The hood flew up twice while traveling down the highway, almost killing my pregnant wife. After fixing it twice and blaming her for not making sure the hood was latched I noticed there is no secondary latch on the hood. The hood latch is where it can be tripped with your foot unknowingly. It most cominly occurs when exiting the car, leaving the hood unlatched. The hood will not fly up untill uproaching highway speeds, which is even more dangerous.
These cars are very reliable.
Other than the hood we have had no problems.
For the lack of power it should get better mileage.
I agree that the volvo is a good car - but I have never heard of anyone accidentally opening the bonnet getting in and out before!!!
Really sorry to hear about what happened. I have heard of another instance of this happening.
There is a secondary latch, in fact there are a total of 3 latches I believe. There are two that are activated by the hood pull to pop the hood, then a secondary latch in the center that needs to be pulled manually by the plastic pull through the grill.
Hate to say it, but sounds to me like someone lightly set the hood down where it didn't latch at all where it later flew up due to not being secured.
Either that or someone inadvertently popped the hood and didn't realize it somehow and the the center latch catch wiggled loose with driving. I suppose the pull cable maybe could have also become stuck where it wouldn't allow the the two side latches to catch fully.
Secondary hood latches are a safety requirement. Some previous owner must have removed it. You should replace it.
Also me never heard of accidently opening hood /bonnet with foot!!! they have a safety catch also, if lubed on normal service will stop bonnet flying up, if not, by poor servicing will sieze up and not work!!
Note: A Comments RSS Feed is available. New comments appear in the Members Area before the main site