Safety and Reliability profile – Volvo cars in South Africa

By Stuart Johnston

Volvo has a huge reputation for safety world-wide and can arguably claim to be the fore-runners in this field. We take a look at Volvo’s presence and track-record in South Africa

Volvo is a marque that has had a lengthy presence in South Africa. Even before World War Two there were sightings of Volvos that had been imported here, these vehicles being rugged SUV-type conveyances.

In the late 1950s Volvo began establishing a huge presence here with its hump-backed PV544 models,  and in the 1960s under the Lawsons Motor Group, the Volvo 122S model built up a huge reputation as a formidable rally car and also as an endurance racer in events like the famous Rand Daily Mail Nine Hour Endurance race at Kyalami.

Volvos were assembled here by various companies under contract to the importers, the Lawsons Motor Group, but in 1975 Volvo withdrew from our market and didn’t return until the mid-1990s with the 850 series cars, under the Combined Motor Holdings Group.

In the late 1990s Volvo introduced the S40 and V40 range here which established the car as a viable premium-entry-level car once again, as an alternative model to the likes of the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class.

Safety

 Volvo was the first manufacturer to introduce seat belts as standard equipment in its cars in the late 1950s and since that time Volvo has been at the forefront of the “safety revolution” in cars that really began gathering global steam in the early 1990s.

Volvos have always been extremely well-engineered, with rugged components in areas such as sub-frames, which pay huge dividends in both reliability and in  the event of an accident.

The latest model line-up

The latest line-up of Volvos in South Africa consists of the V40 hatchback, V60 estate, S60 and S90 sedans,  V90 estate, V40 and V60 cross-overs, and then the excellent XC40, XC60 and XC90 SUVs.

The XC40 has just been named an AutoTrader  SAGMJ South African Car of the Year finalist, and its safety features include a vast range of potential life-saving innovations

Among these features are:

• Front collision warning
• Pedestrian, cyclist and large animal detection, which includes an automatic emergency braking function
• Rear collision warning, which tightens the seat belts when a rear-end collision is imminent and also applies maximum braking
• Pilot assist, which provides semi-autonomous operation of the steering , braking and accelerator functions
• And a 360 degree camera.

It goes without saying that the XC40 and other Volvos in the rage score top marks in their categories in NCAP safety tests.

Reliability

Volvos made their reputation as reliable cars here in South Afrcia, and indeed, the number of classic 122S models still running around our roads is amazing. The same has held true for the latest-generations, and they are backed up by both  a maintenance plan and warranty five-year/100 000 km duration.

There are some cautionary reports in the trade about automatic gearbox failures on the models sold here between 2 000 and 2010, but the latest models seem extremely  well thought-of amongst owners, according to the  various owner forums.