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Volvo Penta Reviews
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Reviewed Sept. 25, 2023
Purchased 2021 Glastron GTS205 with 280 Hp Volvo Penta new on 6/3/21. On 6/25/23 the battery in the boat was dead. It was replaced with a new battery. When returning to the dock, the engine would not shut down. It overheated and coolant boiled over into the bilge. In July it was taken to Marshall Marine in Kingland Tx where it was kept for repairs for more than two months. Boat was returned with a dead battery, another electrical problem, and overheated with smoke streaming out of the engine compartment after traveling less than 1/4 mile. The boat was returned to the dealership on 9/18/23 and no word from them yet.
Reviewed Sept. 18, 2023
Volvo is great at leasing cars unless you want to turn one in. My car was inspected prior to return and was noted for having "mismatched tires". The tires were fine, just two of them had been replaced. My choice was to buy new tires or pay them $1,400. I chose to replace the tires. I was told to turn in the invoices with the car. I did, but that didn't work. They called and wanted me to pay $1400. I mailed the receipts to them. That didn't work. Now they are still after the $1400. I am sending receipts for the third time today, but I don't see that working either. Next time, they can speak to my attorney. Also, as a side note - if you lease from them, you can't trade the car to another dealer at the end of your lease. This was fine print in the lease and was not disclosed to me when I leased the car.
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Reviewed Aug. 9, 2023
Very dissatisfied with the Volvo FWD outdrive design. Apparently I drove past/thr a light 8 LB test fishing line (only strong enough for a small lake fish) and the line ended up inside my lower unit, causing the fluid to leak out and ruin the shaft and gears....How is this remotely possible?? This would be the equivalent of a pebble entering an auto transmission from driving down the road (that would never happen). Volvo refused to help and my 40 hour only outdrive cost over $11000 to fix....My first Volvo ever (Mercs my whole life & 0 problems) and never again...My advice would be to buy a Merc outdrive
Reviewed June 28, 2022
Purchased a very expensive new Cobalt boat in 2021 for use on a lake in upstate New York. Boat was equipped with a Volvo Penta 8 cylinder motor and applicable new warranty coverages from Volvo and the boat company Cobalt. Shortly after taking the delivery of the boat, began to notice overheat conditions. Alarm would sound and boat would be shut down to cool. Assumed weeds in prop but did not notice any during overheat conditions. Most recent overheat incident caused extensive heat damage to manifold and thousand of dollars damage. Dealer begins repair of craft to notice a build up of debris and weeds in cooling system. Impeller motor operative. Boat has been ingesting weeds and debris into cooling system over time causing overheat.
Volvo now denying warranty coverage with little explanation as to why. Boat is operated under normal conditions on an upstate NY lake and only 20 hours on it. Impeller motor that they warranty is operative and allowed the ingestion of debris. Several boat dealers have recommended that these boats be outfitted with a strainer to prevent weed/debris ingestion but this was never suggested by Volvo /cobalt dealer or otherwise and was not even an available option when buying the boat. Volvo has failed to answer the question regarding why they are denying coverage, neglect or improper use? 20 hour motor and they are already trying to cut expenses by denying customers coverage on their expensive, overrated products.
Reviewed March 7, 2022
I bought a new 29-foot Monterey Sport Yacht with brand new Volvo Penta engine in June 2020. The engine stopped working within one hour of operation at a boat speed of 5 MPH. It turns out to be a caused by a bad switch at the top of the engine. It took them two weeks to replace it. Fifteen months later, on September 12, 2021 the engine stopped working at engine temperature of 189 F. The boat was towed to a Volvo Penta certified boat yard on Bethel Island, CA. It was found a piece of metal was broken off from the exhaust manifold, which got into the main part of the engine so the entire long block has to be replaced. The engine was reassembled in late December 2021. However, according to the boat mechanic, the engine was not running appropriately.
