For those that know me, we have had some rather big issues with our BA XR6, not so much with the car, but with the service (or lack thereof) while trying to get these problems solved.... everything is detailed in the letters.
----------- Letter One -----------
To whom it may concern:
Recently I have purchased a Ford Focus through your dealership, and have been extremely satisfied with the level of service and quality of product I have received through you. Which is why I am bringing our BA XR6 Falcon to you, concerning some issues we are having with it.
My parents bought the car at (dealer name removed with location), due to the fact that they live there. Upon delivery of the car, some immediate problems became obvious, which would have been ok if they were properly attended to and rectified at the time. However, over the weeks that we have owned the car, we have had no joy with the Ford service department at (the original dealership), concerning our problems. They showed little to no concern for our problems, once returning the car to us untouched, telling us there was nothing wrong. The other time, they admitted there was a problem but still could not fix it.
While the sales people and receptionist at the dealership seemed concerned, the service department left a lot to be desired, and we will never buy another Ford there again. My next purchase of a BA XR8 when the series II comes out depends on the outcome of the problems we are having with this one. I am hoping you can assist us with this.
The problems:
There are only two minor issues we are having with the car, which we had initially hoped would have been solved quickly.
The first is a surging at idle, which at one point was almost so bad that you could not park the car for fear of surging into a stationary object. I have been informed that there was a TSB on this about the oil phaser filters for the VCT mechanism that can be soiled by swarf generated during manufacture, which get cleaned and recitifies the problem. The car not long ago had its 3,000km service, and has gone some way to stopping this surging. It has happened once since the service, but seems to have disappeared. Can we please find out if indeed this has been applied so we can be rest assured the problem is gone?
The biggest problem we are having though is with a vibration at 100-110kmh in fifth gear. We bought the car as the demonstrator proved to us the car was one of the quietest on the market, and the car spends most of its time on the highway. In our car, however, there is this strange low frequency vibration that makes the car sound like it is an airliner, the rumbling is quite bad. It is only in fifth gear. To test it, bring the car up to 100-110kmh in fourth, you only hear tire noise, engine noise, wind noise, etc, obviously. Then with the clutch in, or in neutral, it is still quiet, but as soon as you engage fifth and there is a load on the gearbox, for example with the foot down to maintain the speed, the rumbling is instantly there. It does not go away with an increase of speed (well, as fast as we were game to go to 130kmh). It used to, but after (the original dealership) played around with it, it does not go away at all.
We have been given such a run around from (the original dealership) that we are unsure of what they did to the car in the end, but they must have been close to the problem, as they managed to make it worse. We believe they played with the weights on the tail shaft, but other than that, I could not make heads or tails of what they fed us.
We feel like we have been given such a run around from them, even their service department has been frustrated. My parents have been ready to sell the car out of frustration, so I am hoping that you can assist us with this problem and not give us the same treatment we have been the recipients of at (the original dealership).
Regards,
Zantetsuken (ok, real name removed LOL)
----------- Letter Two -----------
To whom it may concern:
I am writing this letter as a token of my immense appreciation at the level and quality of service that was shown to me during a very frustrating time in my family’s relationship with Ford.
Attached is the letter that I submitted with the car when it was left here to chase down some problems we were having, and had no luck previously with the dealership it was purchased at. While I won’t repeat everything detailed in the letter about our experiences, I am extremely happy to say I was not once again left in the cold, thanks to two people in particular at your dealership service department.
First of all, I was introduced to (name removed), who has impressed my right from the beginning. He sat down with me, read the letter, asking questions to help him get a better understanding of our problems, then proceeded to outline how they were going to fix the problems. His level of knowledge far exceeded anyone else I had previously encountered, and made me feel confident that he knew what he was doing. I was more than happy to leave the car in his capable hands. Never did I feel like I was being a inconvenience, although I know the service department is always busy.
(name removed) took over the job when (name removed) left for his holidays, and I was impressed that the same level of knowledge and customer service was maintained.
Our family appreciates the work that has gone into the car to remove the problems, which at the time were very frustrating. I bought my Focus through your dealership and it always get serviced here, and will continue to do so, as I know I can be assured of excellent service. I have also recommended your dealership to a good friend who is in the process of buying a new Fiesta through you also.
Thank you for your time, I look forward to future purchases and servicings with your dealership. Be proud of your service department, as I am always finding good service is getting harder and harder to find. I have passed on my appreciation to the people involved as well.
Kind regards,
Zantetsuken
----------- End of Letter -----------
At the moment, the car is still at my Ford dealership, as after they had solved the vibration problem and surging issue, a seal in the engine let go and drained all the oil from it. They are not sure if it's the sump or rear main seal yet, due to the large amount of oil that went everywhere, but the engine has to come out for some trouble shooting. While it means another couple of days delayed (thanks mostly due to the four day weekend), at least I feel confident the car is in the right hands.
I sincerely hope this is the last of the problems we have with this car! The car is great in all other aspects, I just hope the continuing reliability of the car improves on our experiences so far.
Thanks if you read all this.
Cheers... Tim
http://www.eurofordclub.com/
Ours only got sorted once I changed dealerships, the old one was bloody hopeless.
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