Back in August, my gf's car was just a few weeks out of warranty and a coil failure caused the car to misfire badly and triggered the engine warning light. The car has a full, on schedule, main dealer history but Ford weren't able to offer any goodwill at the time. We paid £150 ish for the repair.
A month later, the light was back on, car misfired slightly. Back to dealer. Light reset (no charge) and told that sometimes a coil failure can cause petrol into the CAT and consequential loss.
Well, as predicted by the dealer, another two months pass, light back on and the car is in for the CAT to be changed. Ford aren't the slightest bit interested in goodwill, the car is now several months out of warranty and another £400 bill looms. The dealer has to order stock, can't get the old system off due to broken bolts (this is a 3 year old 30k mls car). Much sucking of air through teeth, the dealer says that Ford won't entertain a claim.
We're feeling slightly miffed about this, an expensive fault developing as a consequence of something that happened within weeks of the warranty end, could the ECU be programmed to fail the coil on cue? (Tongue in cheek). Would you persue a claim or grin and bear it?
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You will be very lucky if you get any goodwill from ford. A relative of mine had a Mondeo 2.0 diesel that went wrong just after the ford warranty expired. The car had a full history and quite low mileage with everything on the nail. He called ford customer services and they were very unhelpful and told him they had no further responsibility for the car and said "there is nothing to discuss". I think they know they have problems with some cars and are trying to squash the idea of good will payments.
He had the car in two major ford dealers (I was with him because he needed a lift back from me) and the dealers seemed more puzzled by the faults and gave him the run around. Over £700 spent with one dealer and no cure, also no mention of a refund of the money!!!!!
It was not until he had the car at an independent diesel specialist that the fault was fixed, although it was megaexpensive. Seems like ford do not build cars for the long term and wash their hands of the product once it is out of warranty. He is more likely to eat his own children than buy another ford.
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Has GF had the car from new?
She could get it fixed and then send the bill to the supplying dealer. They'll ignore it of course, so, for £30 she could claim from them using moneyclaimonline. I've no idea if this would be successful, but you never know.
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I have had excellent service from Ford Customer Relations, 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.
Write a polite letter.
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You will be very lucky if you get any goodwill from ford. A relative of mine had a Mondeo 2.0 diesel that went wrong just after the ford warranty expired.
>>The car had a full history and quite low mileage with everything on the nail>>
That does not quite fit with your "Help please ........" thread, there you said:
"The story is that at the start of this year he purchased an exactly three year old Mondeo diesel, 2 litres. The car was purchased from a small scale car supermarket and was an ex lease car with a full Ford service history and nothing untoward in the documentation. He also bought a 12 month warranty with it (not from Ford). The car has done about 60thousand miles."
The car was over three years old and over 60,000 miles and was under a non Ford warranty.
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That does not quite fit with your "Help please ........" thread, there you said: "The story is that at the start of this year he purchased an exactly three year old Mondeo diesel, 2 litres. The car was purchased from a small scale car supermarket and was an ex lease car with a full Ford service history and nothing untoward in the documentation. He also bought a 12 month warranty with it (not from Ford). The car has done about 60thousand miles." The car was over three years old and over 60,000 miles and was under a non Ford warranty.
Who are you? Henry Fords representative on earth?
The car was just over three years old and had done 60000 miles with a full ford histroy and needed most of its diesel injection system renewing. You would think they would be interested in that or at least want to help out a bit. All he got from the dealers was a couple of big bills and told to they were not sure they could fix it, so take it to a diesel specialist. They obviously dont have much confidence in their product or in their ability to repair their products. They guy who put a new pump in it said its quite a common problem and ford know about it, so no wonder they dont want to offer any goodwill, it would probably bankrupt them.
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>>Seems like ford do not build cars for the longterm and wash their hands of the product once it is out of warranty. >>
That simply does not concurr with my experience, I have a 110,000 mile car that drives pretty much as new and have received service above and beyond what I might reasonably have expected.
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Of course they wash their hands of it after warranty. Why do people think a 3 three year warranty means 3 years 6 months, or three years 9 months or three years 1 day.
A warranty has to stop somewhere, and stop means stop not maybe.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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A warranty has to stop somewhere, and stop means stop not maybe.
Sure, the warranty stops. But you also have legal rights under the Sale of Goods act. That's why it always says 'your statutory rights are unaffected'.
All the warranty does is make enforcing your statutory rights a bit easier. But those rights don't cease when the warranty runs out.
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Absolutely true, BP. But the problem is proving that a fault is down to unsatisfactory quality or unfitness for the purpose when the car is over 3 years old. Ford, or any manufacturer, has the balance of probabilities on their side if they claim that it's fair wear and tear.
In Cheddar's case, he will have
- been very polite (this always helps), or
- had a fault which could be directly traced to faulty manufacture, or
- been lucky with the person he dealt with at Ford....
....or all 3.
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All the warranty does is make enforcing your statutory rights a bit easier. But those rights don't cease when the warranty runs out.
Your statutary rights run out long before the warranty expries. Try claiming it wasnt fit for purpose awhen it breaks after its done 61000 miles over three years,
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Your statutary rights run out long before the warranty expries. Try claiming it wasnt fit for purpose awhen it breaks after its done 61000 miles over three years, ------------------------------
An item has to be durable - ie last a reasonable length of time. It is a grey area with cars, but with, for example, domestic appliances, it seems to be considered to be 5 yrs (I assume that's why extended warranties are normally 5 yrs).
I would say that for a car, especially what's considered to be a 'mass market' vehicle, then 61000 miles in 3 yrs was pushing it. However if say the Auto box went on a 'premium' car like a Merc after say 4 yrs 40K miles, then my expectation would be that it should be replaced.
I had the rear springs replaced on a Clio at 4 yrs (and this was in the days of 1 yr warranty) with only the gentlest of pushing.
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Frod don't have a good name to protect, so the lack of goodwill is understandable. Avoid Frod dealers (except for free advice of course).
Shop around for a cheaper cat.
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"Shop around for a cheaper cat."
Ours were free moggies. About as much use, and energy, as a 1.1 Allegro.
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>>Frod<<
Am I missing out on some new nickname or have you been hitting the sherry?
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Adam,
Frod - puerile nickname - ie, Fraud. Seems that some people take great delight in making an innocent word to mean something different . New one for the swearfilter me thinks.
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Ahhhh!!!
It's been a long day - I should have joined the dots myself.
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