open letter to ford, what would you do? (long) - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

BAGTHO · 08-28-2005, 07:48

Order first placed TITANFORD n November 2002.

Dealer ordered Purple car I ordered & wanted Blood orange.

I cancelled order & It took 2 months to have deposit returned.

Titan ford had Knowledge of a Blood orange GTP that was dealer ordered for demo, but did not offer to me .

(This car later took 4 months to sell) ( SOLD TO SIMON FROM EXTREEM)

I finally ordered a car from City Ford in Sydney

Delayed during production due to problem with engine.

Finally received.

Noted following faults.

High oil consumption ( INITIALLY TOLD NO PROBLEM)

Excessive Drive train Backlash ( told normal for High Performance cars)

Noise from gear box in 1st , 3 rd, 5 the ( told be gear shift insulation)

Severe Engine rattle on start up ( left car over night to check, technition forgot to check when cold)

Rear parcel shelf cover did not fit.

After much effort on my part I have finally had the following replaced.

1.2 OX oxygen sensors

2. Engine rebuilt, found two broken rockers( engine noise on start up)

3.parcel shelf replaced

4.diff replaced

5. radiator replaced

6. sun glass holder repaired( roof lining removed )

7. LHS lower control arm replaced, rhs lower control arm replaced.

8.Gear box rebuilt

9.unable to reverse up drive way due to weak clutch.( SLIPS)

10. Brakes have squealed & have not even bothered to mention.

11. Traction control does not work correctly( been told with a hp car this may not work) do you people expect me to take that excuse, ( traction control was first developed on formula one cars.

My major gripe is not that I have to constantly take the car in for warranty work, then convince service personal that the answer they give me is not acceptable.

( am a qualified automotive engineer with formula 1 experience. & will not accept lame excuses)

When I purchased my car I told I would be able to get a loan car.

The only time I have ever got a loan car was for the engine replacement.

When I take my Wife's BMW M3 in for work a loan car is always offered, this car was also purchased in another state.( bmw realise if they look after us we may purchase another BMW.)

Take this as a hint "when I see a person that purchases an XT falcon get a loan car for a 20,000 service & I have a GT with many warranty problems & have to stop my business & use two people to bring my car in for warranty service. This time I had to change my travel plans ( trip to China ) I can never get a loan car.( this takes 3 hours out on my day each time)

I ask the question , why would I purchase a Ford & why would I purchase from this dealer.,

I ask this question do you think I should purchase from you again?

Future Performance Vehicle Purchaser From Another Maker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Part two
I received my car back from the City Ford on Friday morning & phoned the service department on the trip home. To tell them I had a severe gearbox wine in 1 st 3rd & 5th , with a grinding noise from 2nd & 4th.. I spoke to the sevice advisor & he explained they were to busy to come to me could I bring the car back in. I said It takes me 3 hrs & requires two people to return my car & I have booked a holiday for the weekend . I intended to use the car for this trip. He told me it would be fine & they would fix it Monday. I confirmed that if the gear box fails Ford will cover under warranty.

I have now been waiting on the side of the Road For over 2 hours for a tow truck. I have my Wife & two children with me . The Children are aged 5 & 11 years & think it will be great to see the car on a tow truck again!.

I have had to cancel my flight Tonight to Hong Kong & am not impressed with the service Ford has provided.

My 11 year old son thinks this would be a good car if Centre Ford did not touch it.

The tow truck finally arrived after 3 hours, not a dual cab as promised, but a single cab that is supposed to fit 2 adults & a 5 year old & 11 year old for the 2.5 hour ride home.

Now we are finally home, I have to canceled my flight tonight to Hong Kong.
Costing me business & causing me to reschedule important meetings I have worked moths to arrange?

What I want to Know , if this happened to you what would you want Ford to do?.

perthxr6t · 08-28-2005, 17:02

BAGTHO

To say you got a lemon is a understatment. We too just purchased a new Typhoon and while the engine and powertrain is perfect there has been a few issues with the interior and exterior.

1 lime green paint can been seen from one of the wheel guards.
2 Rear armrest coming apart from moulding
3 Driver & passenger seats collapsing
4 Got the car rustprotected and they sprayed the engine bay
5 Bubbles and sand in the window tint done 3 times now
6 Inside door panel not painted
7 Rubber sticking out from back of the dash near window
8 Radio pops the breaker if you go past 18

The better half has a list with 15 items on it and it is in Titan Ford as i write this getting all those items repaired.

