Ford Service $#%#$%!

[JohnG300c]

My wife has a 2001 Ford Escape V6 that started running on five cylinders after the latest rain here in SoCal. I took a look if any connectors to the ignition coils were loose but could not see anything wrong. Took the car to the dealer due to lack of time. They charged $50 for the inspection (scan tool), $150 for an ignition coil ($110 for all six new on Ebay) and (hold on to you hats) $250 (!!!) to replace it!

The wifey picked up the car but i'm sure to go down there tomorrow since i know there's only a few nuts to change the coil - will take tops 15 minutes...

... Yes, and also; they "forgot" to put all nuts back on the engine cover ... Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy!!! What kind of primates do they let work on peoples cars???

I don't like dealer service. I have never had a good service experience. Ever...

Thank you Ford / Tuttle Click Irvine.


========== EDIT ==========

Oh, and we are selling the car because we have had enough of Ford. We got a Toyota Highlander for the wife this time. We will never, ever buy Ford again.

[kevenj]

Hopefully you never have to take your 300C in because I doubt if you'd like Chrysler dealer service any better;

I've had plenty of Fords (never had a bad one) but can't comment on the dealership experience since they have all been way out of warranty. In fact my 300C is the first car I've ever owned WITH a warranty. I can't say my 2 dealer service experiences were BAD but I did have the distinct feeling that I knew more about my car than the service manager did.

By the way, I would not be upset about the price of the coil versus whatever crap is being sold on Ebay; but yeah the $250 labor to replace is ridiculous, since they also charged you for diagnostic time. Don't you know of any good independent shops you can use rather than the dealership?

[JohnG300c]

Originally Posted by kevenj

Hopefully you never have to take your 300C in because I doubt if you'd like Chrysler dealer service any better;

I've had plenty of Fords (never had a bad one) but can't comment on the dealership experience since they have all been way out of warranty. In fact my 300C is the first car I've ever owned WITH a warranty. I can't say my 2 dealer service experiences were BAD but I did have the distinct feeling that I knew more about my car than the service manager did.

By the way, I would not be upset about the price of the coil versus whatever crap is being sold on Ebay; but yeah the $250 labor to replace is ridiculous, since they also charged you for diagnostic time. Don't you know of any good independent shops you can use rather than the dealership?

I have moved to a new area so i haven't figured out a good shop. We were about to sell the car when the coil acted up so we didn't have time on our side to look for another repair shop. And yes, i have taken my 300c to the dealer once for service. I had them take off wheel locks since the OEM ones broke (!). They charged too much and ended scratching a couple of rims. They also left oil marks inside the car. Incredible!

I'm seriously considering buying a very cheap car to use if anything happens to my C because i want to keep it AWAY from the dealship. Chrysler; are you listening...?

[HEMI_MAN]

Personally i dont like taking my car to the dealer and i never do unless its warranty work THATS IT!...and even at that. After seeing the service my father gets at audi, the service at chrysler or probably any other domestic brand for that matter does not impress me one bit!

[JohnG300c]

Originally Posted by HEMI_MAN

Personally i dont like taking my car to the dealer and i never do unless its warranty work THATS IT!...and even at that. After seeing the service my father gets at audi, the service at chrysler or probably any other domestic brand for that matter does not impress me one bit!

I'll keep my 300c away from the dealer as much as possible. If i could trust that they are doing a superb job (treat the car like i do) then i wouldn't mind paying more for their service but since they are sloppy baboons i choose to do it myself (although i really don't have the time).

The auto industry in the US is clearly in trouble. Too high labor cost and they are trying to take some profit by charging rediculous prices on the service side. This whole thing is spiraling out of control and the result can only be one...

To make things worse, i had to take the car back today because they did not fix the problem. It still misfires...

[HEMI_MAN]

Keeping it away from the dealer is probably the best thing to do...my car only went to the dealership once or twice not long after i bought it for some minor warranty work and that was it! I have one mechanic that i bring my car to and hes the ONLY guy that does any work on my car plus im there in his shop and i can see whats going on....piece of mind if you ask me!...and yes im also the one who brings the car in and out of the shop too!

[JohnG300c]

Now, listen to the continuation of this saga: I took the car to a potential buyer and, sure enough, the car starts to misfire! I tried to explain that i'm on my way to the dealer to have them look at it again but i guess this is a dead sale... Took the car to Tuttle Click Ford (Irvine, CA) again and they took another look at it ($475 worth of work apparently wasn't enough). They call me an hour later and say that they "wiped off some moisture from the spark plugs" and they advised me not to wash the engine! In other words; they have not fixed the problem and they are asking me not to reproduce the problem! The first thing i will do tomorrow is to put the water hose on the engine to provoke the problem! Only then can it be fixed. I have given up on these guys - i will put my scan tool onto the car and replace whatever parts are needed. Probably bad spark plug wires.

All this caused me to look into how to pull codes from my 300c. I can get it both from the EVIC and from my FlashPaq so i should be able to stay away from the stealership if anything happens.