At Your Service: Volvo Makes House Calls

Volvo is introducing a valet program to make it easier for customers to have a vehicle serviced at a dealership.

Owners use a smartphone app—or they can go old school and actually phone it in—to schedule an appointment. Then a dealer employee comes to pick up the car and drives it back to the service center.

Better yet, a loaner vehicle is provided while the customer’s car is in the shop. To be safe, pictures are taken of both vehicles to document their condition at the time of the exchange.

Customers can track the entire process, including a driver’s en route location and estimated time of arrival, via their smartphone. A notification will be sent when the car arrives at the dealer service center. Once the work is completed, the vehicle is driven back to the customer.

New Car Deliveries, Test Drives Coming

The service, which is similar to that offered by several other luxury brands, is a result of Volvo’s 2017 acquisition of San Francisco-based Luxe Valet. The carmaker has been pilot testing the program in California for more than a year. It now will be available to customers across the U.S.

Later this year, Volvo plans to expand the service to include home delivery for new car buyers. Overnight test drives also may be added.

Such services could be especially useful during social distancing and shelter-in-place protocols in effect during the coronavirus outbreak. But that’s assuming dealerships are open during this time, which is determined by state and local policies.