bam48

 It is a shame that nobody else is allowed an opinion on this blog other than drdiesel1 - he claims to be an expert. He is way too hostile to do anyone any good.  He obviously has too much time on his hands and has nothing better to do than berate people who have a difference of opinion.  He also must have money to throw away on a car that doesn't work correctly and to constantly tinker with it.  By the way, his is a plug-in, not sure what yours is, mine is a hybrid, he has NO idea what we are going through!

At the risk of feeding trolls:

 

 

Never..............Would, I own a Koren car.... :spend: Just say'n :redcard:

The point of the article,  I was trying to make,  was Ford has 5 out of the 10 cars in the most unreliable car category!

Not what should be purchased, rather what shouldn't be!

 

One question i have is to those of you who have gotten a buyback - how much of the money did Ford return?

 

Thanks.

We received every penny we paid for the car plus the $550 the wrong mpg plus another $400 from before (after our 2nd dead battery) for our troubles.  Our dealership also gave us a rental until we found a new car. We just had to be patient, the process didn't go as quickly as they said it would, probably about 2 months total.  Just make sure to always follow up, it will happen! Good Luck!

http://autos.yahoo.com/news/the-10-least-reliable-cars-181031192.html

Just sayin...

We have received our buyback and we have purchased another non-Ford vehicle. Good luck to all of you!!

drdiesel1,

for those of us who have not used the USB nor own an Ipod that we've "plugged"in (or any mp3 players), what would you suppose the cause of our dead batteries to be?

New here, I joined because the battery was dead for the third time this morning and I hoping that soon it'll qualify for a lemon law. The first time in January '13 the car was only 3 weeks old so I just had roadside assistance come and they jumped it. I assumed it was a fluke even though I was positive I'd left nothing on. I wonder if that would be considered a repair attempt. The second time (three weeks ago) I got the firmware fix. I just called roadside assistance and had it towed instead of jumped since my dealer does not give loaners and I'd have no way to get home.

 

I see a few people have referenced starting the "buy back" process which I'm very interested in even though it sounds like my experience has not been as bad as others. C-MAX is a lovely car but for this issue, however I just cannot live with a brand new car that will leave me stranded periodically. Is there any information available on starting this process? In my state I have 12 months (until 12/13/13) and 3 repair attempts to file a claim under the lemon law. Are people taking the lemon law route or is it something you've worked out directly with Ford? Did the consumers have a lawyer involved? Thanks for your help.

 

ETA- I just spoke with the attorney general's office and they clarified for me the the lemon laws apply for the term of the warranty or 1 year, whichever is longer, so I fortunately I have more time than I thought for a resolution.

Sorry to hear about your CMax issues too! We are in the final stages of the buyback process.  We used the Ohio lemon law, it also gives the manufacturer 3 attempts to correct the problem within one year, but we had to wait until the 4th dead battery to proceed.  We dealt directly with Ford and started a case with them after our 2nd dead battery.  The service manager at our dealership helped us out and made some calls to Ford on our behalf. We did not use an attorney because they will not work with you if you bring an attorney into the situation.  Just know you have the lemon law on your side and Ford will follow through with the buyback.  If you want they would probably even upgrade you to another vehicle, if you offered that to them.

We do not have the time to toy around with the battery and try to figure out the cause of the dead battery issues, not to mention, we paid for a NEW working vehicle and this is just unacceptable, and should be to any consumer!

Good luck with your buyback and if I can help answer any questions, I will be happy to try!

Barn48 said: "Don, we had all of the TSB's done since we started having dead batteries and we still continued to have dead batteries. Our car has been at the dealer for 1 month now. We are currently waiting on our buyback, which we are very close to finalizing. They told me that my SYNC, when using my phone through the SYNC, did not shut off and they performed a TSB that was to fix the problem, but a month later we had a dead car again. We too bought it for the 47 mpg, since we are running 4 kids around town. We didn't sign up for or use the Ford Sync My Ride (until the last month of ownership), we only used it for hands free phone calls. Good Luck with your exchange or buyback!

 

     Question: Was the 13-7-10 performed? This is a fairly recent TSB...

I have not used the SYNC My Ride feature, not do I intend doing so.

 

I am surprised you received a $400 check from Ford after the 2nd dead battery! Sure wonder what their "policy" is & who makes the decision. Did your dealer get the ball rolling on this???

we had the tsb done even before it was officially published (about a month before it came out)!

and we called headquarters and had a case started, asked to speak to a supervisor who could do something for us and she offered, as a good will gesture, to reimburse us the amount of a car payment. our car dealer service manager has been working with us and Ford.  he has really taken care of us and put our interests first! he's the best! 

We called the headquarters and complained, it was a goodwill gesture payment for all of our troubles.  

You got a $400 check for your 12v battery troubles?  Has anyone else received a check for this?  I don't recall this being mentioned in any previous 12v battery messaged.

From my service ticket:

     "Checked (&) found battery dead, charged and tested.

