I picked up the truck last Thursday and turned in that fabulous Dodge ram rental. They had a "flight recorder" hooked to the truck. It ran great Thurs night, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and then on Monday a cold front came through and Monday morning at around 11:00 am it started the same old ***** again. I got all four recordings on the flight recorder within a few city blocks and promptly went to the dealer. They told me to bring it in the following day, Tuesday, to check it out. I went back Tuesday morning at around 9:00am and my service writer was no where to be found, I stood around like a dumbass for 15 minutes and was completely ignored by everyone else. I left extremely pissed off. I tried to call the dealership several times and I kept getting transferred and hung up on, apparantly their new phone system still does not work right. I went back Tuesday afternoon and told the service writer to get that f*#king flight recorder out of the truck so I could drive it down a boat ramp. He said, is it that bad. I said Yes, it is, it just sucks to pay $30,000 for a truck that does not run right only to have to deal with incompetent dealerships. I told him that they won't find anything on the flight recorder, if I leave it they won't do anything. I don't feel like driving a rental car for a week again. They truck still has surges, it still stalls out, and the window is banging around inside the drivers door again. It was warm out today (Wednesday) and it knocked like crazy all day long.

The problem with my truck is electrical. It has a bad ground or loose wire somewhere. It does not do it all of the time. The dealer does a good job of making me feel nuts when they can't find the problem or they say "We know something is wrong but we can't tell you what it is". A simple electrical gremlin is gonna be the reason this truck is lemon lawed. What a shame. the truck ran really good for a few days in a row and just like somebody flipped a switch, it started running like crap again. I am sure they could fix the window if they would do more than spray grease on it. The window fix lasted about one month, it sounds exactly like a loose marble was dropped inside the door.

I can't take it anymore, I never had a problem with my Rangers, my 99 F-150, or even my 98 that I bought used with a bent frame (unbeknownst to me). NO one should have to tolerate this. I have been patient until now. I am starting the lemon law process tomorrow. This will take a few months I am sure. IN the meantime, I have my trusty 00 E-150 cargo van with the same engine that purrs like a kitten.

Sorry to keep ranting about this, I am as shocked as I am pissed and my wife has no sympathy for Ford after her POS Explorer and the mistake she made buying a Taurus. She is overjoyed with her Highlander and I think it is a disgrace that people run to buy Toyotas and Hondas but I understand it now. There are a lot of things about the Tundra that I hate but if I have to buy one to stay calm and out of a service department, then that is what I will do.

My dilemna ensues.......

 

Dang man! Sorry about the problems with your truck, I would be going to court, too! Good luck with how everything turns out!

 

the best advise i have is to stay on them about the issues. my girlfreinds mom was having problems that were not being fixed by gm and she went threw the whole thing you are. dont let them try to push your case to the back burner, and dont give up, i you want a new truck then dont stop until you have it. they try to frustrate you into just selling the truck so someone else will deal with it. good luck

 

seacrow: sorry to hear about your truck.
if your are serious about the lemon law, don't hesitate. DO NOT let the dealer know you are doing it though. they will screw up your paper work intentionally so that if it were to go to court it would look iffy. they did it to mine but too late i already had 'em. (different brand)
find a lawyer who specializes in lemon law, not your reg atty. don't try to do it alone you will end up wasting time and going to the atty later. the co. won't even talk to you they will try to send you off on a wild goose chase of papers. atty fees are usually paid by the car manuf. if it takes more then 30 days.
keep reords of service trips, rental cars, and days without your truck.
you will get charged for mileage on your truck up until the first trip to the shop.
the good news is that 95% of the time in an actual lemon law case, ford settles out of court. going to court costs them much more. mine took approx. 4 months to complete.
good luck.

 

I am surprised that they are making you go through all of this. I had similar problems with a 2000 Taurus and I called Ford and complained and then talked to my sevice manager, who knew me by name (I was in there so much), and finally wrote a letter to Ford and CC'd the Area Rep, owner of the dealership I bought it from, the dealership customer service manager, the ervice manager, and the 4 service writers I had dealt with in my 8-9 trips into the dealership for problems. Anyway to make a long story short 3-4 days later the Area Rep called me and offered to replace the vehicle through Ford. They only asked me to choose a new vehicle of equal or greater value to the Taurus SES and I ended up choosing my beautiful F150.

