! What was I to do. It was Thursday, my dealer and the tire sales guy had both told me I shouldn’t drive on the mini spare and the soonest a full size replacement could arrive was Monday!!!!

Sitting on the highway for an hour and a half I called several Puget Sound Area Volvo Dealers begging them to help me find a solution that would get me on my way. No one could help (even pulling a tire off a new vehicle in stock would have gotten me on my way but they didn’t offer) one even laughed at me mentioning how stocking tires in a parts department was unprofitable due to their size compared to fuses or timing belts.

In the end we find a Pirelli retail dealer that was able to order a tire via express delivery for Monday arrival and provided fantastic service.

We had family in Seattle so staying an extra couple days to wait for the tire was ok. What if we had been on vacation driving to a destination where we didn’t have family?

I think it is irresponsible for Volvo to build a vehicle that must run on the exact same four full size tires and then not supply a full size spare or at least design the car with the capability to carry an optional full size spare.

It is unconscionable to select a stock tire configuration that is not readily available via normal retail channels at a moment’s notice to support emergency needs.

In summary I think Volvo needs to either immediately ensure that the Pirelli Scorpion Zero H rated tires are available nationwide for owners who encounter a flat tire or issue a recall for new cars to the Pirelli’s out for a tire that is available, in stock nationwide. Until this happens I will not feel comfortable taking the XC90 out for another family trip away from home. It is unfair for customers to be expected to purchase a complete new set of tires in order to ensure they could deal with a spare in a reasonable amount of time.

Finally, the fact that the dealer actually told me that my spare tire was not appropriate for driving with an all wheel drive model was shocking. What is the point of having a spare. We had no choice but to drive on the spare since it was Thursday and the soonest a new tire could arrive was Monday.

Oh a couple more design flaws….to access the spare on the XC 90 you have to empty your cargo out of the back, lift up two floor boards, assemble a two piece wrench and begin to unscrew a nut while a second person roles under the car to help lower the tire from the undercarriage. Our kit was missing the second half of the wrench and it took a team of two service professionals 45 minutes to finally lower the tire. Could you imagine doing this on the side of a freeway with cars zipping by at 70 mph in pouring rain? It was bad enough to drive 50 mph on the donut.

So why did I post this detailed account of our adventure?

Overall I love Volvo’s and hope they get these critical items fixed. I would be thrilled to see a Volvo representative post the actions they are taking to ensure the 33,000 XC 90s that enter the roads each year are capable of getting their families back and on track to their destinations in a quick and safe manner following a flat.

Secondly, I hope they address their plans to improve the Volvo OnCall service. It was clear to me that the operation was outsourced to a company that could careless whether we had a favorable brand impression of Volvo or not.