From: davel@ampex.com (Dave Larkins)
Subject: Re: Ford kicked my ass in court
Summary: LONG.......
Organization: Ampex Corporation, Redwood City CA
Distribution: rec
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 22:04:28 GMT

In article <PHILG.92Nov18112615@zug.ai.mit.edu> philg@martigny.ai.mit.edu writes:
>
>I promised to let you know how my motion to compel discovery went and
>here is the somewhat sorry tale...
>

Lots of stuff deleted .......

>
>      -- Philip Greenspun
>

I have entered this discussion very late as I do not normally read this group,
but I have an ongoing gripe with Ford that I am having no sucess with. After
four years of fighting with and being insulted by various service departments,
I mailed the following letter to the VP of quality in Dearborne. This was a
couple of months ago, and I am now somewhat upset at no reply. My biggest problem
is that the car still "works" but I feel that I have lost significant value
and equity during my ownership. If anyone has suggestions for a further course
of action, they would be well received, but if nothing else please take this
as a warning before purchasing that Ford.


Re. Ford Taurus VIN ------------

Dear Mr. Benton,

	It is with regret that I am finally forced to write this letter 
concerning the quality of my Ford automobile. As I and the media 
watching population at large have recently and repeatedly had the 
message of superior and improving quality from the Ford Motor Co., I 
feel that it is important that I bring to your attention the apparent 
reverse phenomena that I am experiencing with my Ford automobile.

	This sad story began in 1988 as I became the proud owner of a 
new and much hailed Ford Taurus. This vehicle was purchased from 
the Ford-Lincoln-Mercury dealership in Grass Valley, California. 
Within the week, all post sales issues had been dealt with, such as a 
few minor imperfections in the finish and the driver's door handle 
never having been attached. At this time, my family and I believed 
that we were embarking upon a long term and rewarding 
relationship with our new vehicle.

	The first problem arose approximately three months after 
purchase, with the finish. It appeared as though someone had 
run the car through a sandblaster, with virtually no shine at all left 
on the paintwork, and odd smeary patches abounding. This seemed a 
little strange to me, as I actually used another vehicle to travel to 
work, and the Ford rarely left my garage excepting for short 
weekend jaunts. As I remembered that the sales staff of the 
dealership had been so friendly when I met them during the 
purchase of the vehicle, I didn't hesitate to return the car for 
attention to the paintwork. They dutifully ran the car through a 
carwash and, I believe, hand polished it, then returned it to me in 
much the same condition as before. Much emphasis was placed on 
the possibility that I may have tried to wax the vehicle myself, and 
that this should never be done. Although this went against my 
previous experiences and many published works on the issue of car 
care, including the Taurus Owners Manual, I foolishly accepted their 
accusations and presumed that the problem had been caused by my 
staring at the vehicle too hard.

	I was unfortunately distracted from the paintwork issue by a 
host of other finish quality problems that seemed to appear on a 
weekly basis. The first occurrence was when I noticed that the 
headliner had separated from the roof of the car, and after 
admonishing my innocent children for being rowdy in the back seat, 
for it was they I initially suspected of the damage, I looked further 
for the cause of the problem. I inspected the plastic rivets that had 
previously secured the headliner in place, and lo and behold, all the 
attachment devices had disintegrated and embarrassing as it was, I 
had to admit to my children that it was gravity and not they, that 
was the culprit. I quickly found out that General Motors have far 
superior plastic rivet technology than Ford, and to this day, the 
headliner is attached with non color-coordinated plastic rivets of GM 
origin. As I indicated, many other quality problems manifested 
themselves, such as door trim peeling off, chrome trim decomposing, 
rubber trim disintegrating etc.etc. I really had to say to myself 
'Should this be expected from a car that is now one year old, with 
10,000 miles and garage kept every day?'.

