ray...
The happy Nada Farmer, finding new ways to make the same mistakes for 57 years.
Keep coming back , I'm sure I'll screw up something else soon.
YES I HATE FORDS! FORDS SUCK!
Why you might ask do I own 4 fords, and why do I still hate them? WEll first I own 4 of them, my son owns two and I have friends that own them. I hate them because I know how they should be, but they are not. I am an AMERICAN, I think I ought to buy AMERICAN. But I will not buy another Ford. I see how Toyota and Nissan handle problems, I see the obvious superiority of Honda, always seen the mechanical superiority of Honda, they stole almost everything they could from VolksWagen. The absolute best are the germans of course, they are mechanical geniuses. THe Germans do everything right, they don't have to recall, it was right in the first place. The japs make small errors because they are in such a hurry to get it out so their issues are usually down the road so to speak things that wore and had an issue. But Ford, what a bunch of assholes. you know once upon a time Ford was the premier auto company in the world, bar none. Of course there was the Duesenburg, and the Cord, but that was it for competition. And at the price difference, well it was clearly the Ford giving the quality for the money. Then came the legacy, you know, the kid took over. And right down the toilet it went.
Well here's my recent experience, you know I have that free truck, well it has a few issues, age and rust being the most pressing. So I have been repairing things as they need it, or I can't avoid it, nothing fancy, just the basics. The four wheel drive mechanism, now I take responsibility for the dumb idea of letting it squeak and grind to total destruction, that was me (this is Malfunction Junktion after all). But as I have been repairing it, I have found some stupid issues. Oh they don't make that anymore you have to switch all those parts out. (UPGRADE) Yeah about $200.00 per each front wheel, because I need a tin part worth about 25¢, that ain't happenin' sucka. I get out my little tin snips and find a piece of barn roofing, that isn't too rusty, and I bend one up. Okay it took 20 minutes, because I'm working from memory of what it looked like, and it has to fit pretty well, and it is 18º outside. which is where the truck lives. But I do it. And there is a worn part inside that i didn't like the looks of, a washer with an internal spline, that is damaging the part it runs against, and makes taking the assembly apart very difficult. It is mushrooming the end of the spindle so that the large threaded nuts that have to be there to hold the front wheels on, are trapped by a lip of sharp metal and it is hard on the threads inside them (the nuts) to get them off. That sounded sorta dirty didn't it? Anyway, I wanted to get a replacement splined washer. HA! Golly they don't make parts for those anymore, you need to upgrade the hub inner assembly. That was the $200.00 dollar dealeo again! NOPE not doin it! Check again! Finally after a half hour of searching there is a part. A replacement washer $25.00 !!!! WTF !!!! But I have to do something, there is damage occurring each time I drive it, I feel it's pain... So I order the part, it's three parts. It comes with instructions, it's what should have been there in the first place, why did I have to pay for it, it's their stupid design issue! Check this out.
I measured the parts so I can make a set for the other side, cause I have more time and ability, than money. And it is much more the way the Germans would have done it. Or the Japs would have copied it. So now the hillbilly has a project. I have a piece of the "plain plastic" the washer is made of, it is actually a gray teflon chunk that I got somewhere, and having the dimensions means I can make replacements forever. And later I found the local hardware has hard teflon washers of various sizes and large washers that can be gently finessed to the correct dimensions to replicate the replacement pack, for about $2.00! Which is what the damn parts ought to cost anyway!
Most of the issues I have with Ford are related to their support, they make mistakes like all car companies, but they don't have any qualms about dumping their screw ups on the consumer, who has to pay for the corrections. Let's make that the customer! CASE IN POINT! My lovely wife hit a deer, the car had to be repaired which means she was finally willing to let it set a couple days to be repaired. We had a few issues that should have been covered by the expensive service contract we bought, $2500.00 dollars for two years of coverage. Now the liar that sold it to us, claimed it covered everything from front to rear, top to bottom of the car, except rubber parts. I asked, you know me, I asked about nearly every part of the damn car that could go wrong, and he assured me it was covered.
