NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/rec/autos/27188

Text File | 1992-11-18 | 14.6 KB | 269 lines

Newsgroups: rec.autos
Path: sparky!uunet!charon.amdahl.com!pacbell.com!sgiblab!ampex!davel
From: [e-mail] (Dave Larkins)
Subject: Re: Ford kicked my ass in court
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Summary: LONG.......
Sender: [e-mail] (News Poster)
Nntp-Posting-Host: mercury
Organization: Ampex Corporation, Redwood City CA
References: <[e-mail]>
Distribution: rec
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 22:04:28 GMT
Lines: 254

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
>
>I promised to let you know how my motion to compel discovery went and
>here is the somewhat sorry tale...
>

Lots of stuff deleted .......

>
>      -- Philip Greenspun
>

I have entered this discussion very late as I do not normally read this group,
but I have an ongoing gripe with Ford that I am having no sucess with. After
four years of fighting with and being insulted by various service departments,
I mailed the following letter to the VP of quality in Dearborne. This was a
couple of months ago, and I am now somewhat upset at no reply. My biggest problem
is that the car still "works" but I feel that I have lost significant value
and equity during my ownership. If anyone has suggestions for a further course
of action, they would be well received, but if nothing else please take this
as a warning before purchasing that Ford.


Re. Ford Taurus VIN ------------

Dear Mr. Benton,

    It is with regret that I am finally forced to write this letter
concerning the quality of my Ford automobile. As I and the media
watching population at large have recently and repeatedly had the
message of superior and improving quality from the Ford Motor Co., I
feel that it is important that I bring to your attention the apparent
reverse phenomena that I am experiencing with my Ford automobile.

    This sad story began in 1988 as I became the proud owner of a
new and much hailed Ford Taurus. This vehicle was purchased from
the Ford-Lincoln-Mercury dealership in Grass Valley, California.
Within the week, all post sales issues had been dealt with, such as a
few minor imperfections in the finish and the driver's door handle
never having been attached. At this time, my family and I believed
that we were embarking upon a long term and rewarding
relationship with our new vehicle.

    The first problem arose approximately three months after
purchase, with the finish. It appeared as though someone had
run the car through a sandblaster, with virtually no shine at all left
on the paintwork, and odd smeary patches abounding. This seemed a
little strange to me, as I actually used another vehicle to travel to
work, and the Ford rarely left my garage excepting for short
weekend jaunts. As I remembered that the sales staff of the
dealership had been so friendly when I met them during the
purchase of the vehicle, I didn't hesitate to return the car for
attention to the paintwork. They dutifully ran the car through a
carwash and, I believe, hand polished it, then returned it to me in
much the same condition as before. Much emphasis was placed on
the possibility that I may have tried to wax the vehicle myself, and
that this should never be done. Although this went against my
previous experiences and many published works on the issue of car
care, including the Taurus Owners Manual, I foolishly accepted their
accusations and presumed that the problem had been caused by my
staring at the vehicle too hard.

    I was unfortunately distracted from the paintwork issue by a
host of other finish quality problems that seemed to appear on a
weekly basis. The first occurrence was when I noticed that the
headliner had separated from the roof of the car, and after
admonishing my innocent children for being rowdy in the back seat,
for it was they I initially suspected of the damage, I looked further
for the cause of the problem. I inspected the plastic rivets that had
previously secured the headliner in place, and lo and behold, all the
attachment devices had disintegrated and embarrassing as it was, I
had to admit to my children that it was gravity and not they, that
was the culprit. I quickly found out that General Motors have far
superior plastic rivet technology than Ford, and to this day, the
headliner is attached with non color-coordinated plastic rivets of GM
origin. As I indicated, many other quality problems manifested
themselves, such as door trim peeling off, chrome trim decomposing,
rubber trim disintegrating etc.etc. I really had to say to myself
'Should this be expected from a car that is now one year old, with
10,000 miles and garage kept every day?'.

