I F&$%ing hate that crap. You know what dude...$196 is an extremely small price to pay, and you know why?? If they had been putting brakes on your car, they would have never in a million years caught that crack. They'd put that thing back on and sent you on your way. I know they say pick your battles, but you should have shot back with that.
You are probably right but I was very surprised when my dealer did a battery swap without the car. I removed the bad battery and took it to the dealer to be tested and hopefully replaced. The service writer said Ford requires the car to be towed in before they replaced the battery. I think its mostly to verify mileage. I talked to the service manager because I did not want the car towed because of risk of damage. He told the service writer to give me the battery if I promised to email a picture of my odometer with the mileage I had told him after I installed it. I worked the paperwork for the battery into the frame.
It is indeed a PIA without a couple of dedicated tools that make the job much easier. Ford could have made a couple of minor tweaks that would have made things a lot easier/quicker. I struggle finding a legitimate reason why they didn't and instead chose to complicate the process.
Honestly, I truly believe they in fact engineer stuff like this INTO the equation. I think they try to drive the DIYer away from working on their own stuff and driving that work back to the dealerships. Could be wrong, but that's my conspiracy theory.
Yup...that one sucked when I removed mine for paint. If I recall, I was able to get the spring far enough out of the way to get a socket on the bolt and just backed it out until the caliper came off. I don't think ever got the bolt out of the bracket or out from under that spring; I just left it there.