Volvo® Service Information & More
Milito’s has Serviced Volvo® in Chicago since 1968.
Rely on Us for Maintenance and Any Type of Volvo Repair Today!
How Volvo Has Stood The Test Of Time
Unmatched Safety
Since the first Volvo rolled off the production line in 1927, the company has created world-changing innovations. The company is a truly global organization with Scandinavian roots and manufacturing in Sweden, Belgium, China, and in the United States.
It’s true that Volvo hasn’t always been known for good looks, but they’re often considered durable, and the brand has repeatedly staked its reputation on safety — and that each model is packed with value.
Volvos aren’t supposed to be shiny. They’re supposed to look good when they haven’t been washed for weeks and have back seats adorned with old wool blankets, dog hair, football equipment, and thermoses of strong black coffee.
That’s why vehicles produced by Volvo have followers all over the world — and for a good reason. They have a Scandinavian design, a strict but luxurious interior, perfect engineering, and safety that is unmatched in the market.
According to the company, they’re ambitious. “We aim to continue leading the global automotive industry in safety technology, electrification and autonomous drive and we continually challenge ourselves.”
And drivers are taking notice.
Who Is Buying a Volvo?
Volvo owners’ “interpretation of luxury is different but very real,” Tassos Panas, vice president of marketing and product planning for Volvo of North America, told brandchannel. “They’re more into life’s experiences, and more into a Scandinavian simple design [of vehicles] versus a lot of clutter.”
“They are very much luxury customers and love luxury products, but they don’t feel a need to impress others.”
The Swedish automaker sold 572,000 cars in 2017, and a KBB survey found that women were 119 percent more likely to shop for Volvos than their male counterparts.
Top Volvo Repair Problems
While the Volvo is a mostly-well-oiled machine with minimal owner complaints, there are some issues that may need to be addressed.
- Front upper strut mounts – They may wear prematurely, resulting in loud noise from suspension in the front of the vehicle when going over bumps.
- Transmission Overdrive Relay – This often fails, preventing the transmission from shifting into overdrive. In some cases the Overdrive light may stay all the time or not come on at all. In addition, the transmission may whine, clunk, or hum and refuse to go into gear.
- Auto-Braking System Malfunction – Drivers have reported that the car suddenly stopped while driving at a high rate of speed, which is an extreme safety hazard.
- Brake Issues – A vibration from the rear of the car when the brake pedal is pressed may be caused by corroded rotors, especially when braking going downhill. The rotors will need to be replaced and special shims installed to prevent this from happening again.
- Excessive Oil Consumption – Despite adding adequate oil, drivers have reported excessive oil consumption and the warning “no oil pressure – turn off for safety,” the result of a faulty engine oil dipstick that may allow engine oil to leak out of the crankcase.
All of these problems and more can be fixed by the Volvo service mechanics at Milito’s Auto Repair in Chicago.
What to Look for When Buying a Used Volvo
If you’re looking for a luxury car but don’t want to pay for a brand new model, a used Volvo is the way to go.
Here are six things that you should do:
- Read the Records – Check the serial number with your local Volvo dealer for a service history. If they don’t have a history, make sure it has credible records from the owner. And always ask to see the receipts for repair work and scheduled maintenance.
- Professional Inspection – Even if you ran a vehicle history report, you should still have the car inspected by a mechanic to find potential issues and to determine if the car has been in an unreported accident. Make sure they pay attention to engine-related components, like fluids, hoses and belts, radiator, and the battery.
- Check the Tires – Tires can tell you a lot regarding the maintenance and driving history of the car. If tires are worn unevenly across the width of the tread, this could indicated aggressive driving by the previous owner of the vehicle. Also look at the surface of the tire for feathering (bad alignment). Bad alignment can be caused by worn steering/suspension components, the Chicago potholes, or frame damage.
- Certified Pre-Owned – The certification provides a 6-year, 100,000-mile warranty that includes 24-hour roadside assistance for the life of the warranty. Each Certified by Volvo vehicle has to pass a rigorous test with more than 170 points, have less than 80,000 miles, and receive a detailed CARFAX Vehicle History Report.
- Mileage – Volvos are well-known for being able to run long after hitting the six-figure mileage mark. Have a mileage number in mind that you would prefer before you make a purchase, as it will matter concerning future maintenance.
- Test Drive – You’re judging your comfort level with the car. Do the power windows all work? Are the mirrors easily adjustable? In addition, check for leaks. Many times they can be hidden from prospective buyers by under filling levels on fluids to stop them from leaking. Take a look at the underbody; if you see a lot of fluid, pass on this vehicle.
Future Volvo Innovations
Infotainment and Digital Consumer Experience – By introducing the Android operating system to their cars, Volvo drivers have access to the latest services and technology. They can use hundreds of current and future apps developed by Volvo Cars, Google or third-party developers to personalise their in-car experience.
The 360c Concept – This proposes a standardized autonomous vehicle communication system that will enable other road users and autonomous vehicles to understand what the 360c is going to do next. It will be fully autonomous and electric, and include a mobile, fully connected meeting place and workspace.
IntelliSafe – Volvo has always had a commitment to safety, and that will include Adaptive Cruise Control, which automatically maintains a safe distance from the vehicle in front, Driver Alert Control that will alert you and prompt you to take a break if you’re drowsy or inattentive, and Lane Keeping Aid that senses if you start to leave your lane unintentionally and gently steers you back on track.
