Volvo C40 Reliability by YearBest & worst years, problems & recalls — NHTSA data

The contact owns a 2023 Volvo C40 BEV. The contact stated that while coming to a stop, the contact depressed the brake pedal and the vehicle lunge forward. The contact also stated that the steering wheel became inoperable with several unknown warning lights were illuminated. The contact stated that while driving to and arriving at the residence, the contact was unable to shut off the vehicle. The contact attempted to turn off the vehicle with the key fob and instrument panel, but the vehicle failed to shut off. The vehicle was towed to the dealer but was not diagnosed or repaired. The dealer was able to shut off the vehicle. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 11,100.

I was at a traffic light today and my rear passenger window just completely spider webbed, while my daughter was in the back seat. I had to pull over and clean as much glass from the window to prevent falling on her and causing any additional damage. There were no other vehicles or pedestrians around. The only thing I can think of is that it was temperature related from being in the sun for a few hours and then having the AC on for about 5 minutes. I have researched on different volvo forums and threads and see other owners having similar issues. [XXX] [XXX] Thermal stress and expansion: When exposed to high temperatures, the glass expands, and if this expansion is uneven (perhaps due to varying thicknesses or materials), it creates thermal stress, potentially weakening the glass. When I reported the incident to the dealership they denied any other complaints or recalls instantly put the blame on an external impact without even inspecting the vehicle. There has been no official inspection by any party. The soonest the dealer will see it is on 8/12/25 INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Re. R10320 Volvo sent a recall notice regarding the rearview camera being unavailable when vehicle is placed in reverse. This is an issue that affects me/my car almost daily. The notice is dated June 27, 2025 and was told an Over The Air update would be available. I do not live nearby a Volvo dealer so rely on the ability to update the software remotely. However the OTA option is not recognized by my vehicle. When I called Volvo they told me there is no date by which the OTA update will be available and advised me to visit a dealer. Please encourage Volvo to make this important update available via OTA. Thank you.

After having our car repaired per NHTSA recall 25V-282 we are still having issues with malfunctions of the backup camera system including warning messages that the camera is unavailable during attempts to drive in reverse.

Cameras stopped working and getting message “camera temporarily not available”. But does not appear to be temporary. Lots of discussion of this issue on message boards but nothing from Volvo.

There are frequent errors with the infotainment. Often times, when backing up—the screen will say “back up camera not available.” Recently, I experienced a problem where the blinkers were not working until I reset the software on the car.

Three issues: 1) in One Pedal Drive mode car when fully stopped on level ground and in Drive (at traffic signal) will accelerate rapidly without any driver contact with accelerator pedal. This happens once to several times a month. In the first incident the car entered the intersection before I stopped the car with the brake pedal. In another incident the car did this when a pedestrian was in the crosswalk. If I had not intervened the car may have hit the pedestrian. 2) the lane keep assist function will steer the car TOWARD large vehicles in adjacent lanes. This happens most often on curved sections of highways with large slab sided vehicles such as passenger buses and semi trailers. Collision avoidance requires driver intervention to steer the car away from the adjacent vehicle. 3) the rear view camera display in the vehicle center screen has stability issues. The display either does not start upon placing car in Reverse or lags or crashes during reverse movement.

Under acceleration, there is a knocking/loud rattling sound from both front axles and constant velocity joints. I am a former master technician and this is clearly a serious issue with these axles as they cannot tolerate the huge torque output from the electric motor. This is also a mechanical safety issue as if this issue is not rectified by Volvo, the axles could disintegrate leading to loss of control.

Rear hatch opens and closed unexpectantly. Closure has hit family members in the head and ear.

The vehicle started exhibiting steering and acceleration issues on the highway that mimicked high winds. Despite my efforts to keep it in its lane, the car would not respond to my slight adjustments for split seconds, causing a cat and mouse game of projecting it’s next move. The vehicle seemed to be accelerating in a way that made it feel as if is moving diagonally. The steering becomes stiff and unresponsive then releases, like two magnets separating, making only minor incremental changes. This caused the vehicle to swerve around the lane, merely veering into the lanes of a semi truck and several other vehicles. The lane keep assist did not respond or aid as it seemed caused by this very system. Once I reduced speeds to 20-30 MPH from 55-70 MPH, the steering began to make a metal-on-metal grinding noise which the steering turned. Having experienced this, I tested the forward collision very slowly- if it were not for my actions, the vehicle would have hit an object at 10 MPH.

There is a software issue in this car which causes the following: 1) Rear backup camera completely turns off multiple times DURING backing up 2) A fault which presents as a "propulsion" failure, which causes the car to stop unexpectedly, start jerking, and then limits top speed to 20 mph. I've taken the car into the dealership for evaluation and was told "there's a software issue, we don't know what date that will be released" Overall, Volvo software is incredibly feeble with multiple errors and slow performance. However, this is my first experience with a software issue that caused the car to malfunction while driving.

After ota software update, the vehicles braking systems (abs, traction control) and driver assistance systems(lane assistance, adaptive cruise control, one pedal driving mode) no longer functioned normally. The vehicle displayed warning information that read “stop safely, brake failure”; on the instrument cluster. This put my family and others at risk by changing the cars behavior by no longer operating in a one pedal mode and disabling common safety features like abs, traction control as well as the more advanced collision avoidance systems. If I had attempted to operate the pilot assistance it could have easily turned into an incident. The car is now at the dealership, and it sounds like a recent ota “failed to sequence properly” which might have damaged the hardware, or possibly just the software needs to be reflashed, but the technician made it sound commonplace from the last update. The vehicle is not available for inspection it is being remedied at the dealership.