The horrors of owning a Ford

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › The horrors of owning a Ford - my story

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#1806449 25-Jun-2017 16:10

dejadeadnz:

Fred99:

2015 Focus "Trend" I hired in Auckland a few weeks ago was quite the most unpleasant modern car I've driven

I'd be curious to hear why you came to that conclusion. I rented a similar car (think my one was a 2016) a few months ago. Whilst it has lost the horrible dual clutch, I found its lack of power and responsiveness appalling (and I am quite a nana driver). The seats also seemed to be devoid of cushioning. The autoexpert.com.au guy did a comparison video (partly) between the Focus and Mazda 3 in terms of its power and torque and I recalled that the stats were truly not pretty when it came to the Ford.

Mainly the awful DCT when driving in traffic. The model I hired had plenty of power. Awful cluttered dash and steering-wheel control layout with far too many buttons and an absolutely hideously unintuitive touch screen. The whole "user experience" thing seemed to have been conceived by someone who designs cheap toys for a living. Cheaply made and over-featured was my impression. In my opinion, that's a very bad combination - there's too much that can go wrong, and based on my impression of the quality, I expect that many of those things will go wrong.

Fred99

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#1806451 25-Jun-2017 16:14

BlinkyBill:

It just amuses me that someone would rail against a Ford, then buy the same car - as a Mazda!

Same "platform" does not equal same "car".

eluSiveNZ

188 posts

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#1806453 25-Jun-2017 16:24

Fred99:

BlinkyBill:

It just amuses me that someone would rail against a Ford, then buy the same car - as a Mazda!

Same "platform" does not equal same "car".

Mazda2 is no longer based off the Ford, this changed with the current DJ model, 2015+ (assuming OP is buying this model)

dejadeadnz

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#1806463 25-Jun-2017 16:29

eluSiveNZ:
Fred99:

BlinkyBill:

It just amuses me that someone would rail against a Ford, then buy the same car - as a Mazda!

Same "platform" does not equal same "car".

Mazda2 is no longer based off the Ford, this changed with the current DJ model, 2015+ (assuming OP is buying this model)

Blinkybill just wants to run off on his own little tangent. Apparently just because the cars share a body platform (amd his information is apparently based off the US range), everyone should just act like the engine, transmission, and other differences don't matter.

Lots of quite different cars and manufacturers with vastly different reputation and attitudes towards consumers' rights even run off the same or similar platforms, e.g. Renaults and Nissans. I guess we should all just pretend they are the same.

MackinNZ

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#1806464 25-Jun-2017 16:30

I don't think it's entirely fair to tar all Ford cars with the same brush.

I've had three ford Mondeo's, a mk2, mk3 and currently have a 2014 mk4. All three of them have been great cars with very few problems.

I'm aware of the dual-clutch transmission issues in some Ford models but mine is a regular torque converter automatic.

However, I agree with everything that has been written about John Andrew Ford. I no longer take my car there, they charge exorbitant prices and the quality of their work is very poor IMO.

surfisup1000

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#1806465 25-Jun-2017 16:33

dejadeadnz:

and why I'll never touch a Ford again.

While one owners experience is anecdotal it is for certain that you will tell people never to buy a ford.

But I agree with you. My ford territory bought from new and driven lightly has been the stuff of nightmares. Just got serviced , the initial quote was $1500 from Ford service. It cost $4k because so many things needed replacing . Ball joints (which usually could last an entire lifetime for some cars but this must be the 8th time I've had to replace), bump stops (what?), diff bearing (I'm sure i've been through 4 replacements at $900 a pop).

The rear window fell out once, the cable that connects the transmission to the gear lever 'snapped' , a piece of plastic in the dash tray the size of a 50c coin broke and ford wanted $450 to replace it. Seatbelt wore out, very prematurely. The starter motor failed at around 30k, surely that is unusual. The indicator stalk needed replacing, from memory it was about $700.

I'm currently in process of replacing it though, just looking for something I like. I will never buy an australian assembled vehicle or a ford ever again.

I bet the owner of our ford dealership has a really really big yacht, I paid for it in servicing costs I think.

Dratsab

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#1806479 25-Jun-2017 16:51

surfisup1000: While one owners experience is anecdotal it is for certain that you will tell people never to buy a ford.

But I agree with you. My ford territory bought from new and driven lightly has been the stuff of nightmares. Just got serviced , the initial quote was $1500 from Ford service. It cost $4k because so many things needed replacing . Ball joints (which usually could last an entire lifetime for some cars but this must be the 8th time I've had to replace), bump stops (what?), diff bearing (I'm sure i've been through 4 replacements at $900 a pop).

