If you have ever heard your dealer's service adviser, manager, technician, or whomever, give you a line that goes something like "issue you experienced was at the speed that is over local speed limit, we can not help you with issues that happened or are reproducable when over local speed limit, sorry and please come again" (or to that effect) maybe you wondered what kind of lame and deeply insulting excuse is that. If you have heard it from more than one dealer (or heard about others that heard it from their dealers etc) maybe you wondered how come they are all, like brainwashed parrots, repeating same words to weasel out of having to address your warranty claim, as if they have been trained in its use or have been handed out "Official Training Guide: Lame Excuses 101 or How to weasel out of warranty claims that are expensive to troubleshoot and repair"?

Well, I have found a proof that your instinct is right. Three days ago (Monday, 03/17/03), as my truck was in the service, I have called Ford Customer Service asking them to get involved and help service with problem (shop foreman believes that I have a valid issue based on symptoms I gave him, but he is not able to find cause for it) because this is 3rd time truck is in shop for same issue, and a it is best interest of all parties to have this resolved. At that point in time conversation went something like this:

Ford: "Have you tried to reproduce problem by taking ride with service adviser?"

Me: "Yes, I went to drive with shop foreman, but we could not do it right because it is best felt at approximately 75mph, and at that time of day freeway was congested."

Ford: "So you took a drive with adviser and you were not able to reproduce the issue?"

Me: "We drove around the block at 35-40mph. How we can reproduce issue that is best felt at 75mph by driving 35-40mph?"

Ford: "We can not work on reproducing issues that happen above local speed limit. We suggest that you don't drive over the speed limit."

Me: "I don't see anywhere in your Warranty Guide a single word that says your warranty and my rights from it are limited based on local speed laws."

There was more to it, but to make long story short, there you have it. This is Ford's official mantra. Ford doesn't want to do anything if you experience issues when driving over local speed limit. Forget warranties on Cobras, Mustangs, Lightnings, Harley-Davidson's, whatever. If you naively believe, when you look at dashboard of vehicle in Ford dealership showroom, that warranty covers whole range of specs Ford is bragging with while selling that vehicle to you, then you are wrong. Once money exchanges hands Ford washes their hands and plays dumb by claiming they are interested in only what happens under local speed limit for our own good. When was the last time you saw Ford vehicle that has 55mph, 65mph, whatever is your local speed limit, as maximum speed specs? That's right, even 1908 T-model was very close to that with 45mph.

So, ladies and gentlemen, here is an idea what to do when Ford gives you such a runaround: Maybe you should just take your truck to dealership in one of states that don't have speed limit and ask them to reproduce it. I wonder what kind of excuse we would get then. It would be fun to see what is in "Lame Excuses 102: Advanced Edition of How to ignore them pesky customers that have nothing better to do than bother us with their warranty claims".

By the way, Ford, if you are reading this, I hope person I spoke with this time doesn't match average personality profile of majority of employees in your so-called "Customer Service". Being spoken to in paternizing and lecturing manner, repeteadly not being given a chance to speak, etc, just adds insult to injury of not being provided any customer service. She seemed more interested in do I keep all paperwork from all service visits I had, and many other things that are not related to what I was asking from her (how I get around the town while my truck is in the shop is really none of your business), than actually to help me out.

ZoranC

 

i would do it again when you know its not gonna be busy. i would consider 75 legal out here in LA. Anything past 10 over the limit is a no no but below that i think its fair game. Whats your problem anyway?

 

I would, but dealership and Ford wouldn't. For them its 55, period. I understand why they would be concerned (insurance, liability, etc), but if they want it reproduced but don't want to get into a truck that it is not my problem. They can not have their cake and eat it too. I offered to customer service to reproduce it, they turned that down, but then they said "because it was not reproduced we don't see your vehicle having a problem, so we don't see anything we need to get involved in, have a nice day". Way I see it is this results in Catch-22 created by them. Making request that is impossible to satisfy (reproduce issue that is obvious when driving at 75mph by driving at less than 55mph) and rejecting my offer to do it under conditions in which it is possible results in deadlock. Party that stalled effort by making such request is one that benefits out of it, because until solution for impossible is found (which is never) they don't have to do anything (spend any money). I just don't buy into that. Ignoring the problem will not make it go away.

Too many to repeat here. You can find mor if you search on threads I have started.

