Volvo Garage Liability: Get Free Advice

Questioner

On Wednesday August 19th the timing belt of my Volvo C30 D2 broke in southern Germany. Luckily nothing happened to me, but the car is being brought to the Netherlands by truck. First diagnosis is that the entire engine needs to be overhauled/replaced. The mileage was 192,000 when the timing belt broke the day before yesterday. After a phone call with my Volvo garage it turns out that the car should have had a new timing belt at 140,000 km. I was not aware of this. As far as I know this was always 240,000 km. After some research on my part I found out the following: I bought a Volvo C30 D2 in October 2013 with km reading 150,900. A major service was carried out at that time. According to Volvo, the timing belt had to be replaced at 240,000 km. So it is not yet due for replacement. In October 2014 the first service came. I then took my car to the Volvo dealer. Km stand so approximately 171,000. In the meantime, in that same year (end of April 2014) Volvo's advice for replacing the timing belt for my engine type was lowered to 140,000. This is always communicated ONLY to the Volvo dealers. Not to the consumers. My dealer failed to check whether the belt had already been replaced when my car first came to them for maintenance or at least to inform me that Volvo Netherlands has lowered the replacement interval for my engine type. To what extent can I hold my Volvo garage liable for this negligence? Additional information: My car was serviced at this garage for the second time on August 4, 2015. I was not told then either that the maintenance interval of the timing belt of my car had changed.

Lawyer

If you want to hold the garage liable for damage, there must be a shortcoming that can be attributed to the garage. If the garage is aware of the timing belt replacement interval and does not carry this out according to the maintenance guidelines, then they can be held liable for this, assuming that the belt is also checked during a service. A garage must ensure that possible dangers are minimized by maintenance and that they also report this to the customer. For consultation or further assistance, you can contact me directly and free of charge.

Questioner

Thanks for your answer. I found out that Volvo Nederland specifically sent a message to all dealers (Technical Information Exchange, message number 28895) stating that all cars with this engine are advised to replace the timing belt at the first service when the mileage has passed 140,000. This is an internal message, confirmed by telephone by a different dealer than where I have my car serviced. Would this be sufficient to start a case? Of course I will first sit down with my garage to work it out together!

Lawyer

This internet message can work to your advantage in a possible case. Please try to work it out together first. If this does not work, you can contact me directly.