The rear window fell out once, the cable that connects the transmission to the gear lever 'snapped' , a piece of plastic in the dash tray the size of a 50c coin broke and ford wanted $450 to replace it. Seatbelt wore out, very prematurely. The starter motor failed at around 30k, surely that is unusual. The indicator stalk needed replacing, from memory it was about $700.

I'm currently in process of replacing it though, just looking for something I like. I will never buy an australian assembled vehicle or a ford ever again.

I bet the owner of our ford dealership has a really really big yacht, I paid for it in servicing costs I think.

That sounds horrendous. A seemingly common theme is Aussie built Fords. Amongst the Falcon range, all Aussie built ones (without exception) seem to start rusting out in the boot, from where the gas struts attach, and later around the front windscreen. Although, I had no boot issues with the EB I owned, the windscreen area was starting to go around the time I purchased the AU. I've known a number of people who've had Mondeo's etc and not had these problems.

As for the costs you've related for spares, couldn't agree more. I don't know why people go to Ford for their massively overpriced parts when there's such a strong aftermarket. Ford wanted $600 plus labour to install fog lamps on my Focus. I imported my own along with covers which incorporated 'eyebrow' LED DRL's for about $200 landed and installed them myself. I didn't even bother trying to ask them about extending the reversing lights to the drivers side (instead of just the passenger) and did this myself too. Cost me just under $100 for a LHD reverse lens (from Poland of all places) to which I added a second lampholder so I could still have a rear fog lamp - again installed myself.

That said, I don't think for a second it's just Ford who absolutely gouge customers on parts.

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gzt

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#1806488 25-Jun-2017 17:03

surfisup1000: I bet the owner of our ford dealership has a really really big yacht, I paid for it in servicing costs I think.

John Andrew Ford is owned by Automotive Holding Group (Australia).

The NZ arm is Automotive Holding Group NZ.

- the proud owner of at least two NZ Mazda dealerships. ; )

ratsun81

508 posts

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#1806491 25-Jun-2017 17:11

dejadeadnz:

When you look deeper, it's actually quite easy (and tragically so) to explain how otherwise intelligent, sophisticated people fall for crapbox brands like Ford, Holden, the VW brands, and others of a similar ilk. Especially when you are talking about relatively young-ish professional types who haven't owned many cars and are time poor. In my teens I had a hand-me-down VW Polo from my mum after she bought it as a second car and decided she didn't want it after a year. It had a few minor problems but wasn't too bad. On the premise that "German engineering is better" and the fact that the interior of the then Polo looked so much better than most other small cars, I bought another one in my mid-20s. A large portion of that was paid out of a trade-in that I got for nothing and an inheritance from a grandparent. What could go wrong if you're relatively young and impetuous?

Roll forward a few years, by then I was a late 20s professional on pretty good money but with little time. What did I do? Read lots of reviews by motor writers, lots of whom named the Fiesta their Car of the Year or at least Small Car of the Year. That's gotta be worth something, right? Then you also account for the fact that in those days the Mazda 2 was pretty poorly speced, the Yaris/Corolla were boring, noisy, and had poor interiors, and people's general allergy towards the Korean cars (irrationally as they might be, I also held it), the Fiesta became an "obvious" choice if I wasn't going to touch the Euros. And this is coming from a guy who isn't a car nut and wasn't irrationally attached to Ford's so called "cachet" on the basis of its racing "heritage".

Don't forget also that most car reviewers spend 90% of their reviews talking about how the car drives and how most people focus on the "feel" of the car when they test drive, whilst things like long-term ownership costs/risks often fly out the window. Once you've had a couple of lemons, you actually do smarten up. This and the fact that you start to realise that most motor journalists have less ethics than your average drug dealer or politician, by continuing to recommend the likes of VW or even naming them this and that of the year, despite dieselgate and all their well-known issues.

The trouble is you often have to suffer some pretty steep and significant lessons along the way before you learn. Relatively speaking, I was lucky -- being on a high income and one of the two crapboxes that I paid for still being broadly reliable even if the car was otherwise crap.

Defining crapbox brands based off one persons opinion/experience is not a measure that people should rely on when making a major financial purchase.

What it always comes down to is the local support and responsibility that leaves anyone happy with a particular manufacturer.

