Warranty useless? (long)

Consider that Ford may have programmed that computer not to generate codes for transmission problems.

They have a proud 60 year history of being too incompetent to properly engineer automatic transmissions. There's always at least one garbage transmission in their lineup.
 
So, long story short in case anyone wonders what happened with this disaster. I took the trip to the selling dealer 600 miles away. Took a ride with the service manager, which tried explaining to me that the automated manual that I have isn't as smooth as a traditional tranny. I told him I have the 6f15 not the automated manual. So we went for a ride and of course the car is having an exceptionally good day. Honestly, not sure if they may have reset the shift patterns before we went on a ride. I did manage to get the car to mildly do what it does wrong. His reply to me? It isn't a cvt, you are going to feel it shift. So basically he told me it wasn't that bad. He agreed to replace the heated steering wheel which obviously wasn't heating evenly. But he knew it had to be done by Thursday of that week because I was then headed back home. So, he ordered the steering wheel and I went back to my hotel which was 90 min away. Come Thursday I went back to the dealer, 90 min drive away. They didn't get the steering wheel in time. Went back to my hotel 90 min away and called Ford to see what now? They said that they want the car to tear down the tranny and see what is going on. I told them it would have to happen today (Thursday) because I am headed home at 5am since it is a 12 hour drive. They said to get the car to the dealer and then I can find a way to Enterprise to rent myself a car on my dime for the trip home. I was like NO, I am not paying for a rental and my car while you have it in the shop for who knows how long. They said (FORD), they would see what they could do and for me to call the dealership and arrange to drop it off. This was already around 1pm and it needed to happen soon if it was going to be dropped off. Called the dealer and nobody had a clue as to what was going on. The service manager was supposed to call me back and never did. Called again and he was "busy with a customer", they ignored me and never returned any calls. So basically they don't really care. Ended up driving it back home, wasted trip and an additional 2,000 miles on my car. Dealer even had enough guts to call me and let me know that they now don't know what to do with the steering wheel since I didn't let them replace it. Like I was going to go 90 min out of my way before a 12 hour trip home to let them put on a steering wheel at some point during that day then drive home for 13.5 hours.

So basically Ford was of no help, my car obviously doesn't come with a warranty since I can not get anyone to honor it. Ford has now called and wants to get it into a local dealer and take a look at it. The most recent tune that was put on the car basically avoids 2nd gear since that is where the problem exists. So it only uses 2nd if it absolutely has to. If I drive it in manual mode, I can shift it into 2nd and get it to do it's slip/clunk thing just about every time. But now if you slow down for a turn and then continue, it continues in third at 1,000 rpm. It doesn't really matter how much it acts up because the dealers don't want to fix it anyway. So I contacted an attorney and we will see what happens with that. My problem is that I am getting close to the one year cap on doing anything lemon law related so this will either fix it, or it will now truly be my problem. Only time will tell at this point. Never ,ever buying a Ford product and probably never a new car again. It seems to be a waste of money, nobody seems to honor a warranty claim. Glad I have my old LeSabre around to drive, which is reliable and cost me just over one of my car payments on the Focus. I guess I will update if anything else happens, my guess is I will be stuck with this one. Lesson learned
 
Rubbing salt in the wound, did I miss something regarding your decision to spend so much time and money taking it to the selling dealer 600 miles away?

You either need to stick to your guns or lose a huge amount of money trading for another vehicle. Sorry for your predicament.
 
Originally Posted by KrisZ
I would follow their advice, I would drive it hard until it left me stranded or threw a code.


This is what I would do. Run it hard to it grenades and then it will get fixed. Then get rid of it when you are able to.
 
71Chevyguy, I'm sorry to hear about the runaround you've gotten.

I'm surprised more of these don't have the glitch where they suddenly drive themselves through the front of Ford dealership buildings.
 
There is no fix.

Even if the dealer puts a brand new transmission in the car, it'll still do the same thing soon. They're garbage. I'm amazed you didn't know this before buying it.

Cut your losses now before the car depreciates more, and trade it in.

You don't want to own this car after warranty.
 
If you want warranty service, you have to jump through their hoops, and if you don't, then (in their view) you don't want service.

There is nothing in the warranty about distance to dealer, free rental car, etc., if you get any of things consider it a bonus.

Dealers have some unflattering terms for customers who want things when they want it, where they want it. Despite the considerable inconvenience, I do things their way and keep at it until I get what I need, unless the expense far outweighs the benefit.
 
Originally Posted by Nick1994
There is no fix.

Even if the dealer puts a brand new transmission in the car, it'll still do the same thing soon. They're garbage. I'm amazed you didn't know this before buying it.

Cut your losses now before the car depreciates more, and trade it in.

You don't want to own this car after warranty.



In the rest of the world they have been using a traditional geared automatic for the past few years on both the older and current new Fiesta (not in the US) and Focus as well.
I wonder how easy it would be to put the geared unit in one of these power sh!t equipped cars.
 
My suggestion, either you lose a few thousand and trade it in now before the whole thing completely falls apart or pay a few hundred, hire a lawyer and start a lemon law buy back process. Don't try to do it on your own in my opinion, Let the lawyer to their job
 
Originally Posted by hemitom
well i really hate to recommend this but at this point i would do some 4000rpm neutral drops to drive until something lets go, tow it to the dealer and say here you go total transmission failure fix it now.


Mmmm, I don't trust that the computer crap on new cars wouldn't rat him out.
 
Originally Posted by DweezilAZ
Originally Posted by hemitom
well i really hate to recommend this but at this point i would do some 4000rpm neutral drops to drive until something lets go, tow it to the dealer and say here you go total transmission failure fix it now.


Mmmm, I don't trust that the computer crap on new cars wouldn't rat him out.


I'm sure it has torque management anyway, so this wouldn't end up doing much of anything.
 
Man so much ridiculousness in this thread. While it's a frustrating situation, this happens to EVERY car manufacture. Now this transmission IS NOT the DCT that Ford absolutely screwed the pooch on but that is an entirely different story.

Many people have it right, document your case with Ford, research your lemon laws in your state, and (depending on comfort level) possibly hire an attorney and push for buy back plus expenses.That's it in a nutshell. Anything else is just ranting.
 
Originally Posted by skyactiv
Ford knows about the issues these are having and aren't working with the dealers. It's about numbers and Ford is shafting the dealers and the dealers are shafting their customers.
Complaining to Ford stating "I'll never buy another Ford Product" doesn't phase them, they know that.
if you want to discuss anything to Ford, bring this up to them and follow through with it if Ford blows you off. https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/VehicleComplaint/

Ford is out of the car business pretty much. It is like complaining to sears about bad customer service at this point :lol:.
I had my car state inspected at Ford and I noticed an attitude toward customers who had new cars with issues.
The people who buy their trucks are another breed.
It is totally sad but TRUE. FORD has pretty much taken themselves out of the car business. They even made an announcement a year or so back. The only non Truck or SUV they will produce and sell will be the Mustangs. There seems to be an endless supply of young folks scooping up the Mustang no matter the costs. Similar to the folks buying all the Dodge Chargers / Challengers which I would love to own. Even looked into it and found too many folks who owned one that could not wait to get rid of cause they were in the Dealer Shop for repairs far too often and waiting for parts! UGH... cars sitting at dealer.
 
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