Jenie Benson

Haven't decided yet, but we have been throwing around a number of ideas. Our truck recently died and we just bought another car to replace the truck. so maybe a truck.

Well, I'll be leaving the forum soon. Ford has agreed to offer a re-purchase on my car via the MN Lemon Law after filing with the BBB auto line (38 business days in the shop for warranty in 2 years of ownership and even though they tried to tell me I'd missed some kind of window to have it bought back, the law here is still the law here and when push came to shove, they knew I had fulfilled all the requirements.). I should receive a letter from Ford's legal department in a couple of weeks with their calculation on what they think I should get via the MN Lemon Law. We'll see if their legal department is good at math (goodness knows I am with all the accounting I do at work so I'll be triple checking theirs). Sad to see the car go, but happy to have the mess done with soon. Let's hope they don't try anything funny with the numbers that will force me to take them to arbitration.

Sadly, it sounds like yours is plagued by exactly the same thing as mine. Are you all the way out of warranty or just out of 36K? Did you report this issue to your dealership before you were out of warranty?

Kinda a typo. Yes, the warranty is 3 yr/36K, but Ford keeps telling me it's 2yr/36K.

djc- Sounds like yours managed to work itself out. Mine, however, continues to be a serious issue. Ford has stalled out in helping my dealership troubleshoot the issue. There are no reprogramming updates, etc left to do on my ANC and no further instruction from Ford Hotline on what else to try (not for months and months). I just had my car in for an oil change this week and the diligent service guys tried to get a field service engineer to come out. They left him a message and it's been 2 days and I've heard nothing. This morning taking the hubby to work, the drone and vibration was almost constant every time the ICE was runinng upon acceleration (flat roads even off of a stop light). It was 15 degrees. My paperwork for BBB arbitration is already in the mail and on the way since Ford refused to even acknowledge to me that this is a problem and just kept telling me they weren't going to buy my car back and that it was my fault for missing some kind of "window of presumption" (which they did not elaborate on even when pressed only telling me it was 2 years or 36K miles, which is the mfg bumper to bumper warranty and does not correspond with the window of request for buy back or Lemon proceedings in this state). It's really frustrating to have a dealership who has tried so hard and used all the resources Ford gave them, (and came up with some troubleshooting on their own) and then have someone at Ford corporate say I need to take it back to the dealer and that Ford would "make sure they have all the resources they need to fix the problem" and have the dealership ask me what it is that Ford wants them to do now since they have received ZERO direction. If Ford doesn't take care of this soon and no suitable buy back can be reached by BBB, they are looking forward to staring down my lawyer in court. With all the run around they have given me, I've decided to play just as hard of ball back at them as they have been playing at me. I hope others don't have to deal with this type of crap trying to get theirs fixed and it works it self out like djc's car did. Oh, and FYI, Ford is now aware that there are multiple cars with this same problem and I've made them aware that I know how to get ahold of some of you who have not had any results getting yours repaired either. I'm hoping that also helps you when your dealerships are trying to get Ford to help them.

Not going away :) I spent a lot of money to get my very first brand new car and traded in a perfectly good low mileage car because I really wanted a hybrid and after my looking at the options, the Cmax Energi really was what I wanted. And the one at the dealership had options I liked and was a color I really loved. I'm not about to walk away knowing I am still making payments on something that has basically no resale value due to an issue that cannot be solved that could potentially be something serious and end up costing me a lot more money later to fix or could end up being something that jeopardizes my safety (since they don't know what's wrong with it, anyone's guess is as good as mine if it will be some kind of catastrophic failure in the future or not). Ford may have drastically underestimated my resolve and my knowledge of warranty related things (as well as my persistence - though they may be realizing that now that I kept calling and reminding them that my call had gone unreturned for several days in a row). Totally not letting them get off easy. They chose the hard route for themselves.

Round 4 - Got a call finally from the supervisor in the regional customer care department. Similar answer - not going to buy my car back, but not because I missed some kind of "presumption period" but because Ford doesn't believe I have met the requirements. I asked them to clarify, but apparently only their legal department will clarify and I'm not allowed to talk with them and get any straight answers. So I outlined that I have had the car in the shop for 38 business days for warranty related issues in under 2 years of ownership, that I have had 3 attempts to fix the same issue with no results and that the resale value is basically nothing because in the winter if someone test drove it they would look at me like I was crazy after the car made it's horrible noise and vibration and the only way I could sell it is if I did so in the summer and I was dishonest and did not disclose the fact that it has a problem no one knows how to fix. The supervisor said they were sure Ford could fix the car and that I should take it to the dealership and have them work on it again and that Ford would make sure all resources were at their disposal for fixing it (which I informed her had already happened and they have exhausted resources and it's a waste of time for me to have them try again). My mind is now made up, I will not be buying another Ford of any kind after this is all over. I have no faith that if I did and had a problem with that car such that I needed the help of the regional management that I would get anywhere besides facing a brick wall. I will also be sure to tell anyone I come in contact with about this story and the very bad customer service provided by Ford corporate. The dealership has been great, corporate on the other hand couldn't care less if I like them or not. Started BBB Autoline complaint for arbitration just now. And will be looking for a lawyer since I am not willing to take one less penny than I am entitled to (which it is likely the BBB Autoline will not offer to give me what I am entitled to. From reports I have read, they do not follow the letter of the law when figuring what the buy back amount should be and often try to short change people. I know I'm entitled to entire purchase price of car, including the amount from my trade-in, taxes and fees minus a very specific amount for mileage I have used). Ford wanted to do this the hard way - so be it.

