Complaint Review: Koons College Park & Ford Motor Company - College Park Maryland

I also have a 2001 Ford Focus. Unfortunately, when we purchased it, it was still at a high selling price and we pay a 12.9% intrest. So imagine the surprise we had when we started having problems. We purchased our Focus from the Waldorf Ford and Dodge. About 5 to 6 months of owning the car, we started having the werdiest problems accorring, at first my husband and I thought that maybe it was our imagination. You see, we would be driving down the road and all of a suden, the car would lose power and start bucking real bad. A few times it would not start or would stall. We originally brought this to the service departments attention in March of 2001. They said they looked the vehicle over and could not find anything wrong. So we took our car back and again it was doing the same things, it also had been making loud noises when the breaks were used, the radio was a piece of crap, and a bunch of miscellaneous problems. Note that we hardly drove the car, everything we need and do are local, so at this time now, we just reached 15000 miles.With all the times we had to bring the vehicle in, it was there over 45 days. We sent a certified letter to Fords main office, they signed for it and ignored it. To date they say they never got it, even though we have the signed recite. We went round and round with Ford, same as above with Ford saying contact the Dealership then the dealership saying contact Ford, etc. Eventually we were told not to bring our vehicle back to Waldorf Ford. We had to deal with the rudest, most obnoxious, and incompitent employees I've ever seen. There were time's I was even cursed at. When I called Ford again, the man was real nice and told me that they can't do that. (DAH?) Then he puts me on hold, comes back 15 minutes later and says, yell, they can do that, and I'm told that you can not bring your vehicle to any Ford for these illeged problems. I was dumb founded, I have a contract with a warranty and maintence free plan, that I PAY for. Eventually I went to the Attorney General of Maryland. The Division that takes the complaints for Lemon Laws was just as incompetient. They asked to fill the complaint forms out, send them a copy of the certified letter and recite, all service order forms, etc. We did that. To date I have never heard from them. I called many times and sent e-mails many times, and each time was told that they would have to find out who was working on my case and have that person get back to me. We got tired of all the run around and even tried to trade the car into another dealership. Every dealership we went to didn't want anything to do with a Focus. Unbelievable. We got stuck with this car that we are paying a furtune for and no one wants to do anything or take it. Ford still says that there isn't anything wrong with the Focus. Funny though, the radio problems, they were to replace at at one of the visits and didn't. In turn, my husband was coming home and couldn't turn the radio down or off (this was one of the problems), he got a ticket for the radio. Ford refuses to take care of it so we paid the ticket. I just took the vehicle in for it's 15000 mile maintanence. My car left with several scratches that weren't there before and apparently, someone dropped a tool on the hood (indinting it) and never said anything. We've left several messages for the service manager to call us, but again as before, nothing. Eventually I will see to it that Ford reinburses us for this car. A car that is a danger to one's family isn't a good car.

Since I originally filed this complaint against Koons College Park, I took the situation to arbitration. The outcome of this was that the car was a lemon and should be replaced, but part of the deal was that I had to purchase another ford product. I did. I got a 2002 Ford Escape. During this whole time of trying to get this deal done, Koons ford would do everything to make the deal harder and more complicated. Ford Motor Company wasn't very helpful either. They wouldn't answer my questions and would send me to Koons, Koons would send me to Ford. During the final deal, my boyfriend was with me asking questions and the person handling the deal, wasn't sure of what he was doing. He got upset when asked questions. It is not known if it was because he wasn't sure of what he was doing or felt that questions shouldn't be asked.

This email is a rebuttal to RipOff #5143.
It was sent by John Oros at [email protected].

Koons College Park Ford & Ford motor company - new car stalls out & they won't do anything! *UPDATE (#5143)

They filed the following rebuttal to the above Rip-Off Report:

Their email: [email protected]
Their name: John Oros
Their phone number: 410-923-3525
Their relationship to the company: Consumer Suggestion

Rebuttal:
I'm with 42yrs. experience with FMC and work as an Electronics
driveability specialist at Koons Ford of Balt. I have personally worked on this complaint with Focus and dicovered fuel pump concerns intermittenly causing the car to stall, no start after hot soak and the less known cause of the negative battery cable pass through resistance very weak causing under 10.5 volt supply supply to the electronic module. This shuts down the Module which in turn shuts down the electronics. These two items must
be replaced cause you can't find fault with them unless it's happening at the time the mechanic is diagnosing the exact items I mentioned. If the resistance of the negative battery cable is above 5 ohmns you have confirmed the fault.

NOTE: There isn't enough field report fixes to make the dealers aware of this concern. You know your lawyer, doctor, etc., try
getting to know the (tech) who works on your car for a change. You spend more money with him than the above.

FMC gets field reports from there mechanics then they find the fixes. Don't give up and try the approach I suggest and if they don't care bring it to Koons Ford of Balt. and ask for me.

Subj: bad focus up date this to #5143
Date: 5/29/01 1:07:12 PM US Mountain Standard Time
To: [email protected]

I purchased a 2000 ford focus on March 31, 2000. It ran really good for a few months. After about 6 months, I started having problems with it. It started with the driver's side door leaking water. The dealer found a leak at the bottom of the door, but the leak I noticed was at the top of the door.

It then had the engine light come on. When this occurred, I called the dealer and he advised me to have the car towed as it could cause damage to the car if driven. The dealer had the car for about a week to fix the problem.

After I got the car back, it started stalling out. It stalled out with various amounts of gas in the tank. I took the car back to the dealer. It sat there for about 2 weeks. AT this time, I was getting frustrated about what has been happening with the car and told the dealer I didn't want the car back. Koons ford "repurchased" the car and got me another focus.

