Being short, my wife has to have the driver's seat of her 04 Fiesta 1.4 Ghia fully forward when driving, for comfort and safety. For ease of entry and exit, she slides the seat back at the end of each journey. On Tuesday this week, the "U"-shaped hand lever on the slider mechanism sheared of at both connecting ends, leaving the seat locked in the backward position. I drove a Ford dealer and, using a monkey wrench, he was able to move the seat to the fully forward position so my wife could drive it for the time being. However, a repair isn't possible and the dealer has had to order a complete new steel frame, incorporating the slide mechanism, at a cost of £352 plus VAT and labour, the total of which is £500. The dealer has never experienced this happening before and, as my wife has owned the car from new and has covered only 30,000 miles, I felt it reasonable to seek a contribution from Ford but my call to Ford Customer Care produced a negative response. I shall be grateful for your thoughts on this matter. We are both loyal Ford customers as I have had three consecutive new Mondeos since 1994 and now have a C-Max.