What are your thoughts

Hi everyone I bought a Volvo s40 97 from a certain Volvo specialist. around three weeks later the exhaust became noisy and I returned the car to the garage where they said they had fixed the problem. A few weeks later the same thing happened and I returned it again for them to say I would have to pay for the repair. I took the car to another garage where this was discovered. Does anyone think this is acceptable from a Volvo specialist particulary when it was supposed to of only had a service in Feb around 4K miles ago. Regards Brian

If the exhaust wasn't noisy at the time of the service then it wouldn't be replaced. You should have inspected it along with some other basic areas like tyres/brakes/electrics, before you offered to buy. That said, what warranty was sold with the car and what does it cover? Most 3-month warranties don't cover fair wear and tear items like exhausts/brakes/tyres etc so they are probably right in saying you need to pay for it.

Hi Manoman. The car was sold without a warranty, but I was told that the car was well maintained and reliable. It also states on their website that all their used cars are well maintained. Also on close inspection it was dicovered that exhaust filler had been used to repair the holes.

Problem is people's standards of maintenance are different. Exhaust paste is a maintenance product is it not? The car not being sold with a warranty is an even bigger reason to check it out yourself prior to handing over the hard-earned cash.

Thats what I mean. Salesman is going to say well maintained and reliable isn't he.. that's his job. Without a warranty you need to check the basics yourself at the very least, or expect a few jobs to crop up. Exhaust is still a minor problem, could be worse!

Also, looking at the pics, the exhaust is genuine, so could very well be the one fitted originally at the factory. The car is 10 years old so you are obviously going to have repairs and maintenance costs. OK, maybe they did use exhaust paste on the repair, but as it was sold without warranty they obviously did the repair as a good will gesture as they did not charge you. (How this constitutes a rip off escapes me) It was roadworthy & legal at the time of the sale, as the fault developed afterwards. You can't expect a 10 year old car to be perfect! Exhausts are a wear & tear item, exposed to all the muck,salt & wet on our roads on a daily basis