The dealer has been good and is doing the repairs as listed and the car will be there for a week and a half and they gave us a loan car which was great of them as the goverment will be sh#tcanning this shortly.

Myself i am also a mechanic and work away O/Seas and i am lucky the better half is into her cars and will not take any crap from the dealers she is one in a million for sure. At the end of the day the dealers only sell the cars and most of them don't know that much about them the way i see it is the quality of the cars that are coming out of the factory is the problem sometimes you get a ripper and sometimes a lemon depends on the day i spose,try and order a Wednesday one if you can.

Engine wise we were lucky as in stock form 225rwkw and you can feel it is a strong engine and the rest of the items on the list well you can only hope the dealer will fix those items for you and do it right the first time We did inform Ford Australia and they have been very helpful with our concerns lucky i guess.

The XR and FPV cars are great to drive and lets hope they sort out all the issues with there performance range very shortly so we can all enjoy the performance and power that these cars have.

My advice is don't take it home unless the work is done, It's a bloody hasssle i know but stick to your guns and i would take it to the morley dealer as they are great with helping you out i have had no real dramas with them to date.

Hope you get it all sorted mate

Xtreme F6 · 08-28-2005, 17:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by BAGTHO

(This car later took 4 months to sell) ( SOLD TO SIMON FROM EXTREEM)

:

Brett i thought u ordered a GT not a GTP? and that car had been sitting in the dealers for 12 months not 4.

Now back to the important stuff. For them to have told u to just keep driving after you rang them and told them they should be shot. Not good enough.

Would i take it? no, should u take it .. no... Should you have demanded they get your car picked up and give u a GT lend car till it was fixed so your holiday wasnt screwed Most definatly.

BAGTHO · 08-29-2005, 02:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xtreme F6

Brett i thought u ordered a GT not a GTP? and that car had been sitting in the dealers for 12 months not 4.

Now back to the important stuff. For them to have told u to just keep driving after you rang them and told them they should be shot. Not good enough.

Would i take it? no, should u take it .. no... Should you have demanded they get your car picked up and give u a GT lend car till it was fixed so your holiday wasnt screwed Most definatly.

Yes you are right Simon. It must have been 12 months. I would have had a GTP if made aware of its existance. When I ordered my car all Ford " could confirm they were making a GT with 290 KW 5.4 , no price, no specs nothing. The first I new of Youre cars existance was in mid June, I went & look at it the day before mine arrived.

Update

I phoned Centre Ford this morning to dicuss my situation. First spoke to dealer principle & He said he look into & get back to me in 10 minutes.

Half an hour later the SErvice manager phone & basically told me if I were not happy with there service I should go to another dealer.

I won't say on the forumn how i reacted to that.

The car is now at McInerney Ford.

They can not provide a vehicle until wednesday at the ealiest & FPV suggested I rent a car & they will reimburse me.

So much for the Roadside assist handling all costs. Yes they will reimburse you.
After having three hours to read the hand book ( waiting for tow truck) I can not see anywhere it states you pay & they will reimburse you)

So beware don't brake down in you're FPV vehicle if you don't have ample cash of a credit card.

Well see how McInerney handles this situation. So far they seem to be okay. :

Let me Know you're opinion.
Has anyone used McInerney Ford?

GT-P 738 · 08-29-2005, 05:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by BAGTHO

Yes you are right Simon. It must have been 12 months. I would have had a GTP if made aware of its existance. When I ordered my car all Ford " could confirm they were making a GT with 290 KW 5.4 , no price, no specs nothing. The first I new of Youre cars existance was in mid June, I went & look at it the day before mine arrived.

Update

I phoned Centre Ford this morning to dicuss my situation. First spoke to dealer principle & He said he look into & get back to me in 10 minutes.

Half an hour later the SErvice manager phone & basically told me if I were not happy with there service I should go to another dealer.

I won't say on the forumn how i reacted to that.

The car is now at McInerney Ford.

They can not provide a vehicle until wednesday at the ealiest & FPV suggested I rent a car & they will reimburse me.

So much for the Roadside assist handling all costs. Yes they will reimburse you.
After having three hours to read the hand book ( waiting for tow truck) I can not see anywhere it states you pay & they will reimburse you)

So beware don't brake down in you're FPV vehicle if you don't have ample cash of a credit card.

Well see how McInerney handles this situation. So far they seem to be okay. :

Let me Know you're opinion.
Has anyone used McInerney Ford?

Oh brett,the joys of FPV i know them only too well.

