Sera550
#5pointohmy
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2017
- Threads
- 8
- Messages
- 49
- Reaction score
- 4
- Location
- Southern CA
- First Name
- Jeff
- Vehicle(s)
- 16 GT PP
- Thread starter
- #1
Hello fellow Mustang enthusiasts!
Now that I'm (almost) completely done with my experience having a vehicle reacquired through the Ford Reacquired Vehicles team, I wanted to share a bit of my experience in case anyone else ever needs to go through it and is looking for some advice.
My short back story is this; I purchased my 2016 Mustang GT Premium PP (with options) in July of 2016, it was the last one like it in the state of California. It was a fantastic deal for a fantastic car for the first 3,000 miles or so. Big red flag should've popped up at 3,600 miles when my first service visit entailed not only the usual Ford quality problems (sun visor separating, poorly manufactured plastic trim, squealing brakes...) but someone, somewhere forgot to install the bolts to hold down the rear of my driver's seat tracks. As I went along it was about every 4-6 months that I would bring the car in for diagnosis and repair for significant issues. Service items ranging from the squealing brakes to the transmission getting stuck into a gear or not going into another one, shifter kick when changing gears, wheel bearing failures, an axle nut that backed off, SYNC3 issues, the infamous Coyote intake manifold issue, tar drippings on the top of my dash from when the windshield was removed and replaced during production, and many, many other mechanical and quality control issues...
3 years and about 5 months later, I contacted Ford's customer service and requested the vehicle be repurchased as a lemon. Honestly, I was surprised when it was approved. In CA, the vehicle did not explicitly meet the criteria to be considered a lemon and I figured it would have been a situation where Ford would offer me a very long extended warranty. Implicitly is another story entirely.
But this post is not about the lemon law itself or what was wrong with the car. It's specifically to talk about my experience going through the reacquired vehicle process and offer some advice for those who are going through it as well.
From my first call, approximately in the middle of November of 2019, to the final and complete surrender of the vehicle in late January, it was about 3 months to complete. The process is not over yet but the final check for the reconciliation of my Ford Credit loan balance should be in my mailbox this week.
Just like purchasing a vehicle, you can negotiate your settlement. I also recommend to take the cash offer instead of the replacement vehicle as the replacement cost is calculated as MSRP to MSRP. No incentives, no price reductions. If Ford has a $15,000 rebate on the car you want to get, you won't get it if you take the replacement offer. I highly recommend taking the cash offer and then using that check to negotiate on a new vehicle, as I am attempting on a new Explorer ST.
Some items that I could not find the answers to during my search;
1) You can negotiate everything. Ford was kind enough to reimburse me for the $1,200 set of tires I desperately needed to put on the car in November.
2) Make sure you keep your service records. At first, I was offered a mileage offset of around 19,500 miles. My first occurrence for the items Ford was reacquiring my vehicle for was at 3,600 miles. This difference equates to thousands of dollars.
3) Ford will include everything you paid for AT THE TIME OF PURCHASE. If it's on your bill of sale and final receipt, it will be reimbursed to you at the time of surrender.
4) Sometimes the dealership loses your closing packet.....this adds about 2-3 weeks onto your total process.
5) Read the documents you're signing. I only made sure the check was the correct amount to the correct person but I wound up signing a mileage statement and power of attorney for someone's 2014 Focus. My mistake, I should've read it completely. This added about a week onto the process.
6) Don't worry about your loan, the accounts will be reconciled once you surrender the vehicle. I paid forward about 3 months on my loan after I signed the settlement offer. Just make sure you keep up on your payments.
7) Ford, being so kind, will send you a private offer once the settlement offer is signed. This is good for a dollar value (it is generous, all things considered) towards the purchase of a new Ford vehicle, depending on model. I don't know if these change periodically so I won't state what mine was here. You can also contact your representative for a reissuance of the coupon should it expire before you purchase a vehicle.
