when silence is *not* golden.

August 21, 2008 3:38 PM

is volvo liable for my car alarm not going off during a break in?

last weekend, i was out at the river and when i got back to my car and started my drive home, i noticed there was glass all over the passenger side. someone had smashed the window. when i stopped the car to get out and inspect, i saw that the window frame of looked like it had been pried at as well, so essentially the entire door will need to be replaced, not just the glass. the only thing that was stolen was my bag, which was on the floor of the front passenger seat, under the dash. my car is quite dark anyway so the thieves had to have been deliberately looking in. there were a ton of people (and cars) out at the river that day so it appears that these ppl were cruising cars for things to steal.

anyway, my car is a 2006 volvo XC70. it supposedly has an alarm. i was not that far away from it—just nearly straight down a (fairly) low embankment. i—or anyone else nearby—should have been able to hear an alarm if it went off. i did not.

is there any sort of recourse from volvo that i should be looking into?

posted by violetk to grab bag (14 comments total)

...it supposedly has an alarm.

I'm confused. Do you know if it does? If it does and you've engaged it in the past, are you sure it was functioning? Even if the alarm went off there is no guarantee that you -- or, anyone else -- could have prevented the damage and theft. I don't see how Volvo could be held liable.
posted by ericb at 3:53 PM on August 21, 2008

I'm not a lawyer, but Volvo employs plenty of 'em, and so I'll say almost certainly not.
posted by box at 4:00 PM on August 21, 2008

Can you set off the alarm yourself?
posted by Justinian at 4:03 PM on August 21, 2008

Um...

Does it have an alarm?
Did you set it?

And no, there's no recourse unless you have an anti-theft guarantee of some sort from them. There wouldn't be much of a market in $100 car alarms if they were on the hook every time a $30k car was stolen.

Look at your documentation from them, give them a call, find out if you have an alarm and if so what agreement you may have with them.
posted by Rendus at 4:13 PM on August 21, 2008

Perhaps it did go off but no one acted? Car alarms go off in my vicinity, I don't pay attention to them, as it's almost always accidental.
posted by Riverine at 4:44 PM on August 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

Maybe under a warranty thing? But I mean, how much are you really out? Insurance will cover the door, so it's only however much cash you were carrying and the inconvenience of getting everything reissued. That amount is probably much less than what it would cost to sue Volvo.

Why don't you write them and tell them what happened, but in a "hey, here's a curious thing that happened with the alarm" tone rather than a "hey, pay up!" tone. Maybe they'll pay for something.
posted by lockestockbarrel at 5:17 PM on August 21, 2008

yeah, this isn't so much about me getting money out of volvo (and no, by the time anyone is alerted, the window is already smashed and all), but if the car is supposed to be alarmed (which it is), then i would like for it to work, know what i'm sayin'?
posted by violetk at 5:28 PM on August 21, 2008

I may have misunderstood earlier--thinking that you'd like some kind of compensation when, now, it sounds like you just want the alarm to work. It's only two or three years old. If the alarm is malfunctioning somehow, the alarm might still be under warranty--it wouldn't hurt to call the dealer.
posted by box at 5:33 PM on August 21, 2008

Car alarms do not always go off when the glass is shattered. The car might have no way of knowing your window was smashed.
posted by nursegracer at 6:14 PM on August 21, 2008

Car alarms don't generally go off when you break a window, unless you have one of the nifty atmospheric sensing ones that work even when your windows are down. "PROTECTED BY VIPER, STAND BACK!" one of those things that go off when a chipmunk farts next to your car.

If they'd pried open the door? Yea, it would have gone off. If they'd flexed the window and popped open the door lock (by far the easiest non-damaging way to break into a car), it would have gone off. Centerpunching the window? Yea, not so much.

Car Alarms are like locks, they keep honest people honest and, barring a RoboCop style protection system (the zapper one, not a dead cop), if someone wants stuff in your front seat they're gonna take it.

/wasted youth
posted by TomMelee at 6:41 PM on August 21, 2008

I have a '08 XC90 (had a '05 previous to that), and I'm pretty sure that the alarm doesn't cover breaking glass. I know it does, however, cover the doors, as well as a fuel line shutoff if the ignition is fooled around with. (Obviously it's more of a theft issue pertaining to the car itself, rather than its contents.)

Have you checked out this site? http://volvo.justanswer.com/

Sorry your bag was stolen. That truly sucks. :(
posted by dancinglamb at 7:37 PM on August 21, 2008

Incidently, that volvo.justanswer.com site has live response (at least it does right now) Volvo Technicians who will answer questions as you post them. You can also go through their archives.
posted by dancinglamb at 7:38 PM on August 21, 2008

If they'd pried open the door? Yea, it would have gone off. If they'd flexed the window and popped open the door lock (by far the easiest non-damaging way to break into a car), it would have gone off. Centerpunching the window? Yea, not so much.

I guess it must depend on the puncher, because when I saw a guy kick in a car window across the street, the alarm definitely sounded (and the car owner just found their fob and turned it off again).
posted by oneirodynia at 8:11 PM on August 21, 2008

I guess it must depend on the puncher, because when I saw a guy kick in a car window across the street, the alarm definitely sounded

There are different ways of sensing these things.

For example, some car alarms have motion sensors - if they detect more than a certain amount of movement, the alarm goes off. These are sensitive to sufficiently hard kicks, collisions with other vehicles, being towed, and being lifted with cranes.

If you want you can make glass break detectors - a strip of foil is glued to the glass and if the glass breaks, the foil breaks. Test the foil's conductivity and you know if the glass has been broken. There are also systems that listen for the sound of breaking glass.

Or you can make alarm systems without either of these sensors - instead just connect to the car's central locking, and if car is unlocked from the inside while the alarm is on, sound the alarm. So if someone breaks your window then reaches in to undo the door lock it gets detected, but if they steal things through the window without opening the door, it doesn't get detected.

Anyway, I'm going to have to nth "volvo probably isn't liable but you might be able to get some money out of them if you ask nicely or get a consumer affairs show involved".
posted by Mike1024 at 3:03 AM on August 22, 2008