Sad story. Can anyone help.
 

Hi All.The subject is a 2004 2.0 litre V40 sport. I took it in for a service and MOT .It needed 2 new tyres and a rear brake caliper and a couple of minor corrections and the work was all completed. Whilst the car was outside the garage's workshop overnight awaiting collection by my daughter who was using the car at the time, someone stole the catalytic converter and in doing so ruined the entire exhaust system,leaving it a mangled mess. The mechanic owner of the workshop,who is a friend of my daughter has agreed to replace the exhaust and I have offered him a contribution,because his insurance will not cover him. The problem arises with the replacement exhaust.The replacement exhaust bears the same part no.as the original but I am told it doesn't fit,in particular the down pipe is not the same. No explanation is offered by Volvo and the mechanic says he may have found a "rare downpipe" advertised as a volvo part on E-bay but it is £1000 just for the downpipe. Can anyone explain this please?

Youre a generous man offering to contribute. It was in the mechanics care, entirely his responsibility. He should be the one running asking why bits don't fit.

Tell him you will collect it once it is done. Give him seven days after which you'll be hiring a car and sending him the bill.
Get some legal advice regarding small claims court.
Ask to see the eBay ad for the £1000 downpipe too.
Somethings not right here....

When I read your thread title I thought you were starting a crowdfunding just giving page. As others have said: something isn't right here. A quick ebay trawl found several 2004 V40 downpipes listed for between £30 - £50. There is nothing special about them.

a good exhaust company could build a full custom exhaust for less than £1000 i think they just dont want to fix it .sounds like an excuse so you will take it somewhere else

Any further comments OP ?

Hi.Thanks for your thoughts.I'm waiting to hear further from the guy and will report as soon as I can. He is well known to my Daughter and her partner,having looked after their three vehicles for many years,so trying to be as fair as I can. One thing that just occurred to me is that the car is 2004 registered but has my personal plate on it which shows as a 2001 registration. Is it possible or likely that any changes were made between 2001 and 2004, although he does assure me the part number is the same?

I'm not certain if there are any changes, but it is unlikely. Any changes would have been made in around 2000 when the model changed from the Phase1 to Phase2. 2004 was the runout year, so most likely they were emptying the parts bins not redesigning components. There was a mild facelift in 2003 when the three spoke steering wheel and redesigned instrument cluster was introduced but that was about it.

Hi All. I'm pleased to say that I have my v40 back. She is fully serviced with a brand new MOT and a new exhaust. Not quite sure of the mechanics of the exhaust replacement but I'm told,with the help of a Swedish website,the guy was able to identify the correct part number and sourced it through his local supplier. There is however some not so good news, he thinks that the VVT pully needs replacing. I'll post a separate thread about that.