There were some items I could not physically take off my vehicle. For example, the window tint and black badges I put on went along with the car. I did not ask for the reimbursement but I was told many times that Ford will under no circumstances reimburse modifications to the vehicle. So I never asked and I'm not sorry for not asking.
Today, I am still waiting for a check for the difference between my original settlement offer and the actual account reconciliation values from when I surrendered the vehicle. I paid about 3 months forward to feel what life was like without a car payment for a little while.
In total, it was not a bad process. The second representative I dealt with was very good and communicated very well. It made the overall experience easy and felt like it was transparent. From my experience, I don't think I will ever sell a car as fast as I surrendered that Mustang. It was about 4 signatures and I was handed a check. Took all of 5 minutes. Had I read the paperwork, it would have been 10 minutes.
That being said, I will miss that car as it was a hoot and a hollar and a half. If you are curious, I asked multiple people within the reacquisition team, 3 separate dealers, and Ford customer service where the cars go. I'll be honest, I wanted to find it and purchase it. It's a project to keep running but it was my project. The best answer I got was that the vehicle would be shipped to another dealer nearby to have the service department attempt repairs. If the vehicle could be completely repaired, it would be sold at auction. I could not get an answer as to where this auction is because everyone stated they did not know where it was. Some answers were local, some answers were somewhere in the US. The other options for vehicle disposition were to junk it (crush it) or to send it to Ford in MI where the engineering team would dissect it to figure out what the root cause was.
I figure that my car has already been to the auction and sold as a "manufacturer repurchased vehicle" since it had no issues at the time of surrender...except a faulty tire pressure sensor that went while I was driving it to the dealer to surrender it.
Not sure if I missed something or not but I just wanted to share my experience and offer for anyone who has a vehicle which was as poorly built as mine to reply with any questions.
Oh, and for those interested, I'm probably not going to buy another Mustang. At least not just GT.
My new car short list (as of this posting): Bronco, Escape Hybrid Titanium (they're damn good deals), Explorer ST/Plati, Outback 3.6R, Volvo S60/XC60 T6 or T8 only. Maybe an Audi S4/S6 Prestige but the dealer which has the S4 I keep trying to buy is being extremely difficult. I'm not in a rush though. Might get a used GT350 in the future too.
Now that I'm (almost) completely done with my experience having a vehicle reacquired through the Ford Reacquired Vehicles team, I wanted to share a bit of my experience in case anyone else ever needs to go through it and is looking for some advice.
My short back story is this; I purchased my 2016 Mustang GT Premium PP (with options) in July of 2016, it was the last one like it in the state of California. It was a fantastic deal for a fantastic car for the first 3,000 miles or so. Big red flag should've popped up at 3,600 miles when my first service visit entailed not only the usual Ford quality problems (sun visor separating, poorly manufactured plastic trim, squealing brakes...) but someone, somewhere forgot to install the bolts to hold down the rear of my driver's seat tracks. As I went along it was about every 4-6 months that I would bring the car in for diagnosis and repair for significant issues. Service items ranging from the squealing brakes to the transmission getting stuck into a gear or not going into another one, shifter kick when changing gears, wheel bearing failures, an axle nut that backed off, SYNC3 issues, the infamous Coyote intake manifold issue, tar drippings on the top of my dash from when the windshield was removed and replaced during production, and many, many other mechanical and quality control issues...
3 years and about 5 months later, I contacted Ford's customer service and requested the vehicle be repurchased as a lemon. Honestly, I was surprised when it was approved. In CA, the vehicle did not explicitly meet the criteria to be considered a lemon and I figured it would have been a situation where Ford would offer me a very long extended warranty. Implicitly is another story entirely.
But this post is not about the lemon law itself or what was wrong with the car. It's specifically to talk about my experience going through the reacquired vehicle process and offer some advice for those who are going through it as well.
From my first call, approximately in the middle of November of 2019, to the final and complete surrender of the vehicle in late January, it was about 3 months to complete. The process is not over yet but the final check for the reconciliation of my Ford Credit loan balance should be in my mailbox this week.