	Around this time, a problem occurred with the fuel level gage. 
This was what I now understand to be a common defect in Ford cars 
of the period, as an inability to indicate any amount of gasoline in the 
tank other than "full" or "empty". As you can imagine, this could 
present some challenge in ensuring that a gas station was available 
within the few miles the gage changed from reading full to reading 
empty. Nevertheless, the car was only eleven months old, so the 
problem was repaired immediately by the dealership and I returned 
to the luxury of knowing whether I should stop at a gas station or 
not. Unfortunately a little over a month later, after the warranty had 
transferred from new vehicle to ESP (Extended Service Plan, an 
expensive option), the problem with the gas gage manifested itself 
again. This time, previous problems notwithstanding, I was informed 
by the service department that this subsystem was not fully covered 
by the warranty and it would cost me $50 to find out whether the 
defective part was a covered part. I paid the $50 and received the 
expected reply that the defective part was not covered and received 
blank stares when I questioned the possibility that the original 
repair a little over one month previously had been defective. 
Imagine my chagrin when I also found out that in the process of 
diagnosing the problem, the service department had omitted to 
replace half the screws attaching the vehicle dashboard to the 
interior. I must point out at this time, that to claim quality, I feel that 
you should demonstrate quality in all aspects of manufacture, sales 
and service, and that I feel that your appointed service department 
was sorely lacking in this area.

	At this point, I decided that a conversation with a management 
figure within the dealership would be appropriate, so I proceeded to 
arrange a meeting with and meet the VP of Sales for the 
organization. I briefly explained to this individual the history of 
problems with the vehicle and attempted to discuss some form of 
get-well plan. The exact response of your representative was "I sell 
lots of Fords, and the Taurus is one of the most popular. You should 
know that some vehicles are just lemons and it looks like you bought 
one. If you want to buy another car let's talk." I have to admit, that 
even with my placid nature, at this time I questioned his relationship 
to the human race, and was forced to leave the situation as it was. I 
have since realized that I probably gravely wronged this pitiful 
individual, because most of the service agents I have talked with 
since this episode have referred to all Taurus of this vintage and 
older as "lemons". Own up Mr. Ford, is there something you are 
hiding?

	As I am definitely not the "whining" type, and as my wife tells 
me, too forgiving, I let the quality issues slide, apart from returning 
the continuous Ford quality questionnaire with the appropriate boxes 
checked to indicate 'No I am not pleased with your quality' and ' Yes 
I would like a Ford representative to call me'. I am still surprised 
that I never received an answer. Are you sure Mr. Ford, that your 
quality figures are not established by filing the negative comments 
in the round file?. 

	Eventually I was soon distracted by a far more serious problem 
that arose during the first long distance drive we made in the car, a 
return trip from Grass Valley CA to San Luis Obispo CA, of 
approximately 1000 to 1200 miles. On the return journey I felt a 
slight indifference in the steering, nothing much, but enough to 
unnerve me into stopping to check the front tires, wheels and 
steering. As everything seemed in order, we continued our journey 
home, and I took the car to the Ford dealership the next day. I was 
promptly informed that the vehicle was out of warranty and again 
that problems such as alignment were not covered by the ESP 
warranty plan. Still concerned about the alignment, I immediately 
took the car to an independent alignment company (Firestone) for a 
second opinion. It was quickly confirmed that the rear wheel 
alignment was out of manufactured specification and had caused tire 
damage to the point where the vehicle was extremely unsafe. Upon 
extensive questioning of the service person at the alignment 
company, it became apparent that the problem was caused during 
manufacture and that the design of the rear wheel assembly 
prohibited adjustment to bring the alignment within manufacturing 
specification. The only solution to the problem was to fit an 
aftermarket adjustment kit to the rear end to enable compensation 
to manufacturing defects to be made. To be fair to the dealership, 
they did pay for the replacement of the two rear tires that were 
destroyed, but none of the cost of the adjuster kit or the lost use of 
the vehicle. I often wonder whether Ford would have been liable had 
the damaged tires caused an accident.

	The story continues with numerous issues such as water pump 
failure, head gasket blown, A/C failure and again, more of the plastic 
parts used in the vehicle just disintegrating as though they were 
being attacked by some alien bacteria. Here in California there is 
much emphasis placed on the fact that plastics are a severe problem 
in our landfills because of their slowness to decompose, if the Ford 
Motor Co. has a solution to this problem, perhaps they could report it 
to the Environmental Protection Agency, rather than experimenting 
with paying customers.

