Last Saturday we were driving our 2016 Ford Fusion when all the sudden it lost power and the dashboard flashed a few warnings: 1) ServiceTrak needs repair and 2) Hill start not available. We pressed on the accelerator but the vehicle wouldn’t go above 45MPH.
Since we had full warranty we figured let’s not mess around and possibly break down on the highway. Let’s have it towed to Ford in the local city where we always service the car.
Soon as we get there we notice service is closed. So we went to talk to the dealer manager there and asked if we could get a loaner vehicle. He asked: where’d you buy the car?
Now why would someone ask that? Isn’t Ford all Ford?
When we mentioned we bought the car at a different Ford dealer he said he had no loaner vehicles and recommended we get a rental car. Oh, and by the way, the rental car agencies close in 7 minutes. He then walked away. The dealership had a handful of sales guys and the manager himself wasn’t busy. It was a quiet Saturday when we were there. But no offer to drive us to the rental car agency.
We had to get a ride from the tow truck driver to the rental car place. That should be in Ford’s TV commercials. Buy a Ford and if your car is under warranty and breaks down good luck getting to the rental car place.
Come Monday we had no phone calls from the dealer about the car and had to call in to check. It was afternoon. They said they found nothing wrong and that sometimes “wifi” caused this type of thing. Wifi? Maybe they should add that to the TV commercial also: your Ford car may act crazy around wifi. But how could it be wifi when we were in the middle of nowhere on a country road?
So if you are thinking about buying a Ford get it in WRITING that ALL DEALERS will support your warranty and loaner car EVEN if you break down on a weekend. What this really speaks to is a complete lack of customer support from Ford’s dealers. A tribalism. And it also says that Ford’s corporate leaders haven’t instilled in dealers a respect for customers.
Think twice before buying a Ford. Their dealers haven’t shown us that they care about the vehicles — and more important, the customers — they sell to.
UPDATE: we spoke with Ford in Michigan (yes, the corporate HQ) and they got this resolved. The local dealer, however, didn’t apologize for their lack of support.
We suggest some improvement here for Ford car buyers: 1) Have a dealer customer satisfaction rating system and if a dealer falls below a minimum standard then cancel their dealer license or charge them more for vehicles 2) make dealers go through customer service training annually (everyone at the dealer) to ensure they know who pays the bills (us customers).