Just like purchasing a vehicle, you can negotiate your settlement. I also recommend to take the cash offer instead of the replacement vehicle as the replacement cost is calculated as MSRP to MSRP. No incentives, no price reductions. If Ford has a $15,000 rebate on the car you want to get, you won't get it if you take the replacement offer. I highly recommend taking the cash offer and then using that check to negotiate on a new vehicle, as I am attempting on a new Explorer ST.
Some items that I could not find the answers to during my search;
1) You can negotiate everything. Ford was kind enough to reimburse me for the $1,200 set of tires I desperately needed to put on the car in November.
2) Make sure you keep your service records. At first, I was offered a mileage offset of around 19,500 miles. My first occurrence for the items Ford was reacquiring my vehicle for was at 3,600 miles. This difference equates to thousands of dollars.
3) Ford will include everything you paid for AT THE TIME OF PURCHASE. If it's on your bill of sale and final receipt, it will be reimbursed to you at the time of surrender.
4) Sometimes the dealership loses your closing packet.....this adds about 2-3 weeks onto your total process.
5) Read the documents you're signing. I only made sure the check was the correct amount to the correct person but I wound up signing a mileage statement and power of attorney for someone's 2014 Focus. My mistake, I should've read it completely. This added about a week onto the process.
6) Don't worry about your loan, the accounts will be reconciled once you surrender the vehicle. I paid forward about 3 months on my loan after I signed the settlement offer. Just make sure you keep up on your payments.
7) Ford, being so kind, will send you a private offer once the settlement offer is signed. This is good for a dollar value (it is generous, all things considered) towards the purchase of a new Ford vehicle, depending on model. I don't know if these change periodically so I won't state what mine was here. You can also contact your representative for a reissuance of the coupon should it expire before you purchase a vehicle.
There were some items I could not physically take off my vehicle. For example, the window tint and black badges I put on went along with the car. I did not ask for the reimbursement but I was told many times that Ford will under no circumstances reimburse modifications to the vehicle. So I never asked and I'm not sorry for not asking.
Today, I am still waiting for a check for the difference between my original settlement offer and the actual account reconciliation values from when I surrendered the vehicle. I paid about 3 months forward to feel what life was like without a car payment for a little while.
In total, it was not a bad process. The second representative I dealt with was very good and communicated very well. It made the overall experience easy and felt like it was transparent. From my experience, I don't think I will ever sell a car as fast as I surrendered that Mustang. It was about 4 signatures and I was handed a check. Took all of 5 minutes. Had I read the paperwork, it would have been 10 minutes.
That being said, I will miss that car as it was a hoot and a hollar and a half. If you are curious, I asked multiple people within the reacquisition team, 3 separate dealers, and Ford customer service where the cars go. I'll be honest, I wanted to find it and purchase it. It's a project to keep running but it was my project. The best answer I got was that the vehicle would be shipped to another dealer nearby to have the service department attempt repairs. If the vehicle could be completely repaired, it would be sold at auction. I could not get an answer as to where this auction is because everyone stated they did not know where it was. Some answers were local, some answers were somewhere in the US. The other options for vehicle disposition were to junk it (crush it) or to send it to Ford in MI where the engineering team would dissect it to figure out what the root cause was.
I figure that my car has already been to the auction and sold as a "manufacturer repurchased vehicle" since it had no issues at the time of surrender...except a faulty tire pressure sensor that went while I was driving it to the dealer to surrender it.
Not sure if I missed something or not but I just wanted to share my experience and offer for anyone who has a vehicle which was as poorly built as mine to reply with any questions.
Oh, and for those interested, I'm probably not going to buy another Mustang. At least not just GT.
My new car short list (as of this posting): Bronco, Escape Hybrid Titanium (they're damn good deals), Explorer ST/Plati, Outback 3.6R, Volvo S60/XC60 T6 or T8 only. Maybe an Audi S4/S6 Prestige but the dealer which has the S4 I keep trying to buy is being extremely difficult. I'm not in a rush though. Might get a used GT350 in the future too.
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