I currently own a VAG branded product after many years of saying i would never own a euro. I couldn't be happier with the reliability and servicing costs.

To suggest an entire brand is bad based of one persons poor experience with 1 vehicle is advice i would take with a grain of salt.

wally22

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#1806520 25-Jun-2017 17:35

I'm a 2011 Mondeo 2l turbo diesel owner and I have to agree with servicing costs espoused here, except my beef was with South Auckland Motors.

Shoddy service and exorbitant parts prices. I asked them to see why I had no High Beam on one side. It seemed that I had a main beam bulb hanging out of its socket, but the test report came back "Reset headlight adjustment to specification with beam setter, test OK"

Tried to communicate with them about this failure but was stonewalled.

But I am glad that they installed the new $99.89 + GST fuel filter after I discovered the strife DIY people had doing it themselves. (Bleeding the air out afterwards seems to be the issue.)

Needless to say will not be going back there, or to any Ford service agent for that matter, and will go back to doing my own regular servicing where I can. Its old enough now that the service history will not contribute much to resell price, especially if I trade it in.

152,000km and no major problems. Had a short period where the cruise control was not registering, was just about to take to the switches to clean them when it came right.

I bought it as I needed (wanted) a diesel station wagon, not an SUV, in a set price range. I did discover that Jaguar did one which was a surprise!

Edit: Was a consistent happy VAG owner previously.

dejadeadnz

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#1806526 25-Jun-2017 18:01

ratsun81:

To suggest an entire brand is bad based of one persons poor experience with 1 vehicle is advice i would take with a grain of salt.

Please, if you are going to twist someone's words out of context, at least have the decency of trying harder. It's abundantly clear that I wasn't discussing VAG cars here mainly and that whatever my views are towards VW (they are overwhelmingly negative), I am not telling anyone not to buy a VW based on my experience alone. The same applies to my attitude towards Ford. This kind of post is a great example of why I (and I know this applies to others) have greatly reduced my participation on this forum. Feel free to disagree with me if you want but don't basically launch into a kind of pathetic abuse that's prefaced on setting up an equally pathetic strawman. If your comment was directed at my attitude towards Ford, I guess you can pretend that it's "one persons poor experience with 1 vehicle" (by the way, please try and write in proper English) that's causing a flood of class action lawsuits on that dual clutch crapbox or Ford to release a so called premium sports car with an amazing 2 star NCAAP rating.

But to play your game a bit, here's why I wouldn't buy anything from VAG:

1. Dieselgate

2. Their car/people killer dual-clutch auto

3. Poor reliability, as consistently rated by the likes of US Consumer reports; and

4. For good fun, go and Google how well regarded VW dealers are in Australia and NZ.

surfisup1000: While one owners experience is anecdotal it is for certain that you will tell people never to buy a ford.

But I agree with you. My ford territory bought from new and driven lightly has been the stuff of nightmares. Just got serviced , the initial quote was $1500 from Ford service. It cost $4k because so many things needed replacing . Ball joints (which usually could last an entire lifetime for some cars but this must be the 8th time I've had to replace), bump stops (what?), diff bearing (I'm sure i've been through 4 replacements at $900 a pop).

From my POV, I sure will be telling people about my experience. What concerns me isn't just the fact that the transmission on my car was obviously rubbish. It's the fact that there's abundant evidence that Ford is basically gambling with people's lives with their pathetic 3-step routine. I can forgive mistakes -- but I won't abide by any blatant displays of corporate sociopathy like Ford's little stunt and VW's stunt of risking sending innocent people to their premature deaths just to cheat emission tests. Focusing just on Ford for a moment, it's clear to me that their corporate sociopathy is deeply embedded within the whole lifecycle of dealings one is required/likely to have. Their dealers are generally terribly regarded (ironically even the same dealers tend to behave better on the Mazda side), their service costs are high, and parts costs ridiculously expensive. And they are literally putting out a safety death trap as a "premium" car just to make a few more bucks. Before any Ford apologists come along and say "That Mustang complies with all regulatory requirements!" -- of course it does. Just like how trying to seduce your best friend's widow at her time of desperation isn't illegal but is still completely contemptible. Car manufacturers are all pretty sociopathic -- see how reversing cameras and traction control still aren't available on some cars for proof -- but there are still limits that most won't plumb towards.

Oh did I add that after they reprogrammed the transmission, it started driving as bad as the very extreme examples that one can read on the internet? I started having to maintain astronomical distances with the car in front because I was that afraid.