    Around this time, a problem occurred with the fuel level gage.
This was what I now understand to be a common defect in Ford cars
of the period, as an inability to indicate any amount of gasoline in the
tank other than "full" or "empty". As you can imagine, this could
present some challenge in ensuring that a gas station was available
within the few miles the gage changed from reading full to reading
empty. Nevertheless, the car was only eleven months old, so the
problem was repaired immediately by the dealership and I returned
to the luxury of knowing whether I should stop at a gas station or
not. Unfortunately a little over a month later, after the warranty had
transferred from new vehicle to ESP (Extended Service Plan, an
expensive option), the problem with the gas gage manifested itself
again. This time, previous problems notwithstanding, I was informed
by the service department that this subsystem was not fully covered
by the warranty and it would cost me $50 to find out whether the
defective part was a covered part. I paid the $50 and received the
expected reply that the defective part was not covered and received
blank stares when I questioned the possibility that the original
repair a little over one month previously had been defective.
Imagine my chagrin when I also found out that in the process of
diagnosing the problem, the service department had omitted to
replace half the screws attaching the vehicle dashboard to the
interior. I must point out at this time, that to claim quality, I feel that
you should demonstrate quality in all aspects of manufacture, sales
and service, and that I feel that your appointed service department
was sorely lacking in this area.

    At this point, I decided that a conversation with a management
figure within the dealership would be appropriate, so I proceeded to
arrange a meeting with and meet the VP of Sales for the
organization. I briefly explained to this individual the history of
problems with the vehicle and attempted to discuss some form of
get-well plan. The exact response of your representative was "I sell
lots of Fords, and the Taurus is one of the most popular. You should
know that some vehicles are just lemons and it looks like you bought
one. If you want to buy another car let's talk." I have to admit, that
even with my placid nature, at this time I questioned his relationship
to the human race, and was forced to leave the situation as it was. I
have since realized that I probably gravely wronged this pitiful
individual, because most of the service agents I have talked with
since this episode have referred to all Taurus of this vintage and
older as "lemons". Own up Mr. Ford, is there something you are
hiding?

    As I am definitely not the "whining" type, and as my wife tells
me, too forgiving, I let the quality issues slide, apart from returning
the continuous Ford quality questionnaire with the appropriate boxes
checked to indicate 'No I am not pleased with your quality' and ' Yes
I would like a Ford representative to call me'. I am still surprised
that I never received an answer. Are you sure Mr. Ford, that your
quality figures are not established by filing the negative comments
in the round file?.

    Eventually I was soon distracted by a far more serious problem
that arose during the first long distance drive we made in the car, a
return trip from Grass Valley CA to San Luis Obispo CA, of
approximately 1000 to 1200 miles. On the return journey I felt a
slight indifference in the steering, nothing much, but enough to
unnerve me into stopping to check the front tires, wheels and
steering. As everything seemed in order, we continued our journey
home, and I took the car to the Ford dealership the next day. I was
promptly informed that the vehicle was out of warranty and again
that problems such as alignment were not covered by the ESP
warranty plan. Still concerned about the alignment, I immediately
took the car to an independent alignment company (Firestone) for a
second opinion. It was quickly confirmed that the rear wheel
alignment was out of manufactured specification and had caused tire
damage to the point where the vehicle was extremely unsafe. Upon
extensive questioning of the service person at the alignment
company, it became apparent that the problem was caused during
manufacture and that the design of the rear wheel assembly
prohibited adjustment to bring the alignment within manufacturing
specification. The only solution to the problem was to fit an
aftermarket adjustment kit to the rear end to enable compensation
to manufacturing defects to be made. To be fair to the dealership,
they did pay for the replacement of the two rear tires that were
destroyed, but none of the cost of the adjuster kit or the lost use of
the vehicle. I often wonder whether Ford would have been liable had
the damaged tires caused an accident.

    The story continues with numerous issues such as water pump
failure, head gasket blown, A/C failure and again, more of the plastic
parts used in the vehicle just disintegrating as though they were
being attacked by some alien bacteria. Here in California there is
much emphasis placed on the fact that plastics are a severe problem
in our landfills because of their slowness to decompose, if the Ford
Motor Co. has a solution to this problem, perhaps they could report it
to the Environmental Protection Agency, rather than experimenting
with paying customers.

