I can explain that. It's because most dealers pay their techs based on the "flat rate" system and that only pays the tech for whatever the particular job is, no more. When a new car is in warranty (especially Volvos warranty), that tech is paid very little to properly take the necessary time needed to diagnose and repair things like squeeks, rattles, wind leaks, intermittant electrical problems, etc. Sometimes the tech is paid nothing for complaints like that, so if it takes more attention to diagnose it during a brief test drive around the block, it's often just easier to say "no problem found".

Say what you want, but the problem is more with the system than anything else because if that same tech was paid hourly, time then wouldn't be a concern and he could take take all day if needed to find the source of the problem, assuming his boss wouldn't mind (right!).

The solution for the customer then is to request that the technician (or service writer) go on a brief test drive with you so that you can pinpoint the exact concern, then there's no way anyone can tell you "no problem found". That's what a good dealership with good CSI scores does. On the other hand, if it's intermittant and you can't demonstrate it with the tech (or service writer) at the time, you can't expect it to be fixed until it's duplicateable. Most people understand that too. You'ld be surprised how many times I go for test drives and have people say "oh, it's not doing it now, you must think I'm crazy" or "it was doing it the whole way here" but isn't during the test drive. More common than not really.