A Rant About Ford Motor Company

[OK Corgi Rancher]

And I'm not asking for much. I'm asking Ford to pick up the tow bill for the 65 mile trip to Sayre. I don't think that's unreasonable for a truck that's still under warranty. They'll only pay the first 35 miles under their Roadside Assistance program. But from the way they're responding you'd think I was asking for a kidney or something.

 

[AKguy1985]

Do you have an advance auto parts or AutoZone around where they can hook up their code reader and see what code it's throwing?

 

[PBramble]

And I'm not asking for much. I'm asking Ford to pick up the tow bill for the 65 mile trip to Sayre. I don't think that's unreasonable for a truck that's still under warranty. They'll only pay the first 35 miles under their Roadside Assistance program. But from the way they're responding you'd think I was asking for a kidney or something.

If it's already acting up and under warranty, drive the thing to within 30 miles of Sayre and pull over and call them.

 

[4play]

They advertise 35 miles, or to the nearest qualified dealer. Do you have a roadside assistance brochure or section in the owners manual? Your biggest point to make is finding or towing to the nearest dealer than can actually work on it. I would really assume your local dealer's service manager could have handled getting the truck to another dealer though, did you talk to the SM? If there is another "qualified" dealer closer then you might have to go there or pay the difference to Sayre. I've never known ford roadside to not tow to the nearest qualified dealer regardless of distance.

 

[Chief Sapulpa]

And I'm not asking for much. I'm asking Ford to pick up the tow bill for the 65 mile trip to Sayre. I don't think that's unreasonable for a truck that's still under warranty. They'll only pay the first 35 miles under their Roadside Assistance program. But from the way they're responding you'd think I was asking for a kidney or something.

No deviations from the menu Sir..."no substitutions". Reminds me of the scene in Five Easy Pieces;

 

[twotonevert]

I would check the codes it is throwing. If you have FordPass it will also tell you what it wrong. Like you I have been a Ford guy forever. I am on my 5th superduty with this F450. It was having a drive train module software corruption fault, so I took it in and Ford would not cover the cost to reprogram it. I was told my truck has been tuned, nope, purchased her brand new and it is bone stock. But either way I paid out of pocket for the tech labor to reprogram it.

 

[XYZ]

My son is a diesel mechanic. He works for a large pipeline company that buys hundreds of 3/5-1 ton service trucks and quite a few 1/2 tons. I always ask him which he recommends when I buy. I’ve bought 4 in the last 10 years for various reasons and they were all different brands, mostly because of the problems he was seeing with engine/transmissions. Chevy 1/2, Dodge 3/4, Chevy 1/2, and my current 3/4 Ford. I’m probably going to dump the Ford soon because it’s expensive and I don’t need the juice anymore. Anyway my point is they’re all cranking out crappers every couple years. Brand loyalty and customer support are becoming a thing of the past.

 

[Seadog]

I have a 2017 F250 6.7L with 21,000 miles on it. It's still under warranty. It's been a great truck as have all my other Fords going back to 1983 when I bought my first new truck.

I understand complicated machinery sometimes breaks. It happens to all brands at some point or another so no need to tell me how good your Dodge/Ram/Chevy/Toyota/Nissan is. They all have problems on occasion. My rant isn't about the truck. It's about Wilmes Ford in Altus and Ford Motor Company (corporate).

Three weeks ago the check engine light (CEL) came on and I got a notification the engine power was being de-rated. I managed to get it to Wilmes Ford. They diagnosed it as a bad turbo. It took them a week to replace a turbo. OK, whatever. I got the truck back. Seemed fine on the way home though I could definitely hear the turbo whine. I never heard that before it was replaced. The next time I drove it was to go to Granite, OK. Just north of Altus the CEL came on again. Nothing odd about how the engine performed and I made it home without incident. I went out of town for a week then drove the truck to Wilmes Ford as soon as I got home. On the way the engine was surging, stalling and hesitating. I wasn't actually sure it was going to make it there.