Well we had issues with the brakes on the car from the very beginning, it was very obvious that at least one of the brake rotors had a hard spot. It happens, in a crappy casting, and all these parts are made in third world countries, (now that the United States of America can't have an actual steel mill, thanks to the EPA and the dumb ass liberals, but that's a different rant). The mechanic at the Ford garage, THAT WOULD BE CAMBRIDGE CLASSIC FORD IN CAMBRIDGE OHIO, of course he knew what the problem was, (any high school kid from the 80's or before would know, today, not so much), I knew, I told them. But it was a two hundred dollar fix, so they short cut it, surfaced the discs, and sent the car out. It took about two weeks for the problem to start again, so I took it back, they gave me a loaner, it was a Chevy Cobalt, cheapest piece of shit I ever drove. Bright yellow, that was the only good thing about it. All plastic, two door, not 4WD and totally unacceptable for the reasons we bought the Escape. To tote the 90 year old around in the winter. Yes, it was November when all this was taking place, known to be snowy! And my driveway, 300 feet of hill covered with snow, even if I could get the Ancient Queen in the car, I couldn't get up the drive in the snow. I told them it wasn't acceptable. I explained why. They're answer, "it's a loaner, walk home if it don't work". So after the second time surfacing the rotors, which wasn't going to work as we all knew, I decided to just let the brakes wear until they'd have to replace them I had a "BEST WARRANTEE YOU CAN BUY!" and for only one hundred dollars per occurrence they have to fix the failures they sold me. Well guess what. That warrantee is as big a lie, as the liar that sold it to me! The drivers window screeches when it goes up, According to the moron in charge , I mean the service manager, the window is going to screech, they are going to grease it, the window will eventually get scratched and have to be replaced and it will do it again and again, each time the window needing to be replaced. Not, by the way, covered under my incredible wonderful warrantee! So they have a technical bulletin, from FORD how to fix it properly, He tells me there is a technical bulletin, so they can fix the windows properly, FORD has devised a fix for it's failed design. They will do it. I figured they screwed up, they devised a fix, and they are doing it, it is a warrantee issue, RIGHT? Yeah, $500.00 to put plastic sleeves in the tracks, and it is my cost.. ARE YOU SHITTING ME? $500.00 and nobody mentioned it would be me paying it. I told them to take them off right now! I didn't authorize it, I wasn't told about it, I ain't paying for it! It took about 15 minutes for them to remove them, Now I will say the body shop did a nice job, the paint looks good, the plastic parts are all mounted properly as far as I can tell, I think they did a nice job. The leaking rear end, oh did I fail to mention the rear end was leaking, well that was covered under "the worlds best warrantee" a little over $300.00 of course there's the $100.00 deductible. So all in all, they screwed me out of $450.00 for a tire rotation ( remove and replace 20 lug nuts, ten of which were necessary to do the brake job), a brake job, (that I could have done from Auto Zone for under $130.00), and replace two seals in the rear end, (probably about $40.00 in parts at NAPA). And there is always the Hazardous Waste disposal charge, in this case over $18.00 to throw away a couple greasy paper towels. That is a screw job they all, dealerships in Ohio, foist on you. I have shamed them out of it, a couple times over the years. In some states it's illegal. Unfortunately in Ohio (democratic governor) it's legal for now. I'd think if you had a business, and in it you charged over a hundred dollars an hour for not fixing a car, you could pay for your own trash pickup, some call it cost of doing business, but FORD dealers pass that little pleasure along to the customer, along with their design flaws and crap workmanship.
AND as we were exiting the dealership Chris had resolved that at least the car would be cleaned, it said soon the bill. Vacuum interior and wash car, well it wasn't. She made me go back in and get them to initial that it hadn't been done, though it was noted on the bill as being done. The repair manager, gave her a car wash certificate to make up for it, but that wasn't the point. the point was it was on the bill as being done and wasn't what else wasn't done? They had just worked on the brakes, had all the wheels off, and had all the doors apart, twice, and couldn't even sweep the car out? How would you feel riding around in it? Well keep reading....
UPDATE. While removing the $500.00 worth of little plastic sleeves, that correct the malfunctioning windows, the workers forgot to reconnect the wire that operates the power mirror on the drivers side. I don't think it should be my job to take the door apart to fix it,. so I go back to ask them to reconnect it. Their service office is on a little alley, on a hill, with doors reaching into the back of the structure, so there is always some sort of tow truck activity, and "don't park here, under penalty of death" places in the way of getting anything done. As I tried to get around a flat bed, trying to get around me, I slid on the ice, remember alley on a hill? And bumped the back door of the "service desk" guy's car. $700.00 dollars out of my pocket to fix the damn car, a dented door! They did re hook up the mirror. But that's the last I'll be in their dumb ass alley. And I'm looking for a place to buy my ford specific parts, until I can transition to any other brand of vehicle.
And while I'm hating FORD let me just mention again the leaking oil pans. The metal container that holds the engine oil, under the engine, which is usually covered with oil, due to the crappy gaskets they use, YES! that large steel pan, covered in oil, RUSTS THROUGH! $150.00 to replace, well, for the part. YOU have to lift the engine out of it's mounts, remove the exhaust, all wires, hoses, pipes, probably the transmission, hoist it up 3 inches, and replace the oil pan. Costs almost $1000.00 to have it done at the dealer. The truck is a 1993 it has this issue, I have a motor home with a similar size engine, it's a Chevy, it's a 1972, and it's oil pan is fine. That's twenty years older, I think that is a design flaw, I think it ought to be Fords responsibility to fix it, I know better than to hold my breath, in fact when I went on a Ford site to complain about it, one of their mechanics, (about ten years old from his command of the language) thought I should just buy a new truck, as this one had given me over ten years of service, and they all rust out! Well I didn't get ten years out of it, and the soon to be 40 year old Chevy still holds oil. FORDS SUCK! FORDS SUCK! FORDS SUCK!
HERE'S ANOTHER LITTLE tidbit. The Ford tractor that I have is a 1948? it is made of a mess of parts. I've been told that means it was built during war years, out of what was available. It is the best Ford I have. It moves too fast to be of use, it needs to be geared down for actual farming, but it is fun to ride around on. The brakes are a joke, and the flippers that where originally used to lock the brakes, like an emergency or parking brake, are missing. So I have to shut it down each time and leave it in gear, but it is still better than the rest of them I think it was built while Henry was alive, before the legacy damage began. But that has nearly nothing to do with the total lack of dealer support.
Man, are we happy out here!