As far as having problems sorted out i have had no trouble with Midways ,BUT they have had a lack in the past (until i ripped the DP) common decency and respect for other peoples belongings, so yes i am still using them and they have been very good lately and i even let them detail my car for nothing the other week when it was in for its third new diff.Not something i normally let them do due to the fact that they have never done it properly in the past.

Touch wood all is fine at the moment.

Matt

Aussie_Geo · 08-29-2005, 07:52

Mate,

I am sorry to hear of the troubles. I ordered my Typhoon through Centre Ford in October 2004 and picked her up on Dec 6. I have had nothing to complain about, was also one of the lucky ones that did not have any clutch problems.

Although, when she went in for the clutch refit I was told, very late on the day she went in, that it would have to stay in overnight. After a bit of complaining on my behalf I was given an XT as a loan car. They reckon she had to stay in overnight because she was the first one they had done for the clutch and they were not too sure how to do it (bloody hell!). But compared to some of the other problems I have heard on here I seem to have jagged a good one as everything is running smooth as, have over 20,000k on her and she is singing...... thanks to a few mods from Simon.

All you can do is keep making yourself a pain in the arse to FPV ... or write it off as a bad life expereince ..... which is a bad outcome all round.

cheers

Peter

boss 8 · 08-29-2005, 08:34

Sorry to hear it mate, I have dealt with Centre Ford and have to admit they have been good to me. Seemed to have fixed all complaints and usually do it right first time. I had bent my clutch early on and they replaced it no questions asked, only about 3 months old at the time. I will buy my next one from them in 3 - 6 months and will see how all that goes.

On the other hand.. if all that happened to me I think it would not be able to control myself, not good enough really, how do they ever expect to retain you as a ford customer?

I was burn't by Holden with one of the first GENIII engines here in Perth, big fight about piston slap and oil consumption, I was always imagining the oh so obvoius clunk clunk on cold start and the piston slap was a "characteristic"of the new V8.

Eventually rolled it into the dealer puffing like a steam train, no oil, 1 month left on the warranty, gave me what I wanted for it as I had emails from them telling me there was nothing wrong with the engine, and then I bought the FORD, never looked back and as long as the service stays the same, will keep buying them(unless the bloody Fuel prices don't go down)

Best of luck anyway mate, hope it all works out

perthxr6t · 08-29-2005, 13:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by BAGTHO

Yes you are right Simon. It must have been 12 months. I would have had a GTP if made aware of its existance. When I ordered my car all Ford " could confirm they were making a GT with 290 KW 5.4 , no price, no specs nothing. The first I new of Youre cars existance was in mid June, I went & look at it the day before mine arrived.

Update

I phoned Centre Ford this morning to dicuss my situation. First spoke to dealer principle & He said he look into & get back to me in 10 minutes.

Half an hour later the SErvice manager phone & basically told me if I were not happy with there service I should go to another dealer.

I won't say on the forumn how i reacted to that.

The car is now at McInerney Ford.

They can not provide a vehicle until wednesday at the ealiest & FPV suggested I rent a car & they will reimburse me.

So much for the Roadside assist handling all costs. Yes they will reimburse you.
After having three hours to read the hand book ( waiting for tow truck) I can not see anywhere it states you pay & they will reimburse you)

So beware don't brake down in you're FPV vehicle if you don't have ample cash of a credit card.

Well see how McInerney handles this situation. So far they seem to be okay. :

Let me Know you're opinion.
Has anyone used McInerney Ford?

BAGTHO

Have been using McInerney Ford for 2 years when i had my 6T and no dramas with any warrenty issues Kristan is only to glad to help out anyway he can if i Have any drama's with Titan i will be going straight back there.

Terebro · 08-29-2005, 17:11

I feel I've been ripped off by both Centre & Titan Ford in the past when it came to repairs, thats why I bought my Tornado from McInerney also.

It'll be going in for it's 3000km service in a month with a list of 11 things that I want attended to, so I'm hoping they're as good as everyone says they are and will be able to fix all the problems.

Hope McInerney's do the right thing for you BAGTHO

GT 0844 · 08-29-2005, 17:26

Sorry to hear about all your troubles with your car. If anyones interested I purchased mine from Lane Ford in Mandurah and I cant say enough about how good the service has been. Theyre always willing to have a listen and check the car over for the slightest whinge from me. And if I give them enough notice I get a loan car each time, albeit a Focus but hey when you get back in your GT it seems like theyve given you a few HP for free .