So At What Point Should I Start to Get Angry

[Guardian_Bob]

While I like my car, there's been more than a few things that have irritated me in the buying process.

 

Length of time. It took 3 days to get a car that was a dealer trade in the state. Now that doesn't sound like much, unless you have a 25 mile commute and a wife with a 40 mile commute in the opposite direction.

 

Issues with the car:

• What I wanted: I couldn't get what I wanted due to a lack of inventory. Not the dealership's fault, but still a pain.
• Remote start not installed but on the sticker. I was promised it was coming, haven't heard anything since.
• Body Control Module Replacement. I had to contact Ford directly, the factory door code has a problem I'll describe in detail later. Two weeks later they got the part from Ford. This is the only reason they called me to schedule my service.
• Various TSBs: 13-5-24, possibly 13-5-1 and 13-1-13
• Mats: I wanted the all weather mats, but since the sticker said it had premium I had to buy both sets. I never even used the premium mats.
• State of the car: I picked up the car on a rainy day. Had it been sunny, I might have walked away. I've never seen a new car quite as dirty as this one was once the sun came out. Specifically under the hood, it looks like it was blasted by water than drove through a dust storm. Dust and dirt on every seal, and in the car. I've spent hours cleaning it.
• No notice about the recall on the gas module. Seems they should have called me to check it out.

 

I haven't filled out the survey yet. I'm happy and mad at the same time. I know some of you have had much worse experiences, so need to ask, am I overreacting given that I'm paying over $35K for this car?

[jeff_h]

On the vehicle with certain attributes due to inventory - if you were that set on getting just the items you wanted then why not order one? If that didn't work due to time constraints, could you have expanded your radius a bit to get one closer to your liking? I went across several states a few times to get exactly the one I wanted, though most are not that obsessive -- and if that's the case, why not order a 2013 model earlier in the cycle or wait for the 2014?

 

Remote start - if it was on the original window sticker, it sounds like the original dealer scarfed it before doing the DX with your local dealer, which if true certainly sucks but a dealer doing underhanded things on a car that he won't be selling, I'm shocked shocked I tell you. Not your dealer's fault (unless it was instead on THEIR add-on sticker, then that's another story), but does indeed suck.

 

Factory door code - mine was in the owners manual packet and pointed out during the delivery process, as I bet it was for 99% of the other owners here. Chalk up another one for the original dealer, I bet. We can get the original dealer from pulling up the window sticker from the VIN and have 20 of us do an online quote request for the same car on the same day, won't help but might be fun.

 

TSBs - I feel your pain... as do others on here.

 

Mats - I bought both sets, they both suck. Ford should be ashamed of making such a skimpy one for the driver's area, too skittish from the Toyota acceleration fiasco from a couple years ago, who knows.

 

State of the car - Original dealer should have cleaned this, but instead sent it your way and your dealer didn't have to clean it, or didn't care? Are you sure this was a new car and not a demo for a while? When was it built?

 

Recall on the gas thing - I haven't received anything yet either, which is a typical delay on any recall I've had, Ford or otherwise. If it was important enough to stop driving the car then there would be more publicity, like that thing last year with the 1.6 Ecoboost engines that affected mostly the Escapes but also some Fusions.

 

Survey - I have filled out two now, the dealer on car #1 said this was a really important thing for them, and I gave them all highest markings as all went perfectly. For car #2 things didn't go so well, I didn't think the dealer treated me very well and I rated them quite low - whether that really means anything to the dealer, who knows. So as the consumer that's the only recourse you have, blast away.

[Guardian_Bob]

On the vehicle with certain attributes due to inventory - if you were that set on getting just the items you wanted then why not order one? If that didn't work due to time constraints, could you have expanded your radius a bit to get one closer to your liking? I went across several states a few times to get exactly the one I wanted, though most are not that obsessive -- and if that's the case, why not order a 2013 model earlier in the cycle or wait for the 2014?

Wife wrecked her car, so we had a limited time to get one. Our search radius was something like 250 miles and still couldn't get exactly what I wanted. Kind of needed a car as I explained about the commute. 8 weeks of a rental wouldn't really work.

 

Remote start - if it was on the original window sticker, it sounds like the original dealer scarfed it before doing the DX with your local dealer, which if true certainly sucks but a dealer doing underhanded things on a car that he won't be selling, I'm shocked shocked I tell you. Not your dealer's fault (unless it was instead on THEIR add-on sticker, then that's another story), but does indeed suck.

Yes, but my dealer said they'd contact me when they got the system from the other dealership. So far, silence.

