Subject: 



Fri, 23 Feb 2007 17:17:37 -0600
Date:    





To all the Ford victims,


As of 02-17-2007, I have been butting heads with Ford and their warranty
companies over issues with my 2003 Ford Windstar. Approximately a year
and a half ago we bought the Ford Windstar from a dealership in Madison,
WI. We bought the van with almost 30,000 miles on it. The van still had
a factory warranty and I purchased the extended bumper to bumper
warranty for up to 100,000 miles. I felt at ease and figured I had a
good strong product and was a good investment. The purchase through the
dealership was pleasant but this feeling was short lived. Within the
first 6 months I began having problems with a seals around the passenger
side windows. Every time it would rain, I found the carpet saturated
with water. Shortly after that I would be driving the van and have an
episode from the movie "Close and Counters of the Third Kind". I'd be
driving and the interior lights, NOT JUST ONE, BUT ALL OF THEM, would be
flickering on and off. Believe me, it makes driving interesting at night
when the inside of your van lights up like the sun and you cannot see
past your windshield. And finally, the ABS brake light flashing on and
off at you as if it was telling you that this is going to cost you
big!!! Well, I took the van to a local Ford dealership and was told by
the service manager that he has the same problems with is personal van
and there is nothing that can be done about it. They did inform me that
the warranty would cover the ABS module; I told them to forget it. If
they cannot take the time to fix all the problems then why should I pay
a 100.00 dollar deductible t fix only one problem when there are three
problems? Is to get one hundred dollars per problem? HHMMM, let me
think? So now I left disappointed because I had this problem when I used
to be a loyal Chevy Product person and switched to Ford. Anyways, the
most recent issue was 02-17-2007. I was driving home with my family on a
Saturday night, when my wife smelled something burning. I t was a strong
burnt plastic smell; I then saw the warning light for the overdrive
flickering on and off. A few seconds later, the engine light came on, a
few seconds later the ABS light came on. It looked like the domino
effect in motion. I pulled over and shut the van off. I was hoping maybe
it would reset the lights, why? I don't know. I tried to restart the van
and it didn't want to stay running. Well as luck would have it the van
broke down near the Ford dealership where I took the van before. I
gimped the van to the dealership and contacted them Monday morning. The
dealership told me they would look at the van and call me with what they
find. I received a call on Tuesday and this is what they said:

They performed an EEC Diagnosis and found that when they started to
remove the some of the fuses from the fuse block, the fuses did not blow
but were burnt and melted and fused into the block which shorted out the
PCM relay and possibly damaged the powertrain control module. The fuse
block, wire harness, PCM relay and possibly the PCM need to be replaced.
The service manager told me that these were high ticket priced items.
The fuse block alone was 1500.00 dollars and Labor is 98.00 an hour and
they didn't know how long a job like that would take. He said the van
would need to be inspected by an inspector from the warranty company to
see if it would cover the items.

After this conversation, I told myself how can they not cover it the
dang thing caught fire!! Well surprise, surprise the next day I got a
call to find out the inspector refused to cover it because he found a
sign of corrosion on a terminal in the fuse block. I couldn't believe
that a three year old van would have that much corrosion to create such
a problem but of course that fell on deaf ears. So, I paid the
dealership 187.00 dollars to rip my van apart only to do nothing. I
notified my insurance company and explained to them the incident and
wanted to see if it would be covered under Comprehensive. The insurance
company I've been with for the past 18 years said they won't cover it
unless the van had extensive damage including the dashboard, radio, etc.
Of course, I blew my gasket and told them that why would they cover my
radio and not the fire damage that took place under the hood of my van.
Needless to say we are no longer with that insurance company. So now I'm
beside myself and decided to call the Ford Motor Company. With this call
I spoke with a young girl who sounded no more then 18 years old, and
explained my dilemma. I told her I was extremely upset with the warranty
company. She told me Ford warranties don't cover corrosion but would
take my complaint to the customer affairs department and they would
respond back to me in 7 to 10 business days. First of all who in the
heck is the customer affairs department and second if she is going to
pass the buck, then why am I talking to her!!! I told her I have been
down this road before with Chevy and I don't appreciate that my van
caught fire as I drove it and it put my family's safety in jeopardy. As
I see it Ford has no problem selling the product which they supposedly
back up with so called extended warranties. But when a problem arises,
they sure know how to find a way to use the loop hole and place the
blame on something or someone else. So as the battle continues, I can
pay thousands of dollars out of my pocket to fix their problem or I
continue to pay 466.00 dollars a month for a useless piece of sheet
metal that sits in my driveway. I have to say after this major let down
by Ford, I will buy a foreign car before I set foot into another Ford
dealership.

Jason