Recently one of my front shockers broke so I rang Volvo for a quote for one front shocker. They came back and said they would be in the region of £500 + VAT plus fitting which was two hours. One hour to fit and one to program it in the ECU (electronically controlled).

After further inspection the other shocker was also goosed so I was in for a big bill, £1200 + to which I wasn’t going to spend this close to Christmas.

Anyway I remembered reading a thread on a Volvo forum a while ago about the Volvo 4C shocker manufacturer in the UK, Monroe. I found the thread and ordered two shockers direct from them, got them fitted and programmed by a local Volvo specialist for a grand total of £420.

How can I buy an individual shocker for £178 delivered direct from the manufacturer but Volvo want to charge 3 times that?

The dealer actually makes sod all, them shockers are stupid money and for the amount of cars we see with them to how many are leaking is shocking,

Monroe want there arses kicking because the quality of there 4C shockers are questionable, usually a shocker fitted to a volvo should last life of car but there lucky if were not changing them under warrenty

The dealer actually makes sod all, them shockers are stupid money and for the amount of cars we see with them to how many are leaking is shocking,

Monroe want there arses kicking because the quality of there 4C shockers are questionable, usually a shocker fitted to a volvo should last life of car but there lucky if were not changing them under warrenty

I know it isn't the dealer making money its Volvo UK, maybe I should have been more clear. The point being if I can buy one delivered for £178, how much does Volvo get them for? Sub £100 I suspect.

Yeah I agree the quality is appalling, less than 70k miles and one was completely gone and the other almost there.

They aren’t the only cheap or unsatisfactory components on Volvo’s though, we could mention bevel gears, auto box’s and handbrake shoes to name a couple of costly common faults. From what I’ve read the Cylinder liners on the R’s leave a lot to be desired too. I had the unfortunate pleasure of the handbrake failure 10 days after I bought it, but that’s an other story LMAO.

The cylinder liners are fords doing on the R engines and for that matter the focus ST and new focus RS's, they were fine as a 2.3 litre engine but for some reason they bored it out to a 2.5 out of same casting block and it just makes walls on bores to thin especially when you strap a wacking great turbo and 4wd onto it,

The 2.5 low pressure turbo lumps used to suffer from same problem even on early engines as far back as the old 850's so why they didn't learn by there mistakes i have no idea especially as they have a just about bomb proof 2.3 Turbo engine,

Well I spent 13 years in the parts game in mostly Main dealers.

We normally got a 25 % discount on stock ordered Items and 10-15 % on VOR items.

So as you can see Not really a huge mark up.

I also know that some Parts Manuactures charge more to the Car manufacturer than they do to other trade outlets.

The cylinder liners are fords doing on the R engines and for that matter the focus ST and new focus RS's, they were fine as a 2.3 litre engine but for some reason they bored it out to a 2.5 out of same casting block and it just makes walls on bores to thin especially when you strap a wacking great turbo and 4wd onto it,

The 2.5 low pressure turbo lumps used to suffer from same problem even on early engines as far back as the old 850's so why they didn't learn by there mistakes i have no idea especially as they have a just about bomb proof 2.3 Turbo engine,

A lot of the guys on t5d5 have the t5 lump in for that reason. I thought the Ford 2.5's had better liners than the R's, or different ones at least. I hope mine lasts from now, I can't be hacked with any catastrophic failures now.

Well I spent 13 years in the parts game in mostly Main dealers.

We normally got a 25 % discount on stock ordered Items and 10-15 % on VOR items.

So as you can see Not really a huge mark up.

I also know that some Parts Manuactures charge more to the Car manufacturer than they do to other trade outlets.

Yeah 25% or even a bit more is understandable but more than 300% is OTT. I'm not trade either, regular guy ordered online, they even do 10% discount if you buy more than 2. So I could buy 4 direct for the price Volvo would charge for 1. Crazy if you ask ask me, it's not as if Volvo offer extra warranty, as Volvomeg quite righty points out they should last a lot longer. The Octavia's lasted double these and the car was half the price new.

Yeah 25% or even a bit more is understandable but more than 300% is OTT. I'm not trade either, regular guy ordered online, they even do 10% discount if you buy more than 2. So I could buy 4 direct for the price Volvo would charge for 1. Crazy if you ask ask me, it's not as if Volvo offer extra warranty, as Volvomeg quite righty points out they should last a lot longer. The Octavia's lasted double these and the car was half the price new.

I wasnt implieing you where trade but the manufacturer of the parts will supply to Volvo at one price and then another outlet at a cheaper price,

I remember in my rover days a popular item was a temp switch which fitted most rover cars retailed at around £8 less 25% but we could get the same part from another supplier for £1.50.

It was the same part from the same manufacturer but wasnt in a Rover box.