Carver Yachts - Volvo Penta does not care about customers - complaints are ignored Internet Gothenburg, Sweden

Volvo Penta will not assist you when its dealers foul up on your marine engine maintenance. I have twice now won court cases in England involving negligence by Volvo Penta marine engine dealers based in England.  In each case the dealer failed to follow the correct procedures laid down in the Volvo Penta Users` Manual. In one case this shoddy work led to a boat drifting off the notoriously dangerous North Cornish shore, with a failed engine, until rescued by a lifeboat. In the second it led to the destruction of a Volvo Penta 2030 engine because the dealer failed to run the engine as specified in the Owners` Manual before the winter lay-up. Fresh water that had earlier been carelessly injected up the exhaust pipe by the boatyard whilst removing antifouling entered an open exhaust valve and rusted the cylinder solid.

I made the president of Volvo Penta in Sweden personally aware of all the circumstances in both cases. It is not hard to find his email address. The UK compnay has no regular management and is operated by a Swede who flies in from Gothenburg, occasionally. There appear to be no checks on dealer maintenance performance. The president did nothing and would not even confirm that the dealers were in breach of company guidelines.

That is why many boat owners in the UK are now buying Japanese marine diesel engines. as replacements for their Volvo Pentas. The Volvo 2030, now obsolete, was itself bought in from Perkins, which manufactured it in Japan, also. But Kubota and Yanmar appear to offer better service discipline.