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  • Report:  #683

Complaint Review: Ford Motor Company - Nationwide

Reported By:
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Submitted:
Updated:

Ford Motor Company
Nationwide, U.S.A.
Web:
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Categories:
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good? What's this?
My husband and I had purchased a 1995 Ford Mustang Gt after leasing

it for 2 years. With the purchase we were offered an after market

warranty which we bought on Ford's recommendation. Only six

months after buying the car, we noticed a leak coming from the

radiator. We took the car into a Ford dealer in Salinas,

California where they kept the car for over a week. The car was

returned to us with a list of transmission leaks and other problems

they had fixed. When I asked about the radiator leak, they said

the radiator had been pulled and flushed and no leak was found, so

it must have been a loose hose or overflow bottle. One month

later, we were driving home late at night from a weekend at my in-

laws 3 hours away. The car overheated, stranding us on the side of

the freeway for hours. The next day we took the car into a Ford

dealer in Hollister, CA and told them the situation. They looked

at the radiator and said it had never been pulled out of the car

since the original factory marks were still present. When they

took off 4 simple bolts they could look into the radiator and

immediatly saw a hole in the bottom... the radiator was replaced

and the expenses were covered by our warranty.

One month later, I was 7 months pregnant and driving the car to the

grocery store when the thermostat suddenly jumped up to the red

area, causing the engine to seize up. I was in the middle of a

seedy neighborhood, it was 100 degrees outside (at least)and I

couldn't push the car out of the middle of the street. The guy

behind me was honking to get out of the way. I waited a couple of

minutes until the car would start then moved it to the side of the

road. I checked the coolant level in the radiator, as I had seen

my husband do before, but it was full. Luckly the Ford dealer who

had replaced the radiator was 2 blocks away. I waited for the car

to cool down and drove it there.

They took the car for a test drive to see what the problem was, of

course it overheated on them also. They said the thermostat was

probably bad, that was why the temperature didn't gradually

increase, and that the heads were probably cracked from the first

time it overheated. Our warranty wouldn't cover "overheating" so

we're stuck with a $30,000 car that needs a new engine which will

cost about $5,000 according to Ford. We called Ford Motor Company

to ask for recourse and were told there was nothing they could do,

so we sued Salinas Valley Ford for not fixing the problem,

initially. Unfortunatly, the judge was biased and we lost the

case. So now the car sits in the driveway, with no engine waiting

for us to save enough money to replace the motor. This caused us

to have to buy another car, while we are still making payments on

the Mustang. Money has become very tight with the new baby also.

Boo Ford!


1 Updates & Rebuttals

carol

oglesby,
Illinois,
lemon

#2Consumer Suggestion

Sat, May 11, 2002

I too have been ripped offf by a dealership I have recently ordered a quite large lemon for the top of my car. Once people see this it will stop their business doings and hopefully fix your car It says I have done business with thes company and then list the co on the lemon - they ake your money promise you all kind of thing to get the sale and then you find out they lied to you and the problems begin. I, too pd 30,000 for the auto they have had it 5 times and now they say well, you did purchase a used car - it is a caddy 99 they seem that we are going to eat that kind of money---wrong i am going to fight back. hop you do the same i also bought an additional warranty -not knowing that it will expire in 3 months

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