Airbag recall for R car
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In addition to that, imagine if instead of what you said above, it was: Imagine if an R airbag went off and hurt or killed someone while Volvo had plenty of safe, non car correct airbags laying around to replace it with but the owner didn't get the recall because it didn't have a little "R" on it, and they felt it took away from the value and package of their specialty car.
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Same here, no recall yet...
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Again, your missing the point!!!! Volvo produced the product, they provided a defective part to people and now they are cheaping out and not replacing it with the correct part, I am fine putting the other bag in as a temporary stop gap. Volvo owes customers the correct part for their car end of story.
If the owner doesn't get it replaced because they don't want to devalue their "specialty" car, then that's on the owner.
While you're not entirely wrong, it is important that Volvo do everything they can in this situation to remedy all of the affected cars. If their remedy is so bad that people aren't going going to get it, then they've failed. In this case, the quality of the replacement is a deterrent. Imagine if they recalled our haldex system and the remedy was just to pull the drive shaft? That's not the car we bought and poured effort into. That's how this feels for some owners. A more appropriate example might be a faulty guage cluster being replaced with the base model one. How many of us would do that? It's unacceptable.
The bottom line is that even though our cars are 15+ years old now, they're still marketing tools for Volvo. I've had my R for less than 6 months and already it's influenced people to buy new Volvos. It would not be hard or overly expensive at all to restart the production run for these airbags and make our cars whole again and the gains in goodwill and the prolonged marketing benefit will more than outweigh any short term cost.
So, what do we do? Well I've contacted Volvo about this after I saw the replacement they put in my car. I suggest all of us do the same. The more people we have do this, the more they're aware that this is a major issue for us.
It is. And they are.
Quality is fine. Better in fact, since it won't injure you.
Yeah, that would be crappy. Because that would change the operation of the vehicle. This doesn't. It is purely cosmetic.
You don't know that.
You don't know that either. I doubt it though. Not everyone thinks their R is a McLaren.
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I agree with the above, a better example is the headlights were deemed unsafe and they replaced them with base model lights. Bottom line is they are not doing the right thing by their customer. They are alienating their loyal customers in this situation to save a buck. I have owned more Volvos then any other car and was considering buying an spa xc90, this is bad taste on Volvo's part.
So I was just gonna leave this, but I have a degree in economics and can do some math so...
~17000 R's made. So with replacements, let's say that they need an ultra conservative 30k of these higher spec items. This assumes all Rs are still on the road and that the part cost was amortized over the total number produced (this is a simple and accurate assumption in economics, fixed cost is spread evenly over the production run). Before this, the part cost ~$230 so lets say $250 to be nice and round. Assuming a conservative 20% markup that's ~$208 to produce, let's say $210. That's $6.3M The Takata settlement paid out more than $500M. But ok, that was for 32M airbags (but more were affected). So let's start with that as a proportional cost offset of about ~$15 per airbag savings before you even factor in marketing budget and brand loyalty. Volvo's published profit margin on their new cars is 8%. The absolute cheapest model you can get new today is the xc40 base at ~$35k. So (worst case) Volvo profits ~$3000/car. Like I said, the quality of my R has already encouraged one person to buy a new Volvo. I can't speak for all of us, but let's again be conservative and say that every year 10% of us diehards get a new person interested in Volvos. Half of those people end up buying new. So 5%/year on a diminished total number of R's remaining(let's say half just for good measure) means about $20.4M in profit alone if all anyone buys is the absolute cheapest base car. Let's divide that by the total number of airbags they'd have to make to keep all of us happy and get $680, plus the settlement cost savings gives us $695. Giving them a total "profit" of $485/bag produced and given away free.
Wow. Looks like over time they make money! Remember that $6.3M number though? That's less than 10% of Volvo's marketing budget. It's impossible to accurately describe the goodwill impact of this, but I'll try. Volvo is a brand built on a reputation for safety, reliability, and luxury. Gordon's p1800 is still going and is a factory supported car now. The p1800 was marketed the same way that the Rs were against their competition. Sure, no one thinks an R is a McLaren (although you should look up some of the really bad partner cars McLaren has done over the years, in a lot of ways it's better that some McLarens lol). But people do compare them to BMW's M cars and Audi's S cars. So let's think of this recall in terms of Volvo's current marketing strategy. Safety, check. No one is debating this, the new part is safer. Reliability, check. They're making available a part for an older car. Luxury, well this is a big miss. So let's see how making the right part can make a difference in terms of their current marketing. The tagline for the luxury xc90 is "For Life." I'm not a marketer, but that's an ad right there. "When our 20 year old luxury model needed a fix, we made sure the cars were perfect. Volvo is for life." Run that as a full page ad in some car mags and I'm pretty sure that you'll attract people.
I very much doubt that many people are deciding to buy a brand new Volvo based on seeing a 15 year old R. Funny how everyone who has a problem on a forum like this was conveniently "just about to buy a new Volvo" but won't anymore.
Who knows? Maybe Volvo will eventually replace the R airbags again for those who are really that set on having that R on it. What have they said to those who have contacted them?
Who knows? Maybe Volvo will eventually replace the R airbags again for those who are really that set on having that R on it. What have they said to those who have contacted them?
I'm waiting on the next email currently. First was acknowledging the issue and getting more info.
I'll definitely update as it progresses!
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Correct, they are, as has been said. Here's some information I found you all might find interesting:
"The statute of limitations for all no-charge recalls is 8 years from the original sale date of the vehicle. After that time, you may be required to pay if you wish to have the part or parts replaced or corrected."
Link here.
Volvo has done the "right thing" in this case. They're replacing your air bag for safety reasons. Again, if you don't like that, don't participate in the recall.
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Again, not going to continue to debate this but at the end of the day they are most certainly not doing the right thing!!!!
Volvo owes you nothing. They care about safety though, so they're offering you a new airbag. Don't want it? Again, don't take it. It really isn't hard..
@black944 turbo I think some people seem to just enjoy being upset that others are upset. LOL
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Agreed, it's easy to criticize others when it's not directly impacting them. Thanks and I am done debating!!
I will continue to be the squeaky wheel with Volvo corporate.
I will continue to be the squeaky wheel with Volvo corporate.
And squeak you shall. 
To each their own, right?
To each their own, right?
So per your calculations above, the tens of thousands of more people who have tan wheels and are getting black airbags would have an even stronger case than R owners, because they have a much much wider reach due to the amount of cars with them on the road, the cosmetic issue is much more pronounced than a missing R and stitching because it's the opposite color from the rest of the interior, and it'll cost substantially less to implement in the supply chain (just dye them another color — no leather, stitching, or extra metal sourcing).
And on top of that, they'll have the marketing benefit for those of us who directly influence others to get new Volvos because of our love for old ones (which in my case is ~25-30 people this year alone). Profit!
Who knows, maybe they'll cave, but I'm keeping my hopes conservative so I don't disappoint myself lol.
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