NHTSA Complaint #11528023 — 2022 VOLVO XC90

On 6/12/23, I was driving on a highway in New York State when I heard a bump under my car and I thought it was a rock. Nothing flashed on my dash to warn me that something serious had happened. Another driver pulled next to me and shouted out of the window, "YOUR CAR IS SPILLING GAS OUT OF THE BOTTOM OF YOUR CAR, PULL OVER OR YOUR CAR MAY CATCH FIRE." As I was near an exit, I got off the highway, and there was a service station right there. When I got out of the car, with the ignition off, I saw gas coming from the bottom of my car like a faucet (Tank was 1/2 full). The service people told me to get away from the car and they tried to catch the gas as it was going all over the road and parking lot. My car was towed by Volvo to a dealer and they found that there was a 4 inch gash in my gas tank, likely caused by a piece of metal that fell from a truck. It took a week to fix my car, replace the gas tank, fuel pump and everything associated with the fuel system. It cost me $3,800 to fix. My car had less than 9,000 miles on it. When I approached VOLVO USA headquarters and asked that they try to reimburse me they replied it was an ACT OF GOD, and they would not cover any of it. My insurance would not cover it as it was not an accident. My complaint is that this car had no warning system within the high tech dashboard to alert me that my car was in trouble. Had it not been for the stranger on the road, I would not have known, as my A/C was on and my windows were closed. I did not smell the gas until I left the car. It is a flaw of this car that there was no warning system in place to let me know that my gas tank was breached. My dash flashes signals when my windshield wiper fluid is low. I am appealing to the National Highway Safety Commission to report this to Volvo, and not only try to get me paid back some of the money I spent, but to upgrade their safety alert system so someone does not get killed in a freak incident like this