 Battery passes load test. Performed latest TSB per Ford hotline 13-7-10.

 Let sit for multiple days. Checked for draws. None above allowed limits."

*************************************************************************

Sit time was close to 3 days...

Service foreman said there was <0.10v drop in voltage.

*****************************************************

Unless I hear from someone in this site that has had this TSB done & later had a dead 12V battery,

I plan on giving Ford & the CMAX 1 last chance! Another (5th) dead 12V battery in

say < 1 year from now, & I shall toss in the towel, request a buyback & buy an Escape.

 

Sidebar: Just got a check ala FedEx from Ford for $550.00

with the explanation it was for their reduction in mpg for the CMAX from 47 mpg to 43 mpg.

This helped salve my 'wounds' a bit...

Don we did have this TSB performed on our vehicle and 1 month later the car was dead again, in the morning, in our garage.

From my service ticket:

     "Checked (&) found battery dead, charged and tested.

 Battery passes load test. Performed latest TSB per Ford hotline 13-7-10.

 Let sit for multiple days. Checked for draws. None above allowed limits."

*************************************************************************

Sit time was close to 3 days...

Service foreman said there was <0.10v drop in voltage.

*****************************************************

Unless I hear from someone in this site that has had this TSB done & later had a dead 12V battery,

I plan on giving Ford & the CMAX 1 last chance! Another (5th) dead 12V battery in

say < 1 year from now, & I shall toss in the towel, request a buyback & buy an Escape.

 

Sidebar: Just got a check ala FedEx from Ford for $550.00

with the explanation it was for their reduction in mpg for the CMAX from 47 mpg to 43 mpg.

This helped salve my 'wounds' a bit...

We previously received a $400 check from Ford for all of our troubles after our 2nd dead battery.  We are also awaiting our $550 check from Ford and am very happy to hear you received yours already!  :dance: On a side note, our dealership has been awesome to us.  We have had a rental everytime we've had a dead battery and have had one for the past month, while they have our cmax.

Thx folk. Wab & Laurel in particular. TSB 13-7-10 would seem to be a likely candidate for what was probably just done on my CMAX at the dealer. I shall find out in a day. If this wasn't done, I shall request it be looked into.

*************************************************************************************************************************************

     Ok. Has anyone had TSB (13-7-10) done & then had a dead 12V battery? I would really like to know about that!

*************************************************************************************************************************************

After 4 "dead" 12V batteries that have checked out to be ok with just a mini-jump, I am headed to asking for a full refund & will look seriously at getting a new Escape, instead, from my dealer who has serviced my cars since 1987. (My prior car was a 2006 Escape, which is now my son's car).

 

For whatever, I am 75 and have driven cars for some 60 years. I don't use the high techie stuff in my car. That is not what it is used for for me & was not the reason I bought the CMAX. It was for the 47mpg! I do drive the CMAX every day or 2 on errands. Just not very far. Perhaps 15-20 miles each time.

 

Laurel: My wife of 49 years died of cancer 3 years ago...

Don, we had all of the TSB's done since we started having dead batteries and we still continued to have dead batteries. Our car has been at the dealer for 1 month now.  We are currently waiting on our buyback, which we are very close to finalizing.  They told me that my SYNC, when using my phone through the SYNC, did not shut off and they performed a TSB that was to fix the problem, but a month later we had a dead car again. We too bought it for the 47 mpg, since we are running 4 kids around town.  We didn't sign up for or use the Ford Sync My Ride (until the last month of ownership), we only used it for hands free phone calls. Good Luck with your exchange or buyback! 

YES!!! That way you have service records and then Ford will exchange or buyback a LEMON vehicle!!!! Why would you pay that much for something and not make the company accountable for their error?????

Not to mention, it's NOT just the BATTERY - there is something WRONG with some of the CMax vehicles and Ford needs to know about them so they can FIX the problem!!!!!!!

Also, grandpanooter, PLEASE use your auto lights, if this is the issue, then Ford will find out and then they can solve the issue.  If you are not using the vehicle how it is intended to be used, Ford will never know  what the issues are and the problems will never get corrected.

Also, grandpanooter, please do not buy a battery on your own.  Ford needs to take care of this issue. Why would you pay $25k or more for a vehicle and then go buy a new battery that is covered under your warranty? Let the dealerships and Ford figure this out, it is their responsibility to the consumer!!

We have 2013 cMax and the 12v battery has failed twice.  Once at about 900 miles and again at about 3700 miles.  Both times car towed to dealer, both times battery replaced, both times told never heard of this issue.  First time could not jump to get lights on.  Second time lights on and out of park, but would not run.  Tow operator stated that the battery was an issue with the CMax and Ford has no fix.  Dealer mechanic keeps asking what was left on in the vehicle.  We were using the auto light feature but since have stopped using this feature, just turn lights on and off manually, what a bummer!  Previous autos had this feature and it worked fine.  On our Saab we never turned the light switch off, so the lights were on every time the auto was started and never had an issue with a dead battery.  Seems the switch worked very well.

