With regard to the Ford Customer Relations dept:
I have had excellent service from Ford Customer Relations in Glasgow, really above and beyond the call of duty, they in effect fully covered under warranty a problem that they could have washed their hands of, the car was nearly four years old and had done over 100,000 miles, I was also given a brand new C-Max to use while my car was at the dealer.
It seems to me that although the Ford Customer Relations rep was wrong in your case (and untypical IME) if you had used the Ford dealer network to diagnose the fault - without even asking them to effect a repair - the dealer would have recognised that the fault was a warranty repair and all would have been well with no cost to you.
All you can do now is write a pleasant letter to Ford Customer Relations explaing your predicament and ask for some goodwill in respect of the repair effected by the dealer.
With regard to the rear subframe bushes on MkIII Mondeos:
These typically need doing at around four years old / 100,000 miles, they have been known to fail earlier and to my knowledge will be covered under warranty if within or just over the 3 year / 60,000 mile warranty period, Ford are perhaps more likely to entertain post warranty claims if the car has Ford service history.
Until a few months ago the Ford solution was a new subframe at a cost of around £350 fitted hence when mine needed doing last January at IIRC almost exactly 100,000 miles I purchased Powerflex polyurethane bushes at a cost of around £70, fitted them myself, not a bad job, and had the car laser aligned for another £35 afterwards. However Ford now do replacement bushes that a dealer will fit for around £150.
With regard to your decision not to choose another Ford, well you pays your money ..... though I dont reckon you will get much better customer service from a car manufacturer these days.
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Earlier in the year my Mondeo went for it first MOT at which point I was informed by the (Ford) Dealer in Lutterworth that the rear bushes were 'going'. I was aware of the issue, but had not noticed any knocking on the car itself. May of course simply have been a matter of time before I would notice.
The dealer was most forthcoming to get them replaced under warranty (as they were to fix the rusty door bottoms, and as they were to give me a new alloy because one of them had aesthetically displeasingly lifting coating).
If you don't ask you don't get. Yes, it is irritating to have to get these things fixed on an only three year old car, but Ford have here clearly tried to make the best of the situation. No complaints in that respect.
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Ford will say you should have brought the car to us to look at in the first place followed by the statement "if you had your car would have been repaired for free ,as it was you chose to....."
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I think HJ that Kevin is fererring to the 2003 OFT investigation that led to the relaxation of the previous "100% dealer servicing or your warranty is invalid" attitude.
As I understand it you are able to have non-dealer servicing and consumable repairs (as long as OE parts/fluids are used and you keep receipts) however.... if any work that would have been carried out under warranty/goodwill is not done by the dealer then that part is excluded from further warranty.
To be honest that seems fair enough. Why should a maker/dealer cover out work by others.
That is where Kevin's problem has fallen to this grey area because he went to the cheap guy first.
I know you were apparently misled by the call centre Kevin but frankly you should never ever trust a call centre answer on major issues. Had you walked (quietly) into the local dealers they would have looked at the car, done the work properly under warranty and everyone would be happy.
I have just had exactly the same issue with a Honda where I refused to do a repair on a car because I was so sure it would be done FOC under goodwill and where I was sure once fiddled with by others Honda would make it chargeable. The owner was quite akward with me saying Honda were further away, would be more expensive if it wasn't covered by them etc etc.
Of course they were far more happy when Honda readily took the car in and did this £300 repair for nothing!
I know the Ford call centre are mostly to blame in your mind but your independent guy showed a lack of understanding of the issues surrounding this specific commont fault... and the way the warranty/goodwill system works.
And something you fail to mention. This chap you have used for 17yrs has carried out a chargeable repair to your car and the fault is still there. What action will you be taking against him?
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I think part of the problem is that the Ford warranty is backed by the manufacturer for year 1 only. I know the guys at the local Ford dealer and they've told me Years 2 & 3 are backed by the UK dealer network - its kind of an insurance policy and has exclusions and conditions that the dealers are free to impose. This is why the dealer can deny a repair in years 2 and 3 if the car has been worked on outside the dealer network (they don't have to follow the EU Block Exemption legislation). I think the corrosion warranty is manufacturer backed and as a goodwill measure they fixed some cars out of warranty - but this is Ford of Europe, not the UK dealer network, who pay the bill.
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Yes, it is true to say that the full dealer history can be enforced in years 2 & 3 because it is a dealer backed warranty however if it is a genuine fault the dealer will still claim off Ford based on a menu price for the repair. Furthermore most Ford main dealers are Ford owned so Ford would Europe pay either way.
The problem is that the OP should have gone to his dealer in the first instance, also not only has he a case against the indy as indicated above the indy should have asked whether the car was within warranty before he commenced any work and, because it was, he should have advised that it be taken to a Ford dealer in the first instance. The indy was perhaps more erroneous than the Ford Cust Rel rep.
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I think that if you read through K.Lynch's 2 posts in this forum it's not difficult to see what's gone wrong here. He seems to get off on talking to people in a loud voice, and quoting imaginary consumer law at them.
