i had my lightning in for service at williams ford in berea, ohio. the truck was in for a leaky intercooler, and misc. other small things. i get the truck back and they say they must order a new intercooler and they have no idea when it will come in. they say that i can still drive the truck since they disconnected the water pump for the intercooler (full of crap? - is this badd for the truck since the supercharger is still being used?). this limits the truck to 3-4 psi on the supercharger - they say. this is enough to anger me already since i didn't pay $30,000 to drive around a lightning on half of its power. so i go outside to pick my truck up and it is completely filthy - grease, handprints, etc. then i notice that the wheel wells are completely covered with rubber ( i have never seen anything with this amount of rubber on it before - even at the track). at this point i am absolutely fuming. i go right back in to the service managers office and he verifies that the truck was beat on. his solution - he and the service writer will be the only ones to drive the truck. what good does this do me? i get home on saturday and have a message from the dealers customer service representative. i was never able to get back in touch with them. what type of action can i take against these idiots? this dealer has screwed me from the get go, and now it is time for me to finaly call them on it. please help me here since i am just a poor college kid that doesn't have the money to replace tires that some service person burned off.

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99.5 Lightning
K+N Filter
Tek-Style Tonneau Cover
93 Mustang Cobra
12.90 @ 105 mph

 

Personally, I would take the truck back to them, hand them the keys, and (if you still owe money on it) tell them that payment has stopped and that you have no interest in seeing the truck until it is in as-new condition. Including the tires.

I would be seeing red on this one. Don't get in their face. Just be stern and forceful. And walk away.

If you own it outright, call in the troops. What they have done is as good as stealing it.

Just my $0.02

------------------
2000 Red Lightning Born 3-8-00 / Delivered 3-22-00
22% Window Tint, Clear Corners, MPulse LoPro Tonneau, AIM 2" Drop Shackles

'99 Yukon Denali - Silver, Lowered 1", Borbet CW4's, 285/60R18 Toyo Proxes S/T's, Hotchkis AntiSways, Edelbrock Shocks

2000 Red Trans Am Ram Air WS6, 6 Speed - Delivered 2-15-00 - Awesome Looking Car


[This message has been edited by WHAT04 (edited 05-07-2000).]

[This message has been edited by WHAT04 (edited 05-07-2000).]

 

There was a post earlier about a dealer tech being charged with Grand Theft Auto for going out and "joy riding" in a new Lightning. It would seem to me that either the dealership approved of the beating or the tech took it without their permission. Talk to a lawyer and make them give you a new 2000 L.

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2000 Black Lightning, Snuglid,Custom Bed Carpet,Clear Corners,Lightning banner, Tinted Windows
delivered Apr 6. NLOC #377

 

i won't be able to give you any advice as far as legality goes, but all i can say is that i go to bob gillingham in parma and have never had a problem with them. had my truck in for work since i got into a wreck. i followed them in a friend's car, and the tech drove the truck like a gentleman. even better than i usually do.

good luck

tom

 

At the very minimum talk to the owner of the dealership about reparations, new rear tires, extended warranty on the transmission components, etc. They can afford it. If you paid sticker the dealer made at least $6k off of you and extended warranty is about $1k. If that doesn't get you anywhere talk with Owner Connection at Ford.

If it would have been me that motherfluking esshole tech would had his *** beat if I coulda got my hands on his ignorant ***.

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Red '00 Lightning,
Adopted 4/19/00,
PSP Filter,
Track time pending...

 

If it's not to late get pics of the rubber and save as much as you can when you clean it off. If all else fails go with the lawyer. They(the dealer) should be bonded for employee screwups.

------------------
Red '00 Lightning,
Adopted 4/19/00,
PSP Filter,
Track time pending...

 

I’d go directly to the owner and tell him what had transpired, and inform him that you have contacted the local area manager and you are pursuing a formal complaint.

You will not back off until a MAJOR improvement in HIS dealership shows you satisfaction. Tick tick tick, let him give you the idea that he's going to fix your truck by your specificiations.

Threaten him all the way, but politly.

You'll do just fine.

 

Go to the dealer get the service manager(and his boss). Tell him/her that you want DSB papers, and you are not going to take what they did. Also ask for the reginal man in charge(to tell him). Your owner manual I belive says something about this. Once started you will be making your payments, but not to ford. Will be going into an acount set up untill the DSB hearing makes an decision. You could post on some of the 99 cobra pages and ask what all it will take, some have been down that raod.