ZoranC

 

Before the Lightning,
I had a 96 Lazer Red Cobra Convertible
Got to love a red line
THAT STARTS AT 6900 RPM

Any way,
We all know Cobra's were know for 2nd gear problems.
When mine was fairly new it would ever so slightly grind going into second, BUT ONLY AT WOT POWER SHIFTS
Needless to say this was not easy proving to Ford, just like above they would take it for a ride and find nothing wrong.
They'd say "The Tranny is fine, no grinding at all"
I keep explaining how it only did it under full throttle and it needs to be taken apart and repaired, they even tried the "Oh we adjusted the clutch, give it a try" (there is no adjustment)
So I left pissed off all *** hell and deided to come back when the Salesman that sold me the car would be there. In the mean time a few nights later I'm showing my Brother how awesome it handles while taking full 90 degree turns into streets at full cruzing speed. We 360'd a couple of times (not easy in a Cobra)
but man oh man do they handle turns.
Anyway one of the Eagle's let loose on a turn and we dam near got killed that Friday night.

So Saturday afternoon I storm in there with my spare on screaming and yelling at Dave (my salesman) on how this Cobra is a POS and 2nd gear is shot and they won't fix it, and the tire let loose and I almost got killed , bla bla bla..... of course the place was packed with possible buyers at the time I went on to explain it only does it at WOT but the bastards won't check it at WOT so they won't fix it. He calms me down, tells me he'll give me a new Eagle, I insisted on two AND GOT THEM and said to leave the car a few hours and come back.

When I got back I had the new Eagle's on it and he even detailed the car for me, he also went up to the Mngr in front of me and told him 2nd gear "is shot" and it grinded on him when he was going to and from their detail shop a few miles down the road.
Needless to say, they overnighted the parts, I dropped off my car a few days later and got it back by lunch time, BETTER THAN NEW
Kept it 2 years after that without a single other problem.

GO TO THE SALESMAN THAT SOLD YOU THE L AND RAISE HELL
Do it while plenty of customers are in the Showroom, they will want to shut you up quickly, believe me. Don't bother with the a$$holes in the Service Department. Deal with the SHOWROOM and your Salesman

 

As they say "been there, done that". They don't give a damn. Said both to dealership that sold it and Ford itself that if they continue like this I will be forced to file Lemon Law lawsuit. I was told "oh well".

In any case, goal of this post was not to complain about my particular situation. Goal was/is to show that "can't help you if it was over speed limit" is not an excuse limited to particular dealer service, but practice used by Ford themselves too, and that one could venture to conclude that if that's how Ford talks (down) to customers dealerships just follow Ford's example.

ZoranC

 

It must be a 'tire-speed' problem not a 'rpm-speed'; otherwise, you could dupilcare it in a lower gear at the 'problem' rpm? Right? Good luck in any case .

Dan

 

Correct.

 

A good way around this is to tell them the problem occurs at "highway" speeds. They know what you are talking about and hopefully it should get fixed.

Hope this helps

 

What if you say you went to the track to test out Fords 1\4 time in the truck when you noticed the issue. There is no speed limit on a track and you can definatley get above 75 on a 1\4 mile track without beating on it.

 

Once you get out of the Phoenix metro area the legal freeway limit is 75 and traffic flow is 80 to 85 mph. I want to be able to operate my vehicles safely especially when the big rigs have the same speed limit.

 

I would go back and get that service guy in with me and drive until I found an open stretch of road and the go 75mph and demonstrate the problem. Then on the way back I would show him what the top speed is.

 

Yeah, I was gonna say speedlimit in South Dakota highways is 75 too.

Dan

 

Said both to dealership that sold it and Ford itself that if they continue like this I will be forced to file Lemon Law lawsuit.

I'm not sure, but isn't the lemon law for identical "repairs" three times. Just bringing it in 3 times for the same alleged problem and no problem found I wouldn't think would qualify for the lemon law. Drive the truck yourself, with a service advisor or a mechanic and see if you can duplicate the problem. Does it happen all the time at 75mph? Ford is just being politically correct in saying they can't allow their service people to take a vehicle above the posted freeway speed limit. The dealership should be able to help you with this one though. If not, find another dealer. By the way, you never stated what the problem was or if the dealer tried to find the problem by driving over 75mph. Good luck in getting it taken care of.

 

My '01 Lightning vibrated bad at 90 mph. I took it to the dealer a few times. They said they couldn't test the vehicle above the speed limit. I have a'02 excursion and it vibrates at 85+ mph. I should have learned my lesson with the Lightning.

 

Yeah, technically Ford has to give you the "Legal" answer...you can't expect otherwise or they would be condoning you breaking the law.

That said, try a different dealer. Some are cooler than others, but I have run into this prob before and yes it is a PIA. Tell them the prob happened in Montana (where the speed limit is legal) or something, and you are not satisfied.

This kinda stuff really sucks.