HEY, FORD MOTOR COMPANY, JUST TELL US THE TRUTH. The American public is a very forgiving unit, but one thing they can't stand is lies and cover-ups. Ford is so busy promoting the 2013 Fusion on the internet and now with TV advertising they "forgot" to tell us that they have a problem. They have shipped 25,000 Fusions which is great but there are 20,000 sitting on the lot in Hermasillo that have a Stop Ship order on them, my special order included. It was built on October 4, 2012. I was told by a Ford Social Media Rep (Facebook) each week for 4 weeks that it was just awaiting transport and not a quality issue. I finally called customer service and got the information about the stop ship order, except he couldn't tell me what it was for. He claimed he didn't know. From Ford's VP of Marketing "As you are aware, a number of vehicles have been produced but have not been released from the plant. In order to ensure a high quality launch, additional quality assurance practices are being implemented. This is resulting in increased timing from production to dealer delivery. We know you are anxious to receive your Fusions. I want to assure you the team is working diligently to get the vehicles delivered to you as quickly as possible. We estimate all the cars will be enroute by the end of December." I laud Ford for not shipping an inferior product but come on, 45% of the inventory is defective. I was told by a dealer here that they were repairing 1000 a week. If you do the math, 20000 divded by 1000 equals 20 weeks. By my calendar, that will be the end of March, not December. They would have to correct 2800 a week to make that goal. Now they are shipping cars to Flat Rock "accellerate the qualilty assurance process". Call me naive, but I admit I don't understand large corporate decisions. Doesn't most of the dealerships have body shops with trained mechanics that can dissassemble and reassemble a car? If it is a headlight issue, as I have heard, couldn't they just ship headlight units to the dealers and have them fix the problem as they prep the cars for delivery. That probably wouldn't take more than an additional day. You would have thousands of locations fixing the problem and get it done a lot faster, and make your customers a lot happier. That is my whole point. Why is Ford keeping everyone in the dark? Just come out and tell us "we screwed up, and built some inferior cars and will get them all fixed as soon as possible." As you can see, the letter to the dealers was filled with corporate doublespeak. And if you go to the Fusion site on Facebook, you would think everything is rosy and the cars are flying out the door and off the lots. They are even offering an additional $1000 incentive to purchase a fusion although it must be from dealer stock. Unfortunately the dealers have no stock. They are waiting for product too. How about offering $1000 to the folks who have already bought a new Fusion by ordering them, and have had to wait an excessive amount of time for their car to arrive? Which brings me to my next question which I can't get answered. In what order are the repairs being made? Are the ones that were first off the line the first to be fixed? Are the dealers cars being fixed before the special ordrers or are the already sold special orders being fixed first? I even have a case number from Customer Service and they didn't call me back within the time frame they said they would. Still waiting for the call back. Sorry for the rant, but I needed to get that off my chest. DEAR FORD, I AM A FRUSTRATED CUSTOMER, JUST GIVE ME SOME ANSWERS.