 

well, i would go to the dealerships owner with this. I would also ask for a complete oil analysis. in the future, carry some white spraypaint to the dealership. paint a small, discreet spot on the rear treads when you leave it with them. let them see you do it. you will know if they burn them again. also watch your odometer in and out.

 

Makes me not want to drop my truck off at the dealership on tuesday night.I swear if any one of those techs abuses my ride...heads will roll.

------------------
99.5 Lightning(white)
13.89 @ 98.1 mph
ARE LSII Tonneau w/wing
Alpine Stereo System(400 watts)
clear turn lenses/clear tail lenses
AirRaid Intake
PSP Chip(arrived)
3.73 Gears(on order)
AIM 2" Drop shackles(on order)

 

The same kind of thing happened to me I bought a 93 Mustang LX 5.0. Dropped it off for some warranty work a year or so later, since they had to take the wheels off anyways I asked them to rotate the tires. So when I came to pick up my car I wanted to check and see if they rotated the tires and I found the rear tires were almost bald and noticed alot of burnt rubber in the wheel wells. So I go to complain and was completely ignored and was told "Our employees are pros and they do not do things like that, then he tried to tell me that I was just looking to get a new set of tires". So needless to say I was not going to let this go. So the next day I was talking to my neighbor who was in between jobs and told him my story and he said he would check the place out for me, so I paid him eight bucks an hour and loaned him my camcorder to check this place out. It only took one day to get almost an hour of these so called "Pros" on video doing donuts, and power braking burnouts with other peoples cars. So I took the tape up to the General Manager and showed him the tape, what could he say he was caught. I knew I had to play my cards right because blackmail is against the law, so after he apologized and told me he would buy any set of tires I wanted I explained to him that I did not even want the car anymore. I let it slip that I hope this tape does not get into the hands of the local TV stations because I am sure this could not be good for business. I told him I would not do anything like this but this is not the only tape around, then I told him I hired a P.I. to take a look around there service department for me and that he might sell it and who knows where it could go from there. So the General Manager asked me what I wanted and I told him I wanted the dealership to buy my car from me so I could buy a new one. Then mentioned that I had my eye on that new black Mustang GT on the sales floor. So after all was said and done the dealership bought my Mustang and all the payments that I made were rolled over to the new Mustang and I financed the car at 0% for 60 months!

[This message has been edited by InfiniteMhz (edited 05-08-2000).]

 

Brilliant Infinite! I love that idea the best.

------------------
Red '00 Lightning,
Adopted 4/19/00,
PSP Filter,
Track time pending...

 

Man....I feel for you on this one. I tell ya, you never know who you can trust at these dealerships. I took my truck to Erinwood Ford (SVT dealership) here in Ontario, Canada. They take a lot of pride in their work and I can attest to that. I got my truck back on Thursday of last week. Everything was sparkling clean under the hood and there was absolutely no tire debris in the wheelwells. I measured my tire depth before and after, just to be safe and marked my mileage. They also washed my truck and stored it inside. I was very, very impressed with their service.

All that I can say here is, follow through with this and lodge a complaint. Take pictures, etc. You know your truck and if they violated it, then they are responsible for it. There are channels that you have to go through for this, but you can be successful if you do this right. Good Luck.

Paul G.

 

Welcome to the board 93 Cobra. I'm guessing your are the guy I met at 42 a while back. Good luck with your truck, my cooler is leaking too. I'm going to Mike Bass, for lack of knowing any better place to go. Did you ever find out what build # you have?

------------------
99 Lightning black #2022, cd,tow package,bed rug,roll-n-lock, stock
(13.73 @ 99.74)
98 Cobra coupe laser red
best stock et 13.43 @ 103
one run w/ 3.55 gears 13.34 @ 102 no other mods
former Chevy fan still have a few
72 SS454 11.6 @ 116 (slicks open headers)
68 Camaro 12.2 @ 116 (street tires closed exhast)

 

Since you're from the Cleveland area, you may remember the story a couple of years ago about a guy that took his mint Porsche to Mueller Tire. The mechanic took it for a joy ride and dinged it. Mueller had to buy him a new Porsche because they devalued the car. They didn't agree to this until it hit the papers. You could threaten to go to the news "Call for Action",and maybe you can work something out. The least you should get is 2 new rear tires.