    At this point I would have still been prepared to say nothing
and restrict myself to never buying a Ford again if yet another
incident indicative of extremely poor all-round quality had not
occurred recently. After a routine and expensive service by Towne
Ford of Redwood City, CA, I was informed by the service agent that
the complete braking system on the vehicle was worn out and would
cost $1000 to repair. This would include rebuilding the front and
rear brakes and replacing the master cylinder. My obvious answer
was 'No problem, the vehicle is still well within the ESP warranty'
where I would expect to pay only for items such as fluid and brake
pads/shoes. Immediately this fickle service agent replied 'The brakes
are worn to the metal so the warranty is void' and backed it up with
a vacant stare defeating any further discussion. I was very puzzled
with this situation as the vehicle has always had regular service by
appointed Ford agents, and this was certainly the first indication of
any trouble. Anxious to determine the real situation with the car's
brakes, I took the car home and dismantled the necessary parts
myself. On doing this I discovered that one front brake pad was
heavily worn because it's caliper was sticking and had favoured this
pad, but neither this nor any other of the brake pads or shoes were
worn to the point of having metal touch the braking surface. The
materiel remaining on the other pads/shoes was approximately 50%
of that of new units. I do not believe this is a situation that permits
the voiding of my warranty and am getting very weary of this
incessant evasion of a warranty service that I was persuaded to pay
a large amount of cash for. At this time I fully intend to search for
other avenues of solution to the problem. Also as California is a very
litigatious state, the service agent was prompt and clear to point out
that as he had decided that the brakes were worn, Towne Ford would
accept no responsibility for any accident caused by faulty brakes.
This seems to me a very unilateral approach to determining
individual liability.

    Whilst I discuss the issues of safety and liability, may I also
bring to your attention the unusual performance of the vehicle just
yesterday whilst driving my wife and young son to the local
supermarket. Shortly after noticing a momentary pause in the
normal running of the engine, the engine cut out and the car stopped.
It also began to emit copious clouds of smoke from under the hood,
which upon inspection proved to be a serious problem with the
alternator. As the engine was stopped and the ignition off, and the
smoke appeared to be getting worse, I attempted to remove the
wires connected to the alternator to prevent the total loss of the
vehicle to fire. This I achieved but was unfortunately rewarded by a
spray of molten plastic over my hand and shirt. As I have owned
many cars, I have realized that it is an expected fact that the
alternator will fail every so often, but not until I owned a ford have I
seen one self-destruct in such a spectacular manner. I also wonder
who would have been liable if this had happened whilst travelling at
speed on the freeway causing a much more serious incident. As
explained by your customer service department, this part is covered
under warranty and I shall have the vehicle towed to the dealership
as soon as possible, but I will not be at all surprised if they try to
squirm out of the repair as in previous instances.

    In conclusion, I feel that your advertising campaign expressing
the fact that quality is the number one issue with Ford is misleading
and incorrect, in particular with the vehicle and service that I have
purchased from Ford. I also feel that the Ford Motor Co. does not
sufficiently address safety aspects of it's vehicles in that my vehicle
has suffered three potentially life-threatening failures in the 42,000
miles it has now been driven.

    I realize that I have very little power to demand a rebuttal of
these quality claims, but the avenues at my disposal are several. In
the near future, I intend to mail a copy of this letter to several large
newspapers, automobile magazines and TV stations, along with
posting it to a worldwide computer network that is accessed by
millions of potential Ford customers, in the hope that someone may
question the claims of your media campaign and re-evaluate their
purchasing decisions. I also require that you arrange for a reputable
Ford dealership to provide an accurate written diagnosis of the
problems with the braking system on my vehicle, to enable myself or
others to decide the liability for repair.

    I eagerly await your response.

        Cordially,

--------- end of letter --------

Regards        [e-mail]