After many phones call and reports sent to Volvo Penta, finally the boat yard sent the CEM, a kind of computer chip for the engine to Volvo Penta. According to the boat yard, the CEM was WRONGLY programmed. So Volvo Penta has to send another CEM chip with correct program. I finally got my boat back on March 6, 2022. It took Volvo Penta and its certified mechanic almost SIX MONTHS to fix my boat. What a sham!!
Reviewed June 6, 2021
Purchase a new 2021 Cobalt boat with Volvo 430 HP engine from Goodhue Navy Yard. After 7 hours of operation, carefully following the break-in procedure, the engine died. The dealer sent a service technician to evaluate and he determined a bad fuel pump. They could not find one in their system and could not tell me when one would be available. After a week I personally went online and found one. When the tech. installed it the engine still did not run. Back at the shop they found zero compression on #1 cylinder and a mark on the piston. Hard to believe that the dealer nor Cobalt could supply a replacement fuel pump on a new product and greater disappointment the engine failed at 7 hours. I have not heard back yet to see if there is a replacement engine available.
Reviewed Jan. 24, 2021
Horrible company! I installed a D2-50F brand new engine in my sailboat. Getting any technical information from this company is like they are giving military intelligence to the enemy. I never was able to get an installation manual from Volvo. It did not come in the paper work with the engine. Volvo must send a technician out to the boat to inspect and certify the installation. I got a hard **! I have met all his requirement and still a year+ later I do not have a warranty! The engine runs absolutely great but the company is really bad! There is no national tech line. Everything must go through a local dealer. The responses I've had, to be nice is erratic. Sorry I bought it.
Reviewed April 28, 2020
We bought a new boat with twin Volvo Penta gas engines, Regal 32 Express. For over 2 years, we have been experiencing nothing but engines failure and problems with bow thruster, trim tabs and many other parts. Starboard engine failed 3 times with the same problem: Warning light, noise, and loss of power. 2 separate certified Volvo Penta mechanics are unable to fix the problem. 2 other refuse to even work with Volvo Penta to fix the problem. In addition, many other problems with other parts not related to Volvo Penta.
All boaters out there, please stay away from any Volvo Penta engine. They will fight you and claim any engine problem is a maintenance problem. You have to keep on 'fighting' to get them them to honor their so-called warranty and they kept on sending you stupid emails about how sorry they are but would not do follow up on nothing. Please, please stay away...
Reviewed Aug. 22, 2019
When I purchased my 2018 XC60 new in October, the salesman told me there would be an easy computer fix to disable the ready button which starts up the car again at a light to conserve gas. There is no program and every time I start the car I have to turn this function off manually. It's very annoying. I contacted Volvo Corporate and asked for their intervention to help broker a good deal for a 2019 where this can be done by a computer fix. They were no help. They called my dealership and told them I was coming. Don't buy a Volvo. I found out my car depreciated $20,000 in 9 months according to the dealership.
Reviewed Aug. 13, 2019
I took delivery of a D2-75 engine and sail drive in March of 2015 with the understanding that the warranty would not begin until the boat was launched. It was a 16 year project to restore a 45 ft. Sailboat that was built in Holland. I made it clear to the salesman that it would be a couple of years before I would get the boat in the water and he said that the warranty would begin when the boat splashed. She hit the water July 2018 so I called the salesman and he said that he would start the warranty process.
As the summer went on the transmission would take 5 seconds to go into forward and 10 seconds to go into reverse. I told the salesman of this problem in November and that was when he told me that because I did not have a Volvo tech on the boat when it was launch I did not have a warranty. The sail drive had 15 hours on it. The salesman told me he would work on getting me a warranty which was not true. He was hoping that I would drop the issue.
We went back and forth for 6 months and I finally called Volvo Penta customer support. They told me that their dealers are independent franchises and they have no control over them. They also told me that the engine and sail drive package was an over the counter part and the warranty started at the time of purchase and was for 1 year. So now I have a sail drive with 20 hours on it that needs to come out of the boat and be sent for repairs. Thank you Volvo Penta for standing behind your dealers.
Volvo Penta Company Information
- Company Name:
- Volvo Penta
- Company Type:
- Public
- Year Founded:
- 1868
- Website:
- www.volvopenta.com
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