As for your situation, I would definitely contact Ford and the dealer. Make very clear to them that following the recent decision from the Disputes Tribunal (over the Toyota car keys) confirming that excessively costly car parts essentially mean that the spare parts aren't reasonably available under the CGA, that you consider them to be in breach of the CGA and that you request a reasonable refund. Take them to the DT if you have to. You have a good chance of winning.

gzt: John Andrew Ford is owned by Automotive Holding Group (Australia).

The NZ arm is Automotive Holding Group NZ.

- the proud owner of at least two NZ Mazda dealerships. ; )

Unfortunately, you are right. But if you want a Mazda, you have to buy them from somewhere. By repute though their Mazda servicing costs seem to be much more reasonable.

Dingbatt: Business is so cutthroat at the sales side of things at the moment, a salesman admitted to me that servicing, finance and sales incentives from the manufacturers is what makes the new car business viable.
I wonder how many people such as the OP that Ford have burned over this transmission saga, that will never buy another car from them. It's a shame there isn't a 'Lemon' law in NZ that would require something like this manufacturing/design defect to be recalled and fixed at the manufacturer's expense.

You're quite right. When you mix this in with a potent mix of crap manufacturing, piss poor warranty and service coverage, and generally embedded sociopathy, you're in for a joy ride. A friend of mine recently considered buying a Fiesta ST (he smartened up and bought something else) and as a test of the salespersons' decency, he started asking them how they felt about the crapbox transmissions and whether the ST might have any "catches". As he relayed them to me, one by one the salespeople across all three Auckland dealerships basically praised Ford for having the foresight to abandon the crappy dual clutches and said that people should get over it as cars are only designed to last a few years.

Like I said to Surisup1000 above, the thing that will really get me telling stories to people when it comes to cars is when businesses behave like my and other road users' lives don't matter. Common sense suggests that negative "brand ambassadors" like a few people on here who will never buy Fords again are far, far more damaging than an equivalent group of positive ambassadors.

If you want to laugh at the margins of the aftermarket products, consider the fact that for the price of the John Andrew/North Harbour "Bronze Pack" (windows tinting, paint protection, fabric protection, and nitrogen fill on your tyres) at nearly $1,800, without even trying you can get higher quality paint protection applied (look up Fyne Lab), premium ceremic-based tints applied (which look a lot better than the lowest end 3M that they will inevitably give you and reject more heat), and buy the same bottle of Duraseal fabric protection to spray yourself for less than $900.

dafman

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#1806528 25-Jun-2017 18:05

ratsun81:

Defining crapbox brands based off one persons opinion/experience is not a measure that people should rely on when making a major financial purchase.

What it always comes down to is the local support and responsibility that leaves anyone happy with a particular manufacturer.

I currently own a VAG branded product after many years of saying i would never own a euro. I couldn't be happier with the reliability and servicing costs.

To suggest an entire brand is bad based of one persons poor experience with 1 vehicle is advice i would take with a grain of salt.

I agree, defining crapbox brands off one person's experience is not a measure you should rely on.

However, a quick google gives you a lot more Ford owner experiences to draw upon. And many seem to point to ... crapbox.

smalltrader

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#1806532 25-Jun-2017 18:25

Every Mazda model which uses Mazda's Skyactiv platform is 100% Mazda, not even a hint of Ford's DNA. Skyactiv started with the Mazda CX5 and the last Mazda model to go Skyactiv is the CX9. Skyactiv is robust and far more reliable than anything Ford has.

Dunnersfella

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#1806544 25-Jun-2017 18:59

...servicing costs are one of the reasons why my car will be gone before it's 3 years old / past 100,000k's.

The costs from the likes of North Harbour Ford are truly eye watering!

Still, the only issue so far is when I had to reset the electronics on my CX3 so it could play music via Bluetooth or USB again. It wiped my GPS favourites, but that's okay I suppose. Bring on Carplay I say...

kingjj

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#1806551 25-Jun-2017 19:25

My 2008 Toyota is the subject of a recall at present due to an issue with the rubber seal in the CVT failing causing an oil leak which can cause performance issues (as it does it my car). Toyota sent me a letter advising me of the issue and offering a free replacement. For a 9 year old imported Jap car I was quite surprised. Reading some of the other comments about service issues in sub 10 year old cars I'm amazed other manufactures can get away with such poor service and reliability. We previously had a VW Polo, worse car we've ever had. Cost us more in repairs in the 2 years we had it than we paid. Glad to offload it.

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