I brought it in late in the afternoon on Fri and told the service advisor what was wrong. He said, "We don't have a diesel tech so we can't do anything for you." I thought he meant there wasn't a diesel tech on duty at that time. No. They don't have one. At all. No diesel mechanic at a Ford dealership in the heart of farm/ranch country in Oklahoma where everyone and their dog and their cat drives a diesel truck. He offered me two options: 1) leave the truck until they hired someone and then they could fix it or, 2) talk to the service manager. Neither of those options were gonna help me out. Aside from that he simply told me there was nothing the dealership could do. The truck did the same thing on the way home.

I called the dealer in Vernon, TX. Sure...bring it in...2nd week of October. Great.

Called Doug Gray Ford in Sayre. No problem. They can fix it. Problem is the way the engine was acting I didn't think it would make it there and I didn't want to do any damage to it by driving it more. It's 65 miles from my house to Sayre.

I called Ford Roadside Assistance. They told me they would only pay for the first 35 miles if the truck needed to be towed. I called Ford Customer Relations and explained the problem. I talked to perhaps the world's dumbest person. She assured me Ford wanted to fix my truck but they couldn't help me if I was unwilling to bring it to my local dealership for service. I told her I had brought it to my local dealership and was told they couldn't help me. "Sir, you have to bring it to the dealer." FFS...I brought it to the dealer. I finally hung up out of frustration. She didn't bother to take my name, number, nothing.

I waited till Monday and called back. I did manage to get a case number for my problem. Aside from that I've gone from Customer Relations to Roadside Assistance to a supervisor and now I have to wait until the original girl who gave me a case number calls me back tomorrow. Nothing is resolved. All I want is for Ford to tow my truck the ADDITIONAL 30 miles to the dealership in Sayre. Apparently that's not an option.

I've been buying Ford trucks since my first new truck in Dec 1982...a 1983 Ranger when I was a Staff Sergeant stationed in Chandler AZ. I can't even remember how many I've bought in between. I can tell you how many I'm going to buy in the future, though. Not because I don't like them...but because of how Ford has handled this problem. I had something similar happen with a Chevy. Completely different experience when I called corporate and complained about a service I received from a dealer. My problem was resolved before I hung up the phone.

Ford corporate sucks. Wilmes Ford in Altus sucks just as bad.

I can feel what you’re going through right now. My Wife and I have Fords. Mine is getting a little long in the tooth, A 2008 F150 with almost 200,000 miles, all original and hasn’t given me any problems.

My wife on the other hand has a 2019 Ford escape with the 2.0 eco-boost. It doesn’t even have 20,000 miles on it. Right now it’s in the dealership getting a brand new engine under warranty because coolant is leaking into one of the cylinders.

Here is the kick to the nuts though. They won’t give her a loaner and they won’t get her a rental either. This sounds wrong and I think they should be obligated to give her a vehicle to drive until it’s fixed being that it is under warranty. And here is the part that sucks. Roadside assistance will give you a car if it breaks down but because we brought the car in because of an engine warning light, it never broke down, so we don’t qualify for a car rental.

It is extremely frustrating to say the least but if I was in your boots going through what my wife is going through I would just drive the truck until the damn engine burnt up. Then you would qualify for the rental vehicle. Maybe you’ll get lucky and get a loaner. Being responsible and bring it in because of a dash light notifying you that something wrong kind of screws you over

My parents, including my wife and me have been Ford people for a long time and the way the company is acting it’s not what I would’ve expected. I thought they would’ve treated customers with warrantees better.

 

[Roadking Larry]

We bought a brand spanking new 2021 Ford Explorer the 28th of June. The 29th of June it started popping codes for the driver side airbags. They couldn't get me in till the 9th of July. They diagnosed it to a defective wiring harness assembly and informed me it was "not safe to drive". It sat in the dealership waiting for a wiring harness assembly till the 2nd of August. To say I was not pleased would be an understatement.
The lack of communication and the "tuff ****" attitude I got from the service department has really soured me on the dealership.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

I like Fords, but every few years they seem to go through a cycle that engineers run the company and they produce a great vehicle, then the accountants take over...

If they would only focus on great cars/trucks instead of stock price the stock price would take care of itself.