I just drove by the Ford Dealership here in Tallahassee, which sucks by the way, and noticed all the 2006 F150's and 250's out near the road had huge signs that said 5 year/60K mile warranty. Is this something new that Ford is doing? Cause if it is I'm gonna be pissed. Or is this just something that the individual dealership is doing to try and move cars?

 

It's a dealership promo of some sort.

Ford's is still 3/36k.

 

That's what I suspected.

 

Tomball ford here in houston gives 5 year 50k mile warrantys some even with 100k mile waranties.

 

Again though, unique to a DEALERSHIP... and not to Ford.

 

Does anyone know if they come with some clause that requires you to have all the scheduled maintenance performed at the dealership? I'll bet it does. Hell, it's probably not even bumper to bumper. It's probably one of those powertrain waranties.

 

Yeah I decided to go with the Total Care warranty from my dealer. 5yr/75K.
Sounds like the mileage can vary.

 

why is it that most ford dealerships have a bad rep????????

 

A lot of them do. They make up any income difference they lose in providing you a warranty with big money 30K services.

 

A satisfied customer tells 4 of his/her friends. A dissatisfied customer tells ten of their friends.

One bad apple unfortunately ruins the bunch. I admittedly don't like seeing dealers in general getting smacked, being referred to as stupid or incompetent or what have you (even though they might be). Work at the dealership level is something customers just won't ever understand until they're the ones turning the wrenches or running the phones or handling the paperwork.

 

Because its very hard to find one that really cares about your needs after the sale is made. They love you and dont stop calling until you sign the bottom line, then when you walk into the dealership they have no idea who you are anymore. Im sure there not all like that, but unfortunately, most of them are and it really sucks for all of us guys.

In my case, my truck was in the shop for way more time than I feel it should've been and its still NOT fixed. I had to tell them about the TSB's on my truck. I had to tell them what they needed to do to fix the issues I was ( am still ) having. Customer servie is severely lacking in all the dealerships anymore. For a company who's crying poor, you would think they would take a more active roll in the dealerships and make sure they are treating the customers right.

The other thing I hate, is that if you didnt buy it at the dealer you take it to to get worked on, they look at you like you just brought a Chevy or a Dodge in for warranty repairs. Something really needs to be done..SOON.


BREW

 

Regarding the service department side of the dealership, I think it has a lot to do with people expecting more than what they can get. Most of the time you are back at the dealership with a problem on a vehicle that you paid a lot of money for. So, you are already mad when your there, and if they can’t find the problem, forget about it, your going to roast them. I drive past, at least, three dealerships to get to the dealership that I do business with. Why? Because I feel that they are the most honest out of them.

 

Okay, this is off topic for this thread, but here's my view on why most folks are getting lame service from their dealers.

Over the past ten years or so, given all the financial trouble Ford's gotten themselves into with the reign of Nasser and the Firestone recalls and the lawsuits resulting from it, Uncle Henry's looking to cut costs wherever he can, and one of the easiest and quickest ways to do this is at the dealership level. Ford has a team called the Service Labor Time Standards group, or SLTS, that determines how much time a repair should pay done under warranty. They (supposedly, but if you look at several labor ops and the resulting times, you'll know that no time studies were ever done; several higher ups say that a full vehicle time study on the Lincoln LS was never done, and that a lot of the labor times on the LS were borrowed from other vehicle lines that share no commonality with the LS) do these time studies in controlled conditions, using top gun technicians with all the necessary gear and equipment to do a repair.

But, these times studies in no way make any sense. For instance, with the 6.0 liter Powerstroke diesel, there's a TSB that about head gasket leaks, and that the engine is supposed to be removed or the cab lifted off the frame to properly service them. But in the service manual, they claim you can do cylinder head repairs and services in vehicle. Left hand, meet right. Ford didn't (until recently, I think) pay technicians under warranty to roadtest vehicles to verify the concern and verify the repair. This was supposed to be the service advisor's or service manager's job, two people who will have no direct hand in the service or repair of your vehicle.

As a result, dealer techs aren't getting paid the time that the repair really requires. This means a few different things:

• The tech may take his time, do the job properly, fix the concern, and completely lose his *** in flat rate time on the vehicle. This ain't good, since he might have a mortgage to pay, kids that need to eat, and bills to pay.
• The tech may rush the repair, take shortcuts here and there, halfassedly put it back together and maybe fix it, but probably not. He may beat the bogus warranty times, but the customer suffers because their vehicle ain't fixed right the first time.
• The dealer may give you a bunch of smoke and mirrors excuses as to the concerns that you have are normal, there's no fix for them, or engineering's working on a fix and they're waiting to hear back from them, blah, blah, blah.

Now, I'm not justifying a crummy job by no means. Just playing Devil's Advocate here, in that there's a bigger player when it comes to lousy service at your dealer. Ford isn't paying out the times to the techs to fix their vehicles under warranty properly, so in effect, the customer is getting exactly what Ford paid for.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

 

AMEN. Closest dealer to me is horrible for that. I needed my spare tire took off, my reg. tire plugged and bolted back on and when he (shop manager) saw the "It didn't come from here" sticker on my tailgate, I got fed some bullsh*t that all the techs were just too busy to get to me, but there were 4 standin around the water cooler in the shop I had all intentions of paying for it and told the guy i would but he basically refused to take care of me. I cussed him out and went down the street to a little local shop. Crap like that is why me and my family drive 60 miles each way and past 2 other ford dealers to "our" dealer. If anybodys ever in the Eastern Kentucky area and needs something fixed, head to West Liberty Ford....you'll never meet a nicer bunch of people

 

It really is true. Whenever I've taken my truck to the dealership up here in Tallahassee I always get the run around and it seems that no one cares about me. I had to take it in at least 2 or 3 times before they fixed any of my problems or get them right.
Then I took my truck to the dealership where I bought it (Freedon Ford in Clearwater) over thanksgiving and they did a whole bunch of tests, changed my oil, and reflashed the engine computer, all in less than 24hrs, on a friday and saturday no less! All probably just because I told them how important it was that I get the truck back becasue I needed to drive back to Tallahassee on Sunday. They said they might not have the time, and I didn't think they would either. I had a lot of stuff that I wanted checked out, but they really pulled through and impressed me. If I had a similar problem up here in Tallahassee they would probably just laugh at me.
I don't know why dealerships are like this. Am I wrong, or are they all not reimbursed the same way when they do warranty work?