Battery Dead After 17 days of Inactivity

[TheDufster]

Just returned from a wonderful holiday to Italy - on Monday after getting home from the airport by taxi I tried to unlock my XC90 on my drive but there was no response.

Tried using the app but it said that it could not connect with the car.

Called VOC and they sent someone out within 1.5hrs. Unlocked the car with the hidden key in the fob, applied some juice and diagnosed that the battery was completely flat and beyond a successful recharge.

The mechanic said that they're not allowed to change batteries outside of a workshop so he returned on Tuesday morning, got the car started and I drove it down to my local dealer. Given a hire car (Mazda 6 - not that impressed, although I suspect better than a Mondeo).

Called the dealer today and they said that the battery had been changed but they wanted to get to the bottom of why the problem occurred. A new software update is being applied (can take 4 hrs) and hopefully the car will be available for me to collect on the way home today.

I hope that the update fixes the issue - wouldn't like to return to an airport car park with a dead battery and not be able to drive straight home.

Although it has been an inconvenience this time, I can't fault the service and support received so far to try and get my car back on the road. The mechanic gave me a lift to work on Tuesday morning and sorted the hire car out for me straight away.

Incidentally, in Italy we hired a VW Touran (all I could get to suit 5 of us with luggage) for our holiday. Ended up doing 3000km in it and it faired reasonably well. Would have preferred to do it in the XC90 but time didn't permit (and at least it's 3000km on another car and not mine!). Only saw 1 other new XC90 on the whole trip, a black T6 with Poland plates doing over 100mph on the A3 Autostrade. Driving in Italy was mostly enjoyable with the views but enlightening with the way they drive - most drivers have no lane discipline whatsoever (cars, vans and HGV's often straying way over into adjacent lanes for no apparent reason) and they do like to get up to within 1ft of the car in front at 150kmh before overtaking then slowing down again. Mad.