The second focus was picked up October 12, 2000. I was so happy that I was getting a car that was supposed to be running like it should. That dream was very short lived.

On October 17, 2000, the car was towed to the dealer from my place of employment because the car started stalling out. This occurred at 7:42 am while driving to work. I got the car back October 25, 2000.

On October 27, 2000 at 5:42 pm, the car stalled out again on a major freeway in the Washington DC area. I called the dealer and told him what happened. He instructed me to bring the car into service. I drove the car to the dealer. I was not far from the dealer when it stalled out. I got the car back Novebmer 7, 2000.

On November 2, 2000, I spoke with the assistant general manager at Koons Ford at College Park. His name is Anton Saba. He told me he would get me my money back and purchase the car. Mr. Saba acted as though he understood what problems this car has been causing me. After meeting with Mr. Saba regarding the car, I felt as though that this dealer may actually care about their customers. I WAS WRONG!!!!

I called Ford Motor credit regarding what the procedure is for the dealer to buy back a car could take. On November 7, 2000, is when I spoke with Ford Motor Credit. I spoke with Chris, who is supposed to be a local representative of Ford Motor Credit. I explained to him what was happening. He called the dealer
regarding this issue. Supposedly the dealer told him that they are in the process of buying the car back and they were in the process of putting the paper work together.

There was a meeting scheduled to meet with Mr. Saba on November 7, 2000 to pick up my "check" from Koons Ford. At this meeting, Mr. Saba was present
along with Ramzy Handal, the service manager.

At 6:15pm on November 7, 2000, I met with Ramzy Handal and Anton Saba as scheduled regarding the repurchase of my car. AT this meeting, Mr. Saba informed me "it's your car, your problem, you deal with it." He had also told me that not one of his customers had complained about the focus. I told him I'm a customer and I'm complaining. Mr. Saba then told me I just
called him a liar. At this point, Mr. Saba told Mr. Handal that he is done dealing with this issue and had to sell cars. Also at this time, I found out there were other focus car sitting on the lot that had problems with stalling out.

On November 9, 2000, at 7:20am, while on the major freeway in Washington DC, the car stalled out. I found this out when I tried to move the and it rolled back into another car. I then called the dealer and spoke with Ramzy Handal. I told him the car stalled out and hit another car. He told me to bring the car back to the dealership and they would look at it.

I got the car back November 13, 2000. Ramzy Handal, the service manager told me that if the car stalls out again to take it to a different dealership to see if they could fix the problem.

On January 3, 2001, I took the car to the dealership because it was stalling out. I got the car back on January 4, 2001. The dealership didn't do anything because according to them, nothing is wrong with the car.

On February 13, 2001, the car stalled out on the way to work. It was towed to the dealer. I spoke with Ian Furgeson regarding the car. On February 15, 2000, I spoke with Ramzy Handal about what is happening with the car. He said they couldn't find anything wrong with the car but ford suggested a few things and they were going to try it.

On February 16, 2001, I spoke with Ian about the car. He said they found some wires loose along with a few other things wrong with the car. He said that I should have my car back Monday. I asked if he could put it in writiung that something was found wrong with the car. Ian said it would be on the ticket.

February 23, 2001, the car acted as thought it wouldn't start. It started but made a noise then died. An appt was scheduled for the next day. I spoke with Brady about the car. He bitched me out for a survey I sent in saying that the people at koons ford didn't know what was happening with the car and wasn't very helpful about getting the car fixed. Brady also told me
that I shouldn't send in a survey like that.

On February 27, 2001, I spoke with Ramzy Handal about the ford focus. He was contacted by the ford representative about the car. This was after I sent in a letter stating the problems I have had with the car and that I was going to file papers to have the car declared a lemon. At this time, Ramzy said he would recommend ford buying the car back because of the problems I have had.

April 3, 2001, the car stalled out again at 5:13 pm and it was towed to Koons Ford in College Park MD. The car was to be looked at by the Ford Representative. At this time, I asked Ian to have Ramzy call me. This time, Lee, the shop manager said he had an idea of what was wrong with the car as he had seen this before. They kept the car an extra day so Lee could look at the car. He told me the next day that what he suspected as being
wrong was wrong. Both Ramzy and Lee said they were almost 100% positive that they found the problem with the car.

April 14, 2001, the car stalled out again. This time, it stalled out twice. On April 16, 2001, I informed Ramzy Handal about this. He said it may have been a little low on gas that caused it. I explained to him that one time it stalled out, the tank was full. Ramzy said to drive the car a few days.

A few days later, on May 10, 2001, the car stalled out again on the major freeway in Washington DC area. I took the car to the dealer and spoke with Lee. He hooked the car up to the computer and he couldn't get the car to code. He said he would talk to Ramzy in the morning and to bring the car back the next night.

The next day, I spoke with Ramzy about the car. He said they wouldn't be able to get to the car until Monday or Tuesday of the next week.

I called Ford Customer Assistance and spoke with Clinton about what has been happening with the car. I told him that I really don't want the car because of all the problems. Clinton then advised me they really couldn't do anything about the car because it is a sales issue and I would have to talk to the sales manager about the car. I explained that I have tried that, but the dealership keeps sending me back to Ford.

On May 26, 2001, the car stalled out again twice. I called Koons ford and spoke with Ramzy Handal. I explained to him that I had the car less than 24 hours and it was not working. He said to bring the car back May 29, 2001 after work.

I spoke with Mr. Davie, the general manager regarding this problem. We were to meet this evening about what has been happening and he backed out saying that I am a disgruntled customer who just wants to get out of the deal. I have NEVER said anything about not wanting the car, not liking the car or
anything else regarding the car with the exception that the car keeps stalling out. It is a nice looking car and runs great when it runs, but the problem is keeping it running.