Have not seen any restart indication as some have posted, ie, bad relay or other electrical component.

Last time in dealer was asked to do the reprogramming for the transmission.  Stated this was not done and would be done when headliner parts came in as it takes up to 4 hours to download, is this so??  However, something was done to the computer system as the mileage indicator and battery usage images are now different, so we believe something was done though dealer says no!?  Some have stated that Ford got a bad batch of batteries, I find this somewhat disconcerting.  Dealer stated this "may" have been the issue on first failure.  Still sound "fishy" to us.

Please read some previous posts regarding the batteries.  There is a theory that the 12v battery is not a strong enough battery.  Anything is possible, but I can tell you if that was the problem, "a bad batch of batteries" Ford would not be buying vehicles back.  I would try another dealership that is aware of all the issues with the CMax's and that can help you with your issues.  Also, the images may be different because they were not reprogrammed after the battery was recharged, possibly? Just make sure you are keeping all your records and check into your state's Lemon Law.  Our CMax is currently part of the "buyback" that is going on because some of these vehicles ARE lemons!

well said AE :thumbsup: ...the CMax is jus too good a car to give up on.

It has more to do with the company and how they handled the entire situation/process, and not the car itself.

We have never dealt with Ford before and may never again. Really disappointed.

Well, we are being told that they are going through the process of a buyback for our CMax. It's too bad because we can't seem to find a another car with that much room.

I am not sure, but our situation may be a little different than some on this forum.  Our batteries were completely dead, as in they could not be charged again, they had to be replaced on all occurrences, but one. 

Is this the case with most of the dead battery buybacks?

This is my advice and personal opinion. The CMax only drains over night, so you would only be stuck in the morning (I know we've been stuck with work & school situations too).  You should NOT charge your vehicle on your own or let the towing service charge your car!!  Then the dealership and Ford Motor Company have no way to track what is gong on and the situation will not be corrected.  Plus, you will have no recourse because there will be no record of a dead battery.  Please do NOT self charge your batteries, let the dealership take care of the situation, it's the only way they can fix the problem!!

The other question I have for everyone with the new CMax, is why isn't your dealership giving you a rental when your car is dead? It's a brand new vehicle, under warranty.  We have received a rental every time and with one exception, they have always delivered it to our house.

Would a trickle charger like this (see link) $ 26..99 model from Sears be good enough to get you going (fast, 5 or 10 minutes) can hassle with the dealer later for a fix (new battery & whatever else) ((don't want to be stuck, would this get me going ?)) http://www.sears.com/diehard-battery-charger-maintainer/p-02871219000P?sid=IDx01192011x000001&kpid=02871219000&kispla=02871219000P

Well, a little more than a month ago they performed a TSB update for the SYNC on our DEAD CMAX, they said that would do the trick - HAHAHAHAHAHA!

It was towed for the 4th time this morning to our dealership! 

Too bad  :sad:

Update on our SE CMax - they have re-programmed our vehicle with a TSB that will not come out until next week or possibly later. They thought the SYNC computer system never shut off and was draining the battery. They have also included a 3yr/45,000 mile Maintenance Contract and paid 1 car payment up to this point, these things are not making me feel any better about the car though.

yes, they are checking ours to see if it is sync related too and if so, they will re-program too.

just curious DBO, why haven't you pursued the Lemon Law or legal action?

i am so sick and tired of dealing with the whole situation, i just want my money back to buy a good old fashion reliable car!  :)

We have had our batteries replaced 3 times and this last time they were able to recharge the battery.  Not sure why you would have the towing company jump start your brand new vehicle and not have it towed directly to the dealer? And why would you buy a portable jumper? This is an issue that FORD needs to deal with not the consumer and they need to see what is going on with the vehicle themselves so they can resolve the issue(s).

We have contacted Corporate, we have talked with the regional tech guy, we have talked with the sales manager, the service manager, we are not getting anywhere.  

One more occurrence and we will also begin Ohio's Lemon Law.

Today, the tech guy requested another 24 hours (our car has been in for 8 days this time) he said he thinks the phone sync system is draining the battery.  He said when you are in hands-free mode and then leave the vehicle and go back to your handset/phone mode that the sync system may not be turning off.  So, if you are talking on the phone when you park your car in the garage for the night that could explain why there is a drain and dead battery in the morning?

We have the SE version too and he also said that it is only occurring on the non-touch pad control panel models. He is going to test it tomorrow with his cell phone and see what happens.

They have already re-programmed our Cmax once before because we had completely dead batteries, this time is was rechargeable.

We had not purchased a CAR in over 15 years and within the first 2 months we started having problems.  Thought we were buying a reliable piece of transportation to drive our kids to and from their activities.  

So grateful for finding this forum, only wish I would have found it BEFORE buying the Cmax!!!