Freaking Ford Dealership. ^%$$@#@@!

[J-pitch]

Once bought a demo from BH in Edmond. Ran the battery down , when charged up radio was locked up .
took it back to dealer and were told that we had put in a lock code (not) . The only fix was remove radio
and send to California to be unlocked. Unlock charge $115 plus r&r and shipping. Stopped at dealership
in Guthrie , the service manager crawled under the dash and fixed it 15 minutes, no charge.

 

[sh00ter]

All this is common in the auto industry. Same for boats. I hate it; but I drive something older and turn as many wrenches as I can and have a small shop that makes some mistakes, but are honest that I use for things I don't want to do. Did my A/C compressor myself a few summers ago...it cost me a couple hundred bucks. I did buy a vacuum pump too if you want to count that cost but I've used it for multiple jobs so it is just another tool now.

I would be asking to see the impact leaking...most of the newer cars have the UV dye in them from the factory so if they showed you the damage and it has UV evidence visible, then fine. If just a deformity of the condenser fins, that is almost normal for most cars.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

Not to derail but somewhat related. Do you guys find extended warranties from dealers to be worth the money? I’ve found the quality of service at my dealer has deteriorated significantly the last couple of visits. I suspect they have problems hiring knowledgeable people who want to work like many other companies these days. I used an independent shop that’s been around many years the other day. His transmission fluid change service was 40% less and as far as I can tell equal or better than the dealer. His waiting area and friendliness was also much better. I’ll be using them for future visits.

I had purchased a used car with 25,000 miles on it back in 1997 (1994 TBird.) In 2000 The transmission went out at around 85,000 miles. I was offered a Warranty when I bought the car for 3 yrs, 100 K mile at a cost of $2,700 for a $15,000 car and declined coverage (boy did they try to sell it hard.) Dealerships had a month or longer wait to see the car, let a lone fix it so went to a private shop in OKC. Cost to fix, $2,100.

Bought a used Car from Carmax in 2016. A 2014 Track Pac Mustang GT with 33K miles. Was offered a $3,300 warranty and declined (3 year, 100K warranty.) In 2018 the differential went out (80k miles ) still worked but mileage was horrible and was making a rotational noise.) Cost to fix $2,200. If you have some cash in the bank and the car doesn't look all beat up when you buy it, my advice would be not to get one for most cars. Not getting the warranty and maintaining the vehicle has done well for me. The only other issue I had was a whining air conditioner/heater motor, I do not think that would have been covered under the warranty. The air and heat worked, just noisy after getting a ton of water poured on the car during a road trip. I decided to trade in the car rather than get the blower motor fixed. lived with it about a year, it wasn't all that bad.

 

[Chief Sapulpa]

All this is common in the auto industry. Same for boats.

Agreed. I have a 2 year old, dealer installed, Honda outboard (...and paid a significant premium over a Mercury but my choice) that wouldn't idle worth a crap. It never should have been delivered to me in that condtion. I had to take it back 2 more times (60 miles each way) to get it adjusted correctly. That was 150 Boat Sales in Checoata. Now they've got new owners calling themselves ToonsUSA Eufaula. I called the new service manager and asked for a quote to adjust the valves on the engine. He was clueless about what I was asking and claimed they don't ever do that. I wanted the dealer to do the work since this engine has a 5 year warranty.

 

[Roadking Larry]

All this is common in the auto industry. Same for boats. I hate it; but I drive something older and turn as many wrenches as I can and have a small shop that makes some mistakes, but are honest that I use for things I don't want to do. Did my A/C compressor myself a few summers ago...it cost me a couple hundred bucks. I did buy a vacuum pump too if you want to count that cost but I've used it for multiple jobs so it is just another tool now.

I would be asking to see the impact leaking...most of the newer cars have the UV dye in them from the factory so if they showed you the damage and it has UV evidence visible, then fine. If just a deformity of the condenser fins, that is almost normal for most cars.

I checked for the UV dye when I got it home, yup. I could actually see just a hint of color around the impact point when the tech showed it to me while it was up on the lift.

 

[Raido Free America]

I won't name the dealership...Yet.
Wife's Explorer was due for an oil change/service and her AC had just quit working. *expletive deleted*ck.
Car is still under warranty and she insisted on the extended service plan.
She scheduled the service appointment for the oil change and asked that the AC be checked out while it was in there. 2 week wait on service appointment.
Took it in yesterday for the 8:00 AM appointment. Right off the bat they had a $160 diagnostic fee for the AC on the paperwork. I commented that it was still under warranty and the service plan. Service advisor said oops my bad.
We left the car there and Went about our business. About 2:00pm I hadn't heard anything so I contacted them. I was told that they were tracing a Freon leak and might need to keep it overnight. So far no biggie. About 11:00 AM this morning I contacted them again for an update. They had found "impact damage" on the condenser, NOT covered under warranty $2200 dollars to repair, *expletive deleted*ck me!
After my initial shock I contacted my insurance agent, covered under comprehensive less deductible. so $500 vice $2200. Better but still sucks.

