Ford Focus II (2004 - 2007) - Need some help/advice with this.

Honest John Back Room » Legal matters
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Wed 3 Sep 2008 13:11
Need some help/advice with this. - plant1983
On 28th January 2008 I purchased a two year old Ford Focus 1.6 Hatchback from my local Ford main dealer.

I purchased the car on finance through the dealer using my part ex and some cash as a deposit.

This car has had several faults and has been back to the dealer 15+ times (lost count) to have various things sorted including;

- Water leak in spare wheel well.
- Poor fuel economy/sluggish acceleration (fixed by updating ECU).
- Faulty CD Player (replaced, still faulty).
- Bits of trim falling off.

In my opinion this is bad enough, however the biggest problem has been the boot catch which regularly opens itself at random and for no apparent reason.
So far this has only happened when the car is parked or stopped, however this morning on my way to work I had to pull over three times in order to shut the boot.

I've had the car back to the garage 8 times to try and get this fault fixed. This morning I called the two nearest branches of the dealer and have booked the car in for the 15th Sept for 4 days for them to try to fix the fault AGAIN.

My first question is, how many chances should a dealer be given to fix the same repeating fault??

My second question is, as this fault has been in existance since I had the car for two months do I have any legal comeback on the car??

I understand this is not a major fault, however I have been reassured that it has been fixed many many times and clearly it hasn't and I believe the car is not fit for purpose.

Thanks in advance.
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Wed 3 Sep 2008 13:37
Need some help/advice with this. - TimOrridge
I doubt any comeback as most 2nd hand warranties only last for 6 month AFAIK. I do agree that the amount of faults for a nearly new car is appaling and I personally would want some retributioon if it was me.

Good luck
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Wed 3 Sep 2008 13:52
Need some help/advice with this. - plant1983
Thanks for your reply and yes you are right about most 2nd hand car warranties. However the car still has 6 months of the manafacturers warranty left (was just over a year when I bought the car) and also came with a 2 year Ford Direct warranty.
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Wed 3 Sep 2008 14:04
Need some help/advice with this. - jc2
My daughter had a number of problems with her Fiesta and it went backward and forward to the local dealer with little success;a letter to the CEO,Ford Motor Company,Eagle Way,Brentwood,Essex got her a phonecall from the dealer within 24 hours offering her a courtesy car till the car was fixed and it was.
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