 

Factory door code - mine was in the owners manual packet and pointed out during the delivery process, as I bet it was for 99% of the other owners here. Chalk up another one for the original dealer, I bet. We can get the original dealer from pulling up the window sticker from the VIN and have 20 of us do an online quote request for the same car on the same day, won't help but might be fun.

This actually has nothing to do with locating the code, but I'll discuss details once my car is dropped off for security reasons.

 

TSBs - I feel your pain... as do others on here.

 

Mats - I bought both sets, they both suck. Ford should be ashamed of making such a skimpy one for the driver's area, too skittish from the Toyota acceleration fiasco from a couple years ago, who knows.

 

State of the car - Original dealer should have cleaned this, but instead sent it your way and your dealer didn't have to clean it, or didn't care? Are you sure this was a new car and not a demo for a while? When was it built?

Well the car had 200 miles. Consider the dealer exchange was 150 miles away and I'm pretty sure it wasn't a demo car. It was built in November of last year.

 

Recall on the gas thing - I haven't received anything yet either, which is a typical delay on any recall I've had, Ford or otherwise. If it was important enough to stop driving the car then there would be more publicity, like that thing last year with the 1.6 Ecoboost engines that affected mostly the Escapes but also some Fusions.

 

Survey - I have filled out two now, the dealer on car #1 said this was a really important thing for them, and I gave them all highest markings as all went perfectly. For car #2 things didn't go so well, I didn't think the dealer treated me very well and I rated them quite low - whether that really means anything to the dealer, who knows. So as the consumer that's the only recourse you have, blast away.

Thank you for your insights. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't overreacting to what appears to be a case of the blame game.

Edited June 7, 2013 by Guardian_Bob

[jeff_h]

OK that sounds understandable on the timing/inventory part, who wants to pay for a rental car for that long, the insurance company sure won't pay for it while you wait for just the right one!

[smr2112]

Somebody else talked about taking delivery on a car that was filthy dirty...how strange, don't all dealers

at least "try" to clean up the cars before delivery? So a brand new car with dirt and crud on the seats?

It all does sound a bit fishy.

 

Somewhere in that thread it was concluded that the car (and probably a whole bunch of them) were sitting

somewhere where they all got very dirty and were ignored. Whether in Mexico or somewhere else, the Nov build date sort of

points at that - who knows the reason why.

 

The factory door code can easily be obtained from the inside display, the instructions are in the manual.

But it'll be reversed. Long thread on that.

 

[clummus]

I paid for a.rental for five weeks..Not fun I can assure you;(

[Guardian_Bob]

Somebody else talked about taking delivery on a car that was filthy dirty...how strange, don't all dealers

at least "try" to clean up the cars before delivery? So a brand new car with dirt and crud on the seats?

It all does sound a bit fishy.

 

Somewhere in that thread it was concluded that the car (and probably a whole bunch of them) were sitting

somewhere where they all got very dirty and were ignored. Whether in Mexico or somewhere else, the Nov build date sort of

points at that - who knows the reason why.

 

The factory door code can easily be obtained from the inside display, the instructions are in the manual.

But it'll be reversed. Long thread on that.

So the problem with the code, isn't a locating problem, or anything like that. I know what the code is. The code is bad. It does something they say in the manual not to do. And since it is the factory code you can't change it/fix it without a new body control module.

[jeff_h]

Somewhere in that thread it was concluded that the car (and probably a whole bunch of them) were sitting somewhere where they all got very dirty and were ignored. Whether in Mexico or somewhere else, the Nov build date sort of points at that - who knows the reason why.

 

Funny, I was thinking about the same old posts, maybe it was over on BOF in the "Shipping ETA TBD" thread that got so long.

[hermans]

 

Funny, I was thinking about the same old posts, maybe it was over on BOF in the "Shipping ETA TBD" thread that got so long.

And....al the cars that were shipped to Flat Rock,,,,some in crates to be assembled there.

[hybridbear]

I would definitely take it back to your selling dealer and tell them that the dirt is unacceptable and that you expect them to fully detail it and clean everything. That should have been part of their dealer prep. When we picked up our car it was spotless. I hope you get the remote start worked out. When I ran into the older couple with a new FFH a few weeks ago he was asking me about remote start because they specifically ordered it and paid for it be he doesn't have a remote with a remote start button and says the dealer told him to press the trunk button twice to remote start but when he does that it just opens the trunk lol now I'm thinking that his dealer might have tried to pull a fast one on him since remote start is an option you can buy when ordering the car but then the dealer has to install it.