Volvo Dealers in the Chicago Area
The History of Volvo
Volvo is actually Latin for “I roll”, which is exactly what the company did in April 1927 when the first car rolled out of the factory in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Founded by Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larsson, quality and safety which were both of paramount importance to the company, a concept that still applies to the vehicles produced by Volvo today.
In the beginning, the company produced both closed top and cabriolet models of their new four-cylinder OV4 and PV4 models, which were constructed to better withstand the harsh Swedish climate, something that had been an issue with contemporary US imports. Both models carried the Swedish symbol for iron attached to a diagonal piece if metal on the front grille – a piece of Volvo’s heritage that can still be seen on models today.
Early Volvo Models
The first car that left the factory in 1927 was the Volvo ÖV 4, nicknamed the “Jakob”, which was a four-door phaeton powered by a 4-cylinder 2-Liter engine. The next year saw the company present the Type-1 truck – the Volvo’s very first commercial truck — and a second car model, the Volvo PV 651. It was a strong first year of production, with 1,383 vehicles sold.
In 1929, a six-cylinder PV651 model was introduced that was both longer and wider than the Jakob. The success of this release helped the company to purchase its engine supplier and buy its first factory. Things were going so well that by the end of 1931, they were able to return it’s first dividend to shareholders.
Then in May 1932, Volvo hit the first production milestone of 10,000 automobiles — 3,800 of them cars, and 6,200 of them trucks — and it wasn’t long before Volvo dealers were asking the company to develop a more inexpensive car for families and “regular people”. They delivered with the PV51 model of 1936, similar to the more expensive PV36 in design, but smaller in size and not quite as equipped.
In 1935, the Swedish automaker launched the Volvo PV36, a luxury car with a six-passenger layout and a futuristic design that included a streamlined car body and a slightly more expensive price tag.
WWII had an impact on production, but by the autumn of 1944 the company had unveiled one of its most significant cars – the PV444. Considered Volvo’s first “true” small car, its stylish design combined American flair with European size. It was instantly successful, and the PV444 and the PV544 would dominate Volvo production through to the 1950s and ‘60s — taking a slice of the US automotive market along the way.
Volvo’s Commitment to Safety
In 1944, Volvo became one of the first automakers to address safety issues. The Swedish company came up with a slogan, “We did not invent the car, but we set the safety standards” something that has been the cornerstone of company’s corporate philosophy to this day.
In 1957, Volvo introduced two-point safety belts for a driver and a front seat passenger on all of its cars, which was something no other automaker could offer. They would go on to install two-point safety belts in the rear seats, and in 1959, Volvo engineer Nils Bolin would invent a three-point safety belt. In fact, Volvo became the first automaker to offer safety belts as a standard equipment for all of its cars.
The company also installed dashboards made of soft plastic on all the vehicles they were producing, in addition to rear facing child seats, collapsible steering columns, side collision protection and the three-way catalytic converter with Lambdasond.
In August 1966, the company presented a new model – the Volvo 144 — which would become the new leader in terms of safety. It was equipped with four-wheel disc brakes, a collapsible steering column, and brand new locks on three-point safety belts. In addition, the chassis was strengthened with crushable energy-absorbing parts, and it became became the first model to be equipped with a V-shaped separate circuit brake system. This was important because the system would continue to function, even if one of the circuits went off.
By 1970, Volvo had produced more than 2 million cars.
Driving Volvo Forward
In 1987, Volvo became the first company to install front and rear fog lights on its vehicles, but later that year they would contribute an equally important innovation — a little safety device known as the airbag.
By the 1990s, the company had solidified a reputation both for safety and for attracting a certain kind of person that was interested in safety, who lived in a suburb, and likely had a favorite passage from “War and Peace”. It’s a distinctive demographic, but one that has lead to success — between April 1927 and November 2018, Volvo produced 20,611,749 cars.
But it wasn’t always smooth sailing.
In 1999, AB Volvo sold its passenger car business to Ford for $6.45 billion. Volvo joined Lincoln, Mercury, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Aston Martin in Ford’s “Premier Automotive Group.” It turned out not to be a group made in heaven, so in 2010, Volvo went to Chinese carmaker Geely and its founder Li Shufu for about $1.8 billion.
Since then Volvo has partnered with Uber to develop self-driving cars, and they already offer advanced lane-keeping technology that will steer you around obstacles like pedestrians and animals. The company has a goal of building a fully autonomous driving vehicle by 2021, along with selling its cars directly online, replacing keys with smartphones, allowing for car-sharing through an app, and even handling upgrades and ownership on a subscription basis similar to something like what phone companies offer.
They truly aim for every vehicle owner to live their slogan: “Volvo for life.”
Fast Facts
The Swedish company sold its 50,000th vehicle in September of 1941, which is made even more impressive given that it was during World War II. It’s no surprise that it was a truck.
In 2017 Volvo achieved its highest sales and operating income in history with net sales growing by 11%.
The official logo of the company is a spear and a shield, the symbol of Mars, the ancient Roman god of war. But accidentally, a simple diagonal iron bar was used to attach the company’s logo to a grille on the first Volvo models. That simple iron bar would become a symbol of Volvo.
In Latin, the word Volvo means: I spin. Today however the nearest meaning is “I roll”
In 1959 the three-point seat belt was invented by Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin, but Volvo did not patent it as they believe safety is for everyone.
