<p>At 3:30 I drove my car home without a problem. It hadn’t been showing any signs of anything. 70 minutes later I go to drive it again and the engine acts really weird. The rpm is fluctuating from the 1 to the 2 or so on the tachometer, the engine is really noisy/not sounding good, and there’s some blue smoke coming out of the back. On Wednesday morning it’s getting towed to the dealer.</p>
<p>I will probably get to the dealer around 8:30 or 9:00 and will call ahead when they open at 7:30 to let them know I’m coming and that I have class. However, I have a few problems here:</p>
<li>I’m 20 and I’m not sure if they’d give me a loaner vehicle</li>
<li>The dealer is nowhere near a bus stop</li>
<li>If I borrowed my grandparents car they would have no transportation whatsoever</li>
<li>If I wanted to use my mom’s car I’d have to drive her to work and be a little later to the appointment, which doesn’t work in my favor since ideally I’d have this car fixed for Thursday (and it HAS to be done by Tuesday)</li>
</ol>
<p>Do you think this would qualify as a legit excuse to not come to the 12:30 class, the only one I have tomorrow?</p>
<p>Some dealerships will give you a ride to wherever you need to go if you can't take a loaner. I took my mom's car (lexus) in to get something done and they didn't let me take a loaner because I was 18 but they offered me a ride home. Ask if the dealer offers that. Then your mom can pick you up on her way home from work or something.</p>
<p>The courtesy shuttle. It would have to go about 10 miles or so but the dealer sells Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, and Aston-Martin so they would probably have one.</p>
<p>Alternately if I put the service under my grandpa's name and have him there, could he possibly get the car in his name and I could either take the loaner or his car? (The car had been his so records would be under his name anyway, not mine, and he already said he would be around in the AM--I'm hoping we go for brunch or something--yet his schedule for the PM is unknown to me)</p>
<p>If this did happen I guess I could get the car tomorrow if it took a while, I don't have any classes tomorrow and my grandparents could probably swing by sometime to get me to the dealership.</p>
<p>PS: If anyone has any idea what's wrong with that Volvo 850 I have let me know!</p>
<p>The way it worked at Lexus was they asked for the license of the person who's going to be driving the loaner, not the person the car was checked in under. Anyway um well I guess you can do that...if your car's going to get fixed in time. If it's not a serious problem they can get it done in an hour, and if it's a serious problem it might take days.</p>
<p>since you're familiar with forums i suggest you find a volvo forum and post your car issue there.
chances are, SOMEONE out there has had that issue before.
it's also a good thing to do before considering buying a new car (if only we had done that with the lemon of a Passat we bought... aka the POSsat... grr)</p>
<p>I had a sort of similar problem with my Volvo last summer, except I couldn't even drive it. The RPM started jumping way up (like I could literally see the tach needle jumping up and down from ~2000 to ~5000), and then the car stalled out and wouldn't restart. It took them two tries at the closest Volvo dealership to get it fixed (had to get it towed in twice in a week) and even then, it wasn't totally fixed. If you drove for an hour or so, the tach would start doing the jumping thing again and it would act like it was about to stall out, but it wouldn't. I finally got it to the regular dealership and it took them all day and all the technicians to figure out what was up with it, but they seem to have fixed it now.</p>
<p>Don't know if the same thing's wrong with yours - I don't remember what they had to fix on mine, but I think it was something with the throttle.</p>
<p>You take a cab or get a friend to give you a ride.
No, car trouble doesn't count as an excuse. If the prof were in the situation you were in, s/he would get to class. The same is expected of you as would be expected of people who work jobs or have other major responsibilities.</p>
<p>yeah, call a cab or get a friend to drive you (the first option is probably best/easiest)</p>
<p>No clue on getting a loaner, but the dealer should have a shuttle (all of them around here do). At my school, car trouble is a valid excuse but I'm in a "rural" area. </p>
<p>All I can tell you about what's wrong with it is that you're having some oil leaking/burning. Blue smoke=oil.</p>
<p>It was some sort of sensor that went in the idle system from what the guy told me. With tax and labor the entire thing set me back about $300, which isn't too bad for a part that hadn't been replaced.</p>
<p>My mom was the one who found the rides. I snagged her SUV for the day so it all worked out. It was nice to have a rear winshield wiper on this rainy day, something my sedan doesn't have!</p>