 

I would try contacting your selling dealer about your concerns first. If they do nothing then call Ford Customer Service to report them, leave negative reviews on sites like dealerrater.com or a similar site used in your area and give them poor feedback on your Ford survey. It's important in all of those cases to clearly describe just why you are unhappy rather than just filling out the survey with no comments. Jeff_h did this with their Energi purchase and whether or not the dealer cares about it, whoever at Ford reads his survey will fully understand why he was dissatisfied because he explained it very clearly and in detail. Those are your best tools for getting better customer service.

[jeff_h]

Jeff_h did this with their Energi purchase and whether or not the dealer cares about it, whoever at Ford reads his survey will fully understand why he was dissatisfied because he explained it very clearly and in detail.

 

Yes I did with the second car, the ratings were pretty mixed and I had several paragraphs of write-comments, of which I saved and emailed to hybridbear and a couple others - whether it does any good or just gets attributed to x% of surveys always being sour grapes and thus discarded, well that's downstream from me.

 

As for Guardian_Bob's car, he sent me a pic (hopefully will be posted for others) - to me it doesn't look like a car that was sent to Flat Rock in December/January/February, it looks like one that was inundated with windy Hermosillo fine dirt/sand grub that gunked up the engine compartment and is of course something that the dealer (in this case, two dealers) should have cleaned thoroughly before the customer ever saw it, unless the customer was at the dealer right after the car was unloaded (we saw a couple of those pics posted). No way should it ever have been delivered that way, yes he was probably anxious to stop paying for a rental but the dealer should have cleaned the car well unless he said don't worry about cleaning it since I need it NOW, but it doesn't sound like this was the case so it's poor service for someone spending a whole lot of money on a new car.

[hybridbear]

As for Guardian_Bob's car, he sent me a pic (hopefully will be posted for others) - to me it doesn't look like a car that was sent to Flat Rock in December/January/February, it looks like one that was inundated with windy Hermosillo fine dirt/sand grub that gunked up the engine compartment and is of course something that the dealer (in this case, two dealers) should have cleaned thoroughly before the customer ever saw it, unless the customer was at the dealer right after the car was unloaded (we saw a couple of those pics posted). No way should it ever have been delivered that way, yes he was probably anxious to stop paying for a rental but the dealer should have cleaned the car well unless he said don't worry about cleaning it since I need it NOW, but it doesn't sound like this was the case so it's poor service for someone spending a whole lot of money on a new car.

Guardian_Bob posted pics of the dust in his Gallery. I agree that it looks like the car sat in Mexico for awhile getting sand dust blown into every crevice. Not good...

[jeff_h]

Guardian_Bob posted pics of the dust in his Gallery. I agree that it looks like the car sat in Mexico for awhile getting sand dust blown into every crevice. Not good...

 

OK now that I have looked at those pics in the gallery (thanks for pointing them out)... I change my assessment slightly. One of the dealers made an attempt to clean things (based on the pics with the dried water spots) with a hose or power washer (I did the same on my 2010 a couple times over the 145k miles, doesn't hurt anything if you cover up the proper things, was covered in the user manual about washing the engine compartment), but the dealer did a sub-par job (based on the pics where it looks like the old dirt was untouched).

[Sleddog]

I looked at the pictures it would appear the car got the same drive around the dirt roads near the plant that the first car I was going to purchase did. That one had 130 on the odo, verses 50 on Guardian_Bob's. I walked on that car and ordered one. I would make them clean it top to bottom including the engine bay and running gear. This is one of the reason I use a check list. If it's raining, I will wait or have them pull it under cover so I can do my inspection. Or if the rain causes issue or does not allow me to do it, I come back the next day. One you accept it, it can be an issue to have things fixed. My dealer has me sign a statement that on initial delivery the car was in acceptable condition. I can see their point. And that's why until I'm satisfied I will not do the paperwork or sign anything.

[djminfll]

I would never have accepted delivery with the car looking the way it did. The dirt in the engine would be unacceptable on a USED car, let alone a new one! t's good that you have those pictures, as I'd be concerned about engine damage caused by that gritty dust. I would contact the dealer regarding the remote start which it seems that you paid for, and you should get a credit for that. If you are not COMPLETELY satisfied, then you should contact Ford Customer Service. I purchased a Honda Accord EX-L in 2006 and was promised premium floormats, but I didn't get it in writing and the dealer failed to live up to their promise. I contacted Customer Service headquarters and they overnighted a set of mats to me. What the dealers need to realize is that a single experience like that generates negative publicity for years to come. I am a Customer Service Trainer, and I have probably told that story to hundreds, maybe even thousands of trainees to demonstrate how important Customer Service is. I included the name of the dealer each time I told the story, and each time advised my class that if anyone was going to buy a Honda, not to buy it from that dealership. Honda realized how important negative publicity can be, and they made good on the dealer's promise to me. I can't imagine that Ford wouldn't do the same.