6.11.2013

Still waiting for a supervisor to call me as promised. They missed 2 promised call backs last week (Tues and Weds last week were the days I was told I would get a call from a supervisor "before the end of business tomorrow") . I gave them some leeway given the holiday for the call back that should have come Thursday and thought maybe they would call yesterday or at the very least sometime this afternoon. It's 3:30pm and still no call. The lack of response is disheartening and leaning me away from Ford completely. Not sure I want to visit this circus again if I have an issue in the future that I need to speak with someone at Ford about. This is not anything like what I consider good customer service.

Round 3 - After being dissatisfied with the regional manager and his understanding of the law here in MN yesterday, I called the EV customer relationship center and asked to be put in touch with someone higher up in the management tree. The request was submitted and I was told someone would contact me before the end of business today. At 6pm I had not received a phone call, so I called the EV customer relationship center again and let them know I had not been contacted as promised, that I was unhappy with that fact (and also unhappy that this was the second time in 2 weeks this had happened) and that I expected to be contacted as promised. The helpful agent put in a new request and promised someone would contact me tomorrow by the end of the business day. We shall see......

I'm unsure which mount exactly. They didn't write the exact location on the service record, but I could call and ask them. They are very helpful and would totally tell me. Yes, the mounts are liquid filled. As the service manager said "liquid filled mounts in a cold weather clime is not an ideal match".

don't see why I should be told to NEVER contact Ford about this again. I can contact them as many times as it takes for them to do something about it. And I have every right to be mad at them because they manufactured a faulty product and have not fulfilled their end of the warranty contract in regards to fixing it under the state law. It may be the way of "big business", but it's illegal and rude and it makes me upset with them (people have a right to feel upset even if others do not feel a situtation merits being upset or angry). As for lemon law lawyer, I'm already on the path to that. I have learned a lot already and prior to this I was already well versed on the subject of warranty and liability of manufacturers. I know there are steps that must be done before I can/need to sue in court and I plan to exhaust all of those before paying for a lawyer. (costs incurred for a lawyer prior to a court proceeding is filed are not reimbursable via lemon law). I know I have a case, I am attempting to resolve the issue without causing a long protracted issue that both taxes myself and Ford, and without forcing a branded title on the vehicle so that Ford could potentially sell it to someone else who lives in a warm climate where the problems with my car (of which the only non-resolvable one is cold related) will not be an issue. The process is already in the works. Thanks for the advice.

If you can get it to act up for the dealer, I recommend you get it to them asap. Otherwise, you may find yourself outside the parameters to get them or Ford to do anything to help you. Having a good service record history of trying to solve this issue will certainly not hurt you.

It may take some trial and error, but you should be able to find somewhere you can drive it to make it perform on command. Took me a while to get the nuance of it, but there is a hill directly in front of my dealership that works well and another on the way to the dealership about a block or two from it. Once you find a place it always happens, drive that route over and over keeping an eye on the RPMs as much as you can without being a hazard. It shouldn't take long when the temps are right (below freezing is best) to make it perform on command. The service advisor at my dealership can now making it perform on command even. He rode along with me several times once I could replicate it on command and payed close attention to all the things I was doing and was able to get it to perform on command everytime under the proper temps. But yes, you do have an issue and it will only get worse. Mine started at 700 miles. It went through the first winter before I was able to command it on queue and the dealership couldn't get it to misbehave (they were driving on flat and not giving it enough RPMs). Then the next winter it acted up again. I had it in the shop so many times last winter I lost count of how many. Then spring came and we ran out of time to troubleshoot. I had to wait until winter came (and it came WAY late this year) to have the problem verified again. It's back and this time it's back with a vengence. Frequency is significantly increased. Every time my husband drives it in cold weather, it is horrible. Figure out how to command it to perform on queue and take the service manager of your dealership for a ride and put on a show. If your dealership is anything like mine, the first words out of their mouth will be "what the heck is that?!?!?!"

I'm calling them tomorrow morning. A supervisor of the regional manager is scheduled to call me sometime tomorrow before the end of regular business hours as well.