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I think that if you read through K.Lynch's 2 posts in this forum it's not difficult to see what's gone wrong here. He seems to get off on talking to people in a loud voice, and quoting imaginary consumer law at them.
Bit of an unnecessary statement.
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The two fact here are:
1/ His trusted garage of 17 years standing did not fix it poprerly
2/ He wants ford to fix the work his garage did.
They wont of course, the moment his independant garage got involved in fixing things covered under warranty the warranty goes out the window. Ford wont, and cant be expected, to fix things other people mucked up.
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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There is the third fact that allegedly Ford told him it wasn't under warranty when in fact it was. This being his main gripe and if this was a £2000 engine bill I too would be annoyed and pursue. However, it was £200 and if he's ordered a new car then finances can't be tight enough for him to stress out over his last vehicle.
He's made a stance by ensuring his next vehicle ( & possibly future vehicles) won't be Ford and my advice would be to move on and chill.
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There is the third fact that allegedly Ford told him it wasn't under warranty when in fact it was. >>
Depends how it was communicated, if he said along the lines of "I have taken my Mondeo to Under the Arches Autos and they say it might be covered by warranty" it might be interpreted by the Cust Rel rep as TVM says, Ford being expected to fix things other people mucked up.
He should have gone to the dealer in the first instance.
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Ford publish a set of warranty terms and conditions, but they don't always stick to them. I've had items replaced that are allegedly aren't covered in the second and third years by various dealers - there is some flexibility there. If you want to make a warranty claim the first course of action is to have the car looked at by a dealer. If the dealer says no, then you contact customer services or take is somewhere else to get it done cheaper.
Replacing 2 of the 4 bushes is a bodge anyway - these bushes are what attach the rear suspension and wheels to the car, and any difference in the amount of movement of the bushes could result in potentially dangerous handling. Anyone mechanically minded would be able to discern that the bushes should be replaced as a set just by looking at them, and from the sounds of it your mechanic can't tell a worn bush from a good one if the banging continued after replacing 2 of them.
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I agree - I have taken my chill phill - it just took a day to take effect!!
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Dear Enoughalready,
I didn't use the loud voice approach with this as it doesn't work, and I didn't quote imaginary consumer law, I quoted from my Ford owners handbook, which says work can be carried out by non franchised organisations so long as they use Ford parts and most importantly Ford proceedures.
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err. twasn't me that said you did!
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Thanks for this, I thought it was a manufactures warranty for the full 3 years, but this my explain some of the difficulties.
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Thanks, for your comments. Yes I should have taken it to a main dealer first, but thats why I phoned the call centre to see if there was any financial advantage in doing so.
Regarding my local mechanic, he has been great offering to fix it FOC no questions - execpt what glue to use!!
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Unfortunately they Customer Relations Centre has recently been moved from Glasgow, so that my account for a change in service.
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Unfortunately the calls are not recorded or at least that's what they told me.
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you dont glue the bushes in
try another mechanic
kevin lynch has got the pinch for what should have been an easy do of a job in a cinch
he got the monk on a piece of junk and is now off to pastures new (without the glue)
is it a honda is it a saab we await his tongue with baited barb.
good cars them there mondeos next time consider calling into your franchised dealer and getting a word of mouth answer to your problems,my local dealer would bend over backwards to accomodate you and they are very regy vardinal
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you dont glue the bushes in try another mechanic
You do glue them in, as I said until recently the Ford solution was a new subframe at a cost of around £350 fitted however Ford now do replacement bushes that a dealer will fit for around £150. These are bonded in rubber bushes so the car is required for 24 hours so the glue can go off.
The alternative are Powerflex polyurethane bushes which push through the subfame had have a lip that keeps them in place, perhaps better than the Ford ones longer term.
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Do the Powerflex ones ruin the ride at all/ improve handling (being stiffer)?
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They are claimed to improve in both respects being both stiffer and efficient at damping out resonances, frankly I have noticed little difference, they should last longer though.
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sorry cheddar i bow to your knowledge but i can buy the subframe all in for £150 from sel imperial so i would just fit that anyway. :-)
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Oldman, I hope your poetic input on this thread isn´t the last we´ll see of your creative side. Inspired stuff.
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sorry cheddar i bow to your knowledge but i can buy the subframe all in for £150 from sel imperial so i would just fit that anyway. :-)
If you can buy the subframe for £150 you can buy Ford bushes for about £40 or Powerflex for about £70. Fitting the subframe is a much bigger job tho, a lot has to be removed to get it out, the bushes just require the wheels off.
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>>the bushes just requirethe wheels off.
Not even that, I did mine just lying under the car.
In the past, Fords used to say 40,000 miles or 4 years for any rubber items such as bushes and belts and they are now sometimes falling foul of this with their 60,000 mile warranty. Mine were 4 years old (and about 48,000miles IIRC) when replaced with Powerflex ones but only one of them had actually split, I had to hack the other 3 out.
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