Went in this afternoon and brought it home since it will take a few days to get the insurance claim sorted out.

They never changed the *expletive deleted*ing oil.

We drive Jeeps, but no matter, dealerships are all different. We took our Jeep Wrangler to Jim Glover Jeep, where we had recently baught a new Grand Cherokee, for survice, and an estimate on an oil leak. The estimate on the oil leak was to high so we took it to another dealer, Crown Dodge/Jeep in Bristow. I noticed a strange slipping sensation when going around curves, before getting it serviced. The guys at Crown Maintenance, gave me a more reasonable estimate on the repairs, a oil pan gasket, as well as they found a pin hole in a transmission cooling line!! This was the NEXT day after the service a Glover Jeep. They said my transmission we as THREE QUARTS LOW ON FLUID, HENCE THE SLIPPING ON CURVES!!!! GLOVER HAD OBVIOUSLY NOT EVEN CHECKED THE TRANSMISSION FLUID LEVEL, THE DAY BEFORE!!! This is the second time the guys at Crown in Bristow, have saved me a lot of money, a news transmission in this case, this was a 2010 wrangler with no warranty!!! I my opinion they are the best, and most honest, even though they are a small dealership. Shop around for a Ford Dealer that wants your business, and takes care if his business!!!

 

[John6185]

I started using Dean’s Automotive in Del City for the “Trust” issue. Square shooter!

I used one at or near 29th and Sunnylane and they told me that my car need some work on the front end and I said go ahead and the problem within the transmission still persisted. I think the building was yellow but cannot remember the name of the business. Then another time I took a new Honda to "that Honda garage that really isn't) and they adjusted the valves and a new Honda with a few thousand miles on it began popping and sputtering until they repeated their work and then it ran ok.
At that point, I swore off of private mechanics and now take my autos to the dealer whose mechanics are supposedly trained in that particular brand. So far so good. Cost a little more but hopefully they'll stand behind their work if not done correctly.

 

[dennishoddy]

Not to derail but somewhat related. Do you guys find extended warranties from dealers to be worth the money? I’ve found the quality of service at my dealer has deteriorated significantly the last couple of visits. I suspect they have problems hiring knowledgeable people who want to work like many other companies these days. I used an independent shop that’s been around many years the other day. His transmission fluid change service was 40% less and as far as I can tell equal or better than the dealer. His waiting area and friendliness was also much better. I’ll be using them for future visits.

I'm not sure I'd buy an extended warranty from a dealership. If you do and your in an area without a dealership, you would have to pay a tow bill or wait for them to fix it.
In an earlier post I mentioned that I lost a couple of spark plug wires in Wyoming and had to limp the truck to Montana to get warranty service. It was mid July. The dealership said they could get to it sometime in September if I wanted to leave it with them. Hell NO!. Paid for the wires, installed them myself, and complained to my dealership when getting home and they reimbursed me for the wires, not labor.
I would think Auto warranties that allow service anywhere would be the way I'd go for an aftermarket warranty. Now the question is, who would that be?
We travel all over the country, some places do not have dealerships.

 

[poopah]

TIME TO FIND AN HONEST FORD DEALER. THEY WILL HONOR THE VEHICLE WARANTY AND SERVICE CONTRACT. I have owned 10 F150s since 1988 and have never encountered this crapp. however my trucks have only seen service departments 3 times in 1.2 million miles. GOD BLESS THE F150.

 

[SlugSlinger]

Jim Glover advertises on the radio that they want to hire those in tech school that are close to graduating and will train from there. That tells me they want cheap labor and still charge outrageous labor rates. Also tells me they can’t find experienced techs.

I called them for a warranty repair and they would not call me back. Melton ended up doing the warranty repair.

We drive Jeeps, but no matter, dealerships are all different. We took our Jeep Wrangler to Jim Glover Jeep, where we had recently baught a new Grand Cherokee, for survice, and an estimate on an oil leak. The estimate on the oil leak was too high so we took it to another dealer, Crown Dodge/Jeep in Bristow. I noticed a strange slipping sensation when going around curves, before getting it serviced. The guys at Crown Maintenance, gave me a more reasonable estimate on the repairs, an oil pan gasket, as well as they found a pin hole in a transmission cooling line!! This was the NEXT day after the service a Glover Jeep. They said my transmission we as THREE QUARTS LOW ON FLUID, HENCE THE SLIPPING ON CURVES!!!! GLOVER HAD OBVIOUSLY NOT EVEN CHECKED THE TRANSMISSION FLUID LEVEL, THE DAY BEFORE!!! This is the second time the guys at Crown in Bristow, have saved me a lot of money, a news transmission in this case, this was a 2010 wrangler with no warranty!!! I my opinion they are the best, and most honest, even though they are a small dealership. Shop around for a Ford Dealer that wants your business, and takes care if his business!!!