Dealership experience

[HoosierDaddy]

Lol no they did not. I didn't even bring it up. I'll do it before my gt350 wheel gets here.

Very good idea. If they are like my dealer, they'd want you to put the original wheel back on before they fixed the problem. LoL

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[Cardude99]

Glad they took care of it. If you ever need another one, albeit far, Chapman has taken care of me when I have gone.

 

[cmxPPL219]

Man, I hate making this post. I hate it almost as much as I hate incompetent dealerships. I've had many Ford products, a 2011 GT, 2012 Boss, 2015 F150, 2016 Fiesta (bought for FIL), 2017 Focus ST, 2018 Focus sedan (bought for dad) and now my 2018 GT.

My 2011 GT had pressure plate bolts back out at 900 miles. Syncros went out at 19k. Then again at 33k. The MT82 was replaced twice. When the pressure plate bolts backed out, there was vibration in the driveline on clutch engagement in 1st gear.

Now, on my 2018, there is vibration in 1st and reverse when engaging the clutch. I went to my local dealer, Bell Ford, in Phoenix, and set up an appointment. Other than the vibration issue, the steering wheel is not centered. The car is 8 months old and has less then 6k miles on it. I took the service adviser for a ride and I was immediately able to duplicate the vibration issue for him. One of the techs that was present in the bay also noticed the steering wheel out of alignment and made a comment on it. I drop my car off today, and 6 hours later I get a call to come pick it up. When I get there, I am told the following:

The new Focus... with an automatic... also had a vibration in first and reverse... so its normal. That's right. A completely different car... on a different platform... with a different engine... ..and transmission... powering different wheels... was the deciding factor to tell me that vibration in my car was normal..I immediately went and drove 2 different brand new Mustangs on the lot and neither had the vibration. When I said this to the service guy he told me the guy that who drove my car has 28 years experience running a service center and he says it's normal. Either these people don't care, are too stupid to know otherwise, or just plain hate their customers. This has been my experience with almost every Ford service department, and this will most likely be my last ford product, solely based on terrible after sales service. I also own a Ram, so I know all about visiting service centers, but I have been treated wonderfully by every Ram dealer I visited. I don't have the time to tell service advisers and techs how to do their jobs. They could have easily went out to the lot and saw for themselves that its not normal operation, but instead they had my car for 6 hours just to tell me an automatic ford focus does the same thing, ..and that a crooked steering wheel is normal. Unreal. I'm frustrated beyond belief. Ford dealers are useless, what are my options?

I just want to say that I feel for anyone who has a bad dealer experience. I know many people in dealer sales and dealer service (some friends, some are not) and it sickens me to know what goes on in this industry. I've talked at great length about the horrible customer experiences at dealers. I could go on all day. Not all dealers are the same as others have said. This is part of the problem with the dealer model - you're never really dealing with Ford as a company (except for recalls or warranty items, big ticket items like that), you're dealing with the individual franchise operation, so you're at the mercy of whoever is running the joint. I feel your pain, and having looked at your later posts, glad to hear you got the vibration issues fixed.

Regarding the steering wheel, its funny (or not) mine is off-centre as well. Slightly turned to the left, off-centre. I've seen a few like this as well. If you look at vids of Ford Mustang production line, I've seen segments of video where the guy on the assembly line is merely using his or her own manual visual centreing judgement, as they bolt on the wheel. What if it's Christmas eve, Friday, or Monday after a long weekend on the line? Argument or issue at home? So many factors that can affect quality... And, when you look at all the install and removal vids of the wheel, it's the same - the person has to manually and visually centre it. So this is a quality control issue imo. I'm surprised there's no on-centre alignment feature built in. I just live with it, and say to myself "it's a Ford..." I know I shouldn't have to but, meh...

The dealer I purchased my GT from gets mixed reviews from me.

When selling me the car, they had 3 separate people hounding me non stop to come in. Post sale, not a single follow up call. And the manager was a shit talker in the background that almost caused me to walk out over a mixup in what I was told due to the fact they had 3 people telling me 3 separate things.

Service wise, so far I’ve had one encounter and it was good/great. Intake manifold took a dump, I knew that’s what it was from research and the symptoms going into it and they actually listened to that suggestion. Had the car back in a couple of days and they cleaned it up nicely pre-delivery. Only complaint is the follow up calls I think could’ve been more prompt, so I called them instead on a couple of occasions.

This. This. THIS. It's always like this, dealers, or anywhere that sells things.
My Dad said it best: "Once the money changes hands..."
I could go on all day about this, too. A true test is always the after-sales experience. Most will outright fail.

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