	At this point I would have still been prepared to say nothing 
and restrict myself to never buying a Ford again if yet another 
incident indicative of extremely poor all-round quality had not 
occurred recently. After a routine and expensive service by Towne 
Ford of Redwood City, CA, I was informed by the service agent that 
the complete braking system on the vehicle was worn out and would 
cost $1000 to repair. This would include rebuilding the front and 
rear brakes and replacing the master cylinder. My obvious answer 
was 'No problem, the vehicle is still well within the ESP warranty' 
where I would expect to pay only for items such as fluid and brake 
pads/shoes. Immediately this fickle service agent replied 'The brakes 
are worn to the metal so the warranty is void' and backed it up with 
a vacant stare defeating any further discussion. I was very puzzled 
with this situation as the vehicle has always had regular service by 
appointed Ford agents, and this was certainly the first indication of 
any trouble. Anxious to determine the real situation with the car's 
brakes, I took the car home and dismantled the necessary parts 
myself. On doing this I discovered that one front brake pad was 
heavily worn because it's caliper was sticking and had favoured this 
pad, but neither this nor any other of the brake pads or shoes were 
worn to the point of having metal touch the braking surface. The 
materiel remaining on the other pads/shoes was approximately 50% 
of that of new units. I do not believe this is a situation that permits 
the voiding of my warranty and am getting very weary of this 
incessant evasion of a warranty service that I was persuaded to pay 
a large amount of cash for. At this time I fully intend to search for 
other avenues of solution to the problem. Also as California is a very 
litigatious state, the service agent was prompt and clear to point out 
that as he had decided that the brakes were worn, Towne Ford would 
accept no responsibility for any accident caused by faulty brakes. 
This seems to me a very unilateral approach to determining 
individual liability.

	Whilst I discuss the issues of safety and liability, may I also 
bring to your attention the unusual performance of the vehicle just 
yesterday whilst driving my wife and young son to the local 
supermarket. Shortly after noticing a momentary pause in the 
normal running of the engine, the engine cut out and the car stopped. 
It also began to emit copious clouds of smoke from under the hood, 
which upon inspection proved to be a serious problem with the 
alternator. As the engine was stopped and the ignition off, and the 
smoke appeared to be getting worse, I attempted to remove the 
wires connected to the alternator to prevent the total loss of the 
vehicle to fire. This I achieved but was unfortunately rewarded by a 
spray of molten plastic over my hand and shirt. As I have owned 
many cars, I have realized that it is an expected fact that the 
alternator will fail every so often, but not until I owned a ford have I 
seen one self-destruct in such a spectacular manner. I also wonder 
who would have been liable if this had happened whilst travelling at 
speed on the freeway causing a much more serious incident. As 
explained by your customer service department, this part is covered 
under warranty and I shall have the vehicle towed to the dealership 
as soon as possible, but I will not be at all surprised if they try to 
squirm out of the repair as in previous instances.

	In conclusion, I feel that your advertising campaign expressing 
the fact that quality is the number one issue with Ford is misleading 
and incorrect, in particular with the vehicle and service that I have 
purchased from Ford. I also feel that the Ford Motor Co. does not 
sufficiently address safety aspects of it's vehicles in that my vehicle 
has suffered three potentially life-threatening failures in the 42,000 
miles it has now been driven. 

	I realize that I have very little power to demand a rebuttal of 
these quality claims, but the avenues at my disposal are several. In 
the near future, I intend to mail a copy of this letter to several large 
newspapers, automobile magazines and TV stations, along with 
posting it to a worldwide computer network that is accessed by 
millions of potential Ford customers, in the hope that someone may 
question the claims of your media campaign and re-evaluate their 
purchasing decisions. I also require that you arrange for a reputable 
Ford dealership to provide an accurate written diagnosis of the 
problems with the braking system on my vehicle, to enable myself or 
others to decide the liability for repair.

	I eagerly await your response.

		Cordially,

--------- end of letter --------

Regards		davel@ampex.com

Newsgroups: rec.autos