Bristol Volvo Dealership Parts Department Run By Muppets

[Ronnie]

I've had problems with their parts department before, until Andy gave me the part number. He must have managed to type that in at least.

Today I was after some ignition service items for a B19E

Me: "Hi, I'm after some ignition service parts for a Volvo 360 with a B19E engine."
Parts man: "What's the registration"
Me: "BXX XXX"
Parts man:"I can't find it on the system. What's the car?"
Me: "Volvo 360"
Parts man: "What year?"
Me: "1985, but it's 1984 spec. It's got a B19E"
Parts man: "Computer says it's got a B200"
Me: "The computer's wrong. Type in 1984 instead 1985"
Parts man "The computer will only go back to 1985"
Me: "But they first started building them in 1979!"

"Can you not search under B19E?"
Parts man: "blah blah blah blah, no. What's the chassis number?"
Me: after searching around for log book "XXXXXX"
Parts man: "That's not the whole number"
Me: "So you can't supply me with parts for this car?"
Parts man "blah, blah, blah, Volvo, blah, blah, blah, Sweden, No"
Me: "I'll go to German, Swedish & French then - goodbye"

[Chris_C]

Lol, sorry mate, if it's the same guys in there as 3 years ago, they really were useless. VADIS only list's from 85, no idea what the new thing they use is like. I'd have thought the command line thing they seem to use with the chassis numbers would have coped though

[Cornholio]

That is too bad.

I'm quite jammy as the local dealer (100m away from my house) has some A1 'old school' chaps. They've owned 300s and seem to be quite fond of them.

Recent example:

Me: "Please may I have some hinge pins for my 340"

Bob: "I used to have a 340... ...oh, yours is the Redline that I see that driving past in the morning... ...didn't it belong to Franz in the Service Dept..."

VADIS: Can't seem to provide part number

Bob: "I'll call Dave across town, he'll know"

Dave (off top of head): "Hinge pin for a 340, that'll be such-a-number"

Bob: "They'll be in tomorrow."

After which, Bob dispenses little pearls of wisdom with regards to running a 300 and Franz comes out to see how his old Redline is getting on.

One odd thing, the lads all seem to be rather anti-360. They mutter dark things about the clutch and what a nasty thing it is to work on.

Of course, it's not all rosy. If you try to book the car in for a service, the girl thinks you've got a V40. Then you pop in to drop off your keys and the salesman leaps on you. "Nah, you don't want one of those old things mate. I've got a nice S40 outside, that would suit you much better".

[MJ]

Our dealers are very good about servicing (bar recent rattling problems ) And never push to sell a new one.

Getting parts can be another matter. They've never had problems with service items, but I asked for some new clips that hold the mud flaps on for a 340, and after a check with the parts guy, was told.

'Can't get them any more, sorry, you'll have to look on your Volvo Mania site.'

Credit for remembering V3M which I must have mentioned a few times before. I wonder if he's looked up our site, or told any other 300 owners about us

Anyway, after asking here Chris gave me the part number, I phoned up the parts department direct and they came in the next morning ready for me to collect!

[pettaw]

The main trouble is that although the cars have been around since 1978, the VADIS part catalogue only goes back to 1985 model year. To go back earlier than that you have to go onto the old microfiches that they used to use before the computer came about.

Second trouble is that they don't have a B19 engine at all for the 300 models, too early. The chassis number normally doesn't work at all for 360s, you have to manually enter the data, because they think they're 340s.

Can't really get you part numbers for this stuff, because I haven't got access to the old catalogues, but someone else on here might know. Sorry....

[Fuse]

Yeah Vadis only goes back to -85.. Our deales got these huuuge thick books which pretty much includes everything, most dealers won't even look from Vadis when you ask parts for older cars, because those books are more accurate with older cars.

[340cbr]

Vadis have cars older that 1985, but no 300 series.

You can find in VADIs the B19E but only in the 240 series from 1977 to 1984

[Ronnie]

Excellent information - thanks very much

[Ronnie]

Is anyone please please able to find me the Volvo part numbers for a B19E for:
Cap
Rotor
Contacts

Many, many thanks - I managed to get OEM HT leads from http://www.elkparts.com/volvo/index.php for less than Volvo charge but they don't hold these other parts.

[jtbo]

Yeah Vadis only goes back to -85.. Our deales got these huuuge thick books which pretty much includes everything, most dealers won't even look from Vadis when you ask parts for older cars, because those books are more accurate with older cars.

And some dealers have thrown those books to garbage can without telling me so I could have sourced those to better use

They sure are muppets, they don't know nothing about anything that is related to cars it seems, they can look from screen for parts but that is about it, I'm pretty sure if you would swap part numbers of oil filter and air filter they would sell you air filter instead of oil filter

Now even a robot could do that so why those are not replaced by robots ?

[classicswede]

Ronnie I try and sort it for you.

[Ronnie]

Cheers, Dai - I appreciate your efforts!

[classicswede]

If you call Slaters on 01745 828251 and speak to John in the parts department he will be able to help you. To make it easy ask for pre 1980 240 ones as tehy are the same

[classicswede]

Forgot to metion that the cap is the same on all 360's and 240's for all years.

[Ronnie]

Cheers, Dai - I'll get on to your man next week