All,

I hope to resign as member of the vibe tribe within the next 30 days or so. I received my DBS letter in the mail yesterday and the DSB awarded me a complete buy back because of the unrepairable vibration issue that I'm having my my truck.

One word of advise to those that will need to go though with a dispute to the DSB. Go though each step of the driveline vibration TSB and work with your dealer to resolve the issue. Make sure you document, document, document everything!!! The DSB does review your initial documentation. Make sure your dealer agrees with your concerns and is on your side, because a dealer could actually work against you. They too have to send in paperwork to the DSB in regards to your issue.

When sending documentation to the DSB make sure it's complete and be prepared for a 10 minute in person or conference call to address any new concerns. If you have nothing new to address, make sure you touch on the high points of your documentation. Be polite and professional. Be sure to start out by thanking the board for their time. They are volunteer's for the most part.

The DSB experience for me was very positive. They are very helpful people and they do understand your concerns.

Ron

 

Congrats on the victory

Look forward to seeing your new rig once you get it. Are you going with a 2005 model?

 

It's nice to finally read a success story, congrats. Have fun picking out a new one.

 

how will the refund work do you get all of your money "what you paid for the truck" or is it prorated based on miles ect..?? I've turned my papers in and i'm waiting on a response.

 

I'll probably get an 2005 model. I'm looking to replace my truck with another FX4 or possibly upgrade to a Lariat. I have to see how the monthly payments work out.

From what I understand from the letter they are buying the whole truck back based on MSRP. If I want to upgrade that would be something I'm responsible for. There are some stipulations which are not too good. They won't allow me to use any current rebates. I don't no if that includes and kind of X-Plan. They do allow me to take Ford Credit financing at it's current interest rate.

I have some questions that need to be answered such as the mileage and the buy back plan in general. They gave me a DSB contact person and number that I can call to ask questions. The letter was not to clear as to how the whole process works. I have to send in the accept or reject letter with some additional paperwork within 14 days. After that the whole rewards program should close within 30 days and that includes me driving away with a new truck.

Ron

 

Are the DSB folks actually Ford Employee's or is it actually run by a 3rd party that Ford uses?

 

According to the paperwork the DSB sent out there are four upaid volunteers. The board is recruited and selected by an independant consulting firm. In short there are three Consumer Representatives and a Ford or Lincoln-Mercury representative. One of the consumer representatives has a technical background and expertise in motor vehicles. The Ford representative is chosen from Ford Lincoln-Mercury dealership managment, recognized for thier business leadership qualities.

The DSB seems like it has a good overall structure. I was impressed.

Ron

 

This Tuesday I'm taking my '04 back in for a 3rd try to fix the vibe. 1st time they road forced balanced the tires. 2nd time they did the same but this time they found a bad tire (funny they didn't find it the 1st time). I hope the 3rd time is a charm but I'm not holding my breath. I live in FL so I have been looking at our lemon law and wondered what the "buy back" would be. Here is a formula I have found in the Florida lemon law...


"Reasonable offset for use" means the number of miles attributable to a consumer up to the date of a settlement agreement or arbitration hearing, whichever occurs first, multiplied by the purchase price of the vehicle and divided by 120,000, except in the case of a recreational vehicle, in which event it shall be divided by 60,000.

My interpretation is that if you paid $30,000 and have 5,000 miles the formula is $30,000 x 5000 divided by 120,000. You get your sales tax back also.

I'm not sure if I interpreted that correctly or if it's similar in other states.

 

mjninke could probably chime in here... I know he recently went through the entire DSB process and has since gotten a new F150.

 

I don't have all the answers just yet on the buy back. I know there is MSRP, mileage, and sales tax included but don't know what it all means. I have a call into the DSB to ask these questions so I can better understand the plan.

It states that I can't use any current rebates; howeve an X-Plan really isn't a Ford rebate. I don't even know if I can use my X-Plan on this vehicle.

Ron

 

Congratulations Ron
Take the buy back money. There are a lot of restrictions on a replacement of a new or used truck. You will still have over 45 + days until you turn in your vibrator. After that maybe your dealer will give you a loner until you order what you want. Maybe we can start a “Buy Back Tribe” too.

 

Congrats on the buy back! I'm kind of surprised that you'd consider another F-150 though. I have an 04 Lariat without the vibe and love it. Good luck and let us know what you get.

 

PAlongbow,

Was there a rep. from Ford or your dealership present at you DSB hearing. My letter said one or both requested to be there.

Tom

 

It's always great to hear that people finally have satisfaction from Ford for their trucks that are lemons. It seems to me that taking the money would be the way to go, seems like a lot of strings attached to a a replacement.

 

The DSB is a great tool. A lemon law vehicle involves even more time and money and lawyers and trials.

I elected for a cash back option. They paid off my loan, and since my vibe. was there from the start, and I only had 3000k miles, there was no charge. But they found out I used my $2500 rebate towards paying off my 03 Explorer. I paid around $2700k on the truck in payments and a $390 Line-X bedliner so far. They ended up writing me a check for $215. I then leased another one because the lease deals on '05 F-150's right now beat buying an '04 or '05!

As far as the option PA was talking about, it's not too bad, they would do replacement of collateral. They replace the VIN on the loan and continue making payments. So if it's a year old, and you owe $25k you owe $25k on the new one. MSRP to MSRP transfer. The reason you cannot get rebates on the new one is becaues they would lose their ***. You get x-plan and rebates on the first one, meaning they (and you should) feel at the time you bought the truck you worked out the best deal possible. Thats why they don't offer plans or rebates. Actually, if you took the cash rebates first and on the second truck did the Ford financing, you could actually do pretty well. I just made a spreadsheet and found the best way to go...

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PA: You sent in the form to the DSB now. Pick your option. Then the Ford rep. will call you. From the moment the rep. calls you, Ford will try to be done in 30 days. The Ford accounting dept. will look at the buyback and your Ford rep. will call back with a amount of the check. You accept it and it is at your dealer in 7-10 days. You sign over your title and they hand you your check. They also make the check for one dollar over and you sign a paper saying that dollar pays you to forget that you had a problem and you cannot go after them for any other problems with that vehicle (which is fine since you don't have it anymore)!

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Mine is now 1 week since I got my check, but the loan is not paid off yet!

I will call them today!!!!!!!!!