The way Ford treated me totally renewed my faith in a company I had about given up hope on; and the vehicle I now drive has cemented me as a future Ford consumer.

I hope that in your case they come around and treat you as well as they treated me, and that everything works out for you!

Good luck to you seacrow!

 

I talked to the customer relations director today. I was very nice to her and she was very nice and cooperative with me. She listened to the whole story start to finish. She talked to the service writer who assured her that they would find out what is on the flight recorder. She said she would get to the bottom of whats up with my truck.

She called later this afternoon and said that the technican found a problem with the transmission via the flight recorder. the transmission man is gonna look at it closer tomorrow.

I also drove my van about 100 miles today. It is a 2000 4.6 and it runs like a champ. You could **** in the gas tank and it wouldn't phase it a bit. It idles perfect, accelerates smoothly, never knocks or stalls, and has never exhibited any of these problems. I'd rather the van run like crap and the van run like the truck.

 

Before you throw in the towel, try another dealership, all technicians are not created equal......

 

SEACROW - Man you sure had your probs. - First the Captains chairs - in the old bus, now this.

Take the Valk. out for a cruise man - bike week in a couple - chill out.

GOOD LUCK with yer truck

rr

 

roadrunner,

You're Right! I am riding today. Overall, I am chilled. I just want them to make progress in one direction or another. I don't care if they put a new transmission in it as long as they make some progress. It seems like they can't fix anything unless it is hooked to a computer.

 

I feel so bad for you seacrow! Seems like you have more patience than I would have had!
I hope they resolve this as quickly as possible for you & that you're compensated somehow! Good luck - keep us posted!

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles. The guys who built my truck must have been having a good day, hardly any trouble at all in 70,000 miles. Hope you get one like mine if they can't fix it for you.,,,,,98

 

So Seacrow, hard to believe you are chilled when the thread you started has a subject line that includes "War"... Good Luck to you....

 

I got another voicemail from the service writer.

"Hello Jason, this is $$%^^% with #$%^& Ford. The technician is still downloading the PINS, UH.....PIDS, UH.....PEGS, from the flight recorder. Anyway, we should have some more information on it tomorrow. If you have any questions give me a call"

The bottom line is that they DON"T know what is wrong with my truck. And as many of you have said, they are trying to frustrate me into buying something else. OHHHH NOOO, I fell for that buyback assistance crap on the Explorer. They are gonna fix this truck or they are gonna own it again. I am calling an attorney tomorrow. That message was left on Friday and I never recieved any phone calls from them on Saturday. Which was the "tomorrow" they referred to in the message.

NOt only is this a war with Ford, it is a war with myself. I want the truck to run great, I want to be able to overlook small problems, I want to feel good about my purchase. Everytime I think the truck may have just fixed itself somehow, it stalls when I am backing out of a parking space. It stalled again today and the idle never went above 550rpm. The window banged around in the door more than it ever has. I got frustrated and floored it once and it wouldn't downshift from third gear. It is becoming undriveable. And more unbelievable every day.

 

Hmmmmm. Wouldn't downshift. That tells me its a bad computer. I don't see why they dont just swap it out with a new one. Hope everything works out for you.

 

The reason the probably won't is due to Ford protocols (note I said Ford and not Dealership). Put yourself in the dealers position, the warranty work is covered if they abide by the Ford warranty procedure, which I would guess cover costs for replacing parts and labor that have been identified as bad.

The dealer no longer can do warranty work haphazardly.

What I mean is the dealer cannot just go through replacing parts hoping that eventually they will find the part. If they do and they get audited and do not have the proper documentation, not only will Ford not re-imburse them for the warranty work, but then have the opportunity to audit all the books for the past 6 months looking for discrepancies.

Now, if you were the dealer, would you replace a $1000 dollar part that you had no technical identification of a problem existing in the hope that it fixes the problem? Okay, how many times would you (as the dealer) have to get stuck with the bill and open yourself up to an extensive audit before you stopped doing it?

As I said before, a battle with Ford is no fun, try another dealer first, all technicians are not created equal. If another cannot isolate/identify the problem, then you have additional information to supply to Ford.

Good Luck... I hope someone can find the problem with your truck Seacrow... I am very fortunat, my best friend is the GM of a dealership, so anytime I need service, it is more frustrating for him than me.....
It frustrates the heck outta him just because I need to have service....