Why do I even bother with dealerships?

I never go to dealers. However there was a recall outstanding for a door latch so I made an appointment for that. Its got a few other issues so I figure "hey why not bring it in and see if they'll fix a few things before warrantly runs out?"

Three complaints...
1) AC is beginning to come out warmer on the passenger side than driver side, sure sign the A/C evaporator is on its way out.
2) Seat makes a loud click when taking a left turn, and the latch on the bottom of seat doesn't fully return to where is should be after flipping the seat forward with the top latch
3) when cruising on the highway there's an audible squeek/rattle coming from right rear of car. Its metallic, like if a bolt was lose and the washer was rattling around.

Was any of it fixed? na

1) They say there's only a 2 degree difference between left and right vents. I am not sure if this is "acceptable" or not, but given all the issues with the s550 A/C Evaporator, to me its in the early stages of failure
2) Said the seat is functioning normally, but did find some lose change in the track (.35!) and blamed it on that. Of course the seat is still clicking...
3) blamed the noise on a lose plastic funnel in the trunk (I forget what its for). still hearing the noise if course

But wait, they did find something wrong with the car they needed to investigate further. The touch screen climate control was not responding to inputs. They apparently couldn't tell it is a V6 with aftermarket (TomTop) radio. I should have let them "fix" that one, might have gotten myself a new Sync 3 unit :lol:

Will try again or do to a different dealer for the issues I'm having, but likely will just fix them myself when they get annoying enough.

Just wanted to vent and give you folks a laugh. Cheers!

So should I say "cool story bro" or does someone wanna do that for me?

Well at least you got 35 cents out of it!

I dropped my GT at the dealer Friday night for an appointment tomorrow to check the AC. It doesn't keep up well in hot temps and there's a pretty strong odor coming from the vents. As I understand it, freon is odorless so I'm guessing that's an additive for detection purposes, like they do for natural gas. Not sure though. This dealer has been cool so far so I'm hoping for the best, because the one 5 minutes from my house isn't high on my list.

Personally I would hate being a tech and getting a report of a noise. That's gotta be hard to track down most of the time, but surely they should have taken a drive afterward and noticed the noises were still there. That's the kind of stuff that irritates me.

Try a different dealer. Any "NVH" complaint is generally a crap shoot....unless something obvious, like warped rotors pulsing the brake pedal.
Back in '01, I had a couple issues with a Bullitt Mustang that I had purchased from a dealer in another state and had delivered. First local dealer I called basically refused to work on the car because I didn't buy it from them. I know all dealers are supposed to address warranty issues but who wants a dealer working on their car that doesn't want the work? 2nd dealer addressed every issue, without question......just got to find the right shop.

nastang87xx said:

So should I say "cool story bro" or does someone wanna do that for me?

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If you'd like. That was my goal of posting this, obviously

PJR202 said:

Well at least you got 35 cents out of it!

I dropped my GT at the dealer Friday night for an appointment tomorrow to check the AC. It doesn't keep up well in hot temps and there's a pretty strong odor coming from the vents. As I understand it, freon is odorless so I'm guessing that's an additive for detection purposes, like they do for natural gas. Not sure though. This dealer has been cool so far so I'm hoping for the best, because the one 5 minutes from my house isn't high on my list.

Personally I would hate being a tech and getting a report of a noise. That's gotta be hard to track down most of the time, but surely they should have taken a drive afterward and noticed the noises were still there. That's the kind of stuff that irritates me.

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I completely agree, very difficult to track down little things like that, especially one that don't happen all of the time. when I go back I'll take a drive with the tech so I can point them out.

They must have just been distracted by the TomTop

Your experience highlights the fact that dealerships make no money from servicing warranty issues, and their priority will be customers who pay (a lot) for labor & parts. Not all dealerships are as dismissive as that one, but I am not surprised you basically got the middle finger from them :frusty:

sublimaze said:

Your experience highlights the fact that dealerships make no money from servicing warranty issues, and their priority will be customers who pay (a lot) for labor & parts. Not all dealerships are as dismissive as that one, but I am not surprised you basically got the middle finger from them :frusty:

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This is simply not true. The dealership makes pretty good money on warranty repairs actually. The technician is the one who doesn't make much on a warranty repair. In lots of cases they don't try very hard to chase down a squeak or rattle that they could spend hours trying to find and fix and only get paid for minutes instead of hours. I'm not saying it's right, just the way it is.

To the OP. It sounds like you took it to a poorly managed service dept. A well run service dept. will have a good warranty admin that will be able to get the technicians decent time for warranty repairs. The techs will in turn be willing to try to resolve headache warranty issues. Of course there has to be a good service manager running the show as well. I worked in dealership service departments for 15 years and I've seen way too many shops where the techs are running the show and not the manager. I know it's tough to find one, but there are good dealership service departments out there, you just need to keep looking. It definitely helps for you to have a good relationship with your service advisor or manager. They will go the extra mile to help if you do.

I must have the best service advisor..
They've fixed every little complaint I've had on the Mustang.
They're fixing my paint & few other things during my next service drop off.