Why Ford Sucks (advice needed, venting..)

[sundance435]

Will,

Contact the Florida AG's Consumer affairs division. Let the dealer know you are doing it. I hope you have some record of the time that it did it in the service department. That alone should get it fixed or, better yet replaced.

He said the car was purchased in MA. MA law (or whatever choice of law is in the lease agreement, perhaps even arbitration) would most likely apply - not to say you can't bring suit in Florida (there's no guarantee a Florida court would hear it), but either MA law or the choice of law in the lease agreement is what will apply. I'd suggest getting familiar with the lease agreement if you're considering pursuing legal action. I also agree though with what you expressed earlier that anyone's best/better option is to deal with Ford directly, even though you haven't had luck thus far. You may have to get creative here, e.g. social media. In my experience, in almost any situation where you're the aggrieved party and you're getting resistance from the other side and they believe they have the upper hand, it's best not to throw out words like "media" and "lawsuit" without having a plan to do so - even then, I wouldn't show my hand. It's always the people who threaten legal action that don't end up taking it any further - you have to mean it when you say it and already have a plan in mind.

[WillBrink]

Will,

Contact the Florida AG's Consumer affairs division. Let the dealer know you are doing it. I hope you have some record of the time that it did it in the service department. That alone should get it fixed or, better yet replaced.

My mother got scammed pretty bad, I called the folks, told them to let her out of the contract, they gave me the run-a-round, I told them, OK I just want you to know that I've recorded this call, when I hang up I'm calling the consumer affairs division of the Kansas Attorney General's office. I was immediately put on with a supervisor that could do something and mom's money was refunded.

I didn't even have to play the 'they know me' card.

If the threat doesn't get action, follow through and call them (AG), solving consumer issues is one of the way's AG's get re-elected.

At Ford corporate? The dealership is out of the decision making process here.

[Bulletdog]

For such a knowledgeable truck guy you left out Ford's best diesel engine idea of all time, the one that actual replaced the 7.3L Power Stroke, the 6.0L Power Stroke....that one was brilliant.

NYH1.

The 6.0 is what is in my van. They detuned them a bit for some reason in the vans. I never got a reliable answer for why that is, but it is. I was warned about all the engine problems that were likely to occur with the 6.0, but so far so good at 135K.

[Bulletdog]

Dealers have no say in the matter, it's Ford Corporate that makes the decisions in such matters and who I have been communicating with on the issue.

This has been my experience too.

A buddy of mine is a fleet dealer for Ford. He is a nice guy and did everything he could to help, but corporate shut him down at every turn. He, a service advisor, and a service tech at a different dealership all told me that they get "mandates" from corporate and they have to follow them. The mandate at the time of my issue was to reduce warranty service costs by 80%. They were told to simply refuse to do warranty work even when it was warranted. They were told to bully the customers into paying for work that should have been under warranty. They tried it with me a few times and I got real insistent. They caved on everything except the A/C in the first Escape, but even that, they tried to fix it six times under warranty. They just refused to do anything after that. Rather I should say: Corporate refused to do anything after that.

Just like talking people out of voting Democrat, I can't even count how many people I've steered away from buying a Ford. All they had to do was replace the lemon with a car of the same year and type with A/C that worked. What would that have cost them? It would have cost them a lot less than all the business and customers they've lost because that woman has no understanding of how to treat customers.

[Bulletdog]

What does the VIN start with??


Most of you who are buying non American cars, are buying American cars.

And most of you who think you are buying American cars, are buying non American cars.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

I'm pretty sure my current Tacoma was made in Torrance, CA. Love that truck. I had a '97 Tacoma before this one. Loved that one too, but I literally wore it out. I think the '97 was made in Georgia. My first car was a little compact '88 Toyota truck, before they called them "Tacoma".

[Kain]

I'm going to get into the brand debate. I can offer great examples of pretty much all of them, and really horrible of everyone of them as well, both foreign and domestic.

What I will offer is some advice as far as getting into proving your issue. Which I know you don't want to hear, but listen. Coming from someone who spends day in and day out now dealing with various claims, the issue is if you have a third party like myself is that you have to be able to establish some sort of credibility. And I know that just pissed you off Will, but listen, if you are saying the vehicle is doing X, and the dealer is going, it is not and we did tests Q, Y, and Z, and showed no issues, then you need to be able to give me something to refute it. I know you said you have tried to capture it on camera, but, if you don't have anything, any investigator is going to go, "Well the dealer showed they looked for issues and none were found." The law is kind of written in that regard, generally speaking and all things being equal. Even if I think the dealer is being shady, unless I have proof I can't do shit, and trust me there have been many a time I have had more than just a guy feeling, but due to lack of evidence my hands are tied. I'd assume the same from the company since I can only assume that they deal with a lot of people making fraudulent claims, I know I do, so they probably are assuming the worst if you have no proof. End point, get proof somehow. Perhaps this is a point that maybe cars, or at least more cars, need some sort of black box to keep record of issues. I know some cars do keep data on the car as it were since I had a friend take a car to a dealer and get asked why he had it up to 138MPH.

[1_click_off]

If you pay the lease off, you may save the monthly tax they charge. Don’t know.

I would imagine you have the issue on file with them now. I would guess you are in the warranty period as well. Next time the transmission releases from the engine, redline that POS and let it grenade when it engages.

You get a loaner that works, and maybe they replace the faulty electronics when they stab the new transmission.

[1_click_off]

While on the subject of cars....

I bought a Bluetooth OBDII scanner and use my phone to read diagnostics and have the capabilities to erase trouble codes.

I like the torque app for Android devices but not for iOS.

Lots of folks make apps and scanners. Autometer even has an app.

Be careful on scan tool you select as some will only work with their app and some want access to your phone to gather data.

[NYH1]

The 6.0 is what is in my van. They detuned them a bit for some reason in the vans. I never got a reliable answer for why that is, but it is. I was warned about all the engine problems that were likely to occur with the 6.0, but so far so good at 135K.

I'm glad it's worked out for you. I'm a gasser guy myself. However, a lot of my friends and guys I work with run/ran diesels from all three brands. The 6.0 PS and the lack of service, repair (under warranty), flat out runaround from Ford on top of the extreme down time turned them off of Ford ever since.

When there's a foot of snow in someone's driveway or parking lot (we measure it in feet here), they don't want to hear that your new $55k plow truck with 11k miles on it is broke down again and in for warranty work and they're not fixing it. Or that your new tow truck with their car on the back also need to be towed. Or that you can't get the skid steer to the job site. Or the load of hay delivered ect....

Good luck my friend, NYH1.

For what some of us use our trucks for, there's no alternative to a domestic 3/4 or 1 ton pickup truck. There's no Japper or Euro pickup truck that I'm aware of that you tow 15.5k lbs., haul 3500 lbs. in the bed or hang a 1200 lbs. plow on the front off.

[elephant]

For such a knowledgeable truck guy you left out Ford's best diesel engine idea of all time, the one that actual replaced the 7.3L Power Stroke, the 6.0L Power Stroke....that one was brilliant.

NYH1.

We used ford trucks for our fleet from 1976 to 2010 until we switched over to the Chevrolet Silverado 3500HD in 2011 after our Fords had to be serviced almost every month. The new LTZ Chevys are nice for pulling 14-20k pound goosenecks and come pretty well equipped for work trucks, navigation, sat radio, leather, dual climate, and lots of places to plug in regular electronics like laptop, phone, CB etc. The Chevys cost more to maintain than the Fords we had but we run these trucks to about 350k miles. The 6.0L was to meet Obamas tough new emission standards- that engine sucked!!!!