I've been a lurker of the forum for the past couple of months deciding on whether or not to buy the new explorer. And finally decided to pull the trigger and bought our new 2013 explorer and had it shipped to the dealership. We did the inspection and everything looked fine. There was 1 issue with the top seal in the window on the back driver side passenger door that was fixed very promptly. Over the last 2 weeks, the outer moldings have "raised" away from the body just over an 1/8th of an inch on the driver side and back passenger side doors along with the vent windows seals that have moved well over a 1/4 of an inch. Is this normal?
I took it in to the dealer who sent the request to Ford who denied the claim saying it was in specs. After talking with Customer Care, I've learned that the specs are not out yet for the 2013 model....really??. Anyone know the specs on the gaps of the outer window moldings of the 2013 Explorer?
Has anyone had this happen to them? If you did, what was your resolution?
The dealer keeps saying that 95% of the Explorers on the lot have this, so there is no issue, but if I bought it when the moldings were set correctly, doesn't that show they are moving? He couldn't tell me the condition the other explorers on the lot came in as. But that was also Fords response. If they all have it, its not an issue. Definitely not an acceptable answer.
It really cannot be correct that the molding is allowed to move that much and pull away from the body panels.
#### Updated with pics. They may be hard to tell from. Black on black is hard to show
http://imgur.com/a/6YTdY/all
####
#### Update 2:
Got a call back from customer care escalation Melvin. He repeated the same line. Since the dealership says 95% of the explorers on the lot have some of the same issues as mine, ford is sticking by it's stance that it is in allowable standards.
Doesn't that seem wrong to any of you? I would have expected a more technical answer regarding ACTUALLY measurements, not just well they mostly all have it, so it's correct. I call straight BS on that. I did send a PM to the FordCustSrvc on the forum asking if there are other avenues.
Anyone else have ideas on how to get an answer?
####
Update 3:
Got a call from a Customer Care supervisor who stated that my concerns are valid, but at this time, based on what the dealership says, the case is closed and Ford stands behind their decision. I did get them to concede that the denial was based on normal characteristics shown by other Ford Explorers and not because of a specification of tolerance on the gaps between the body panel and window molding. The dealership will not measure the gap and are the only ones with the ability to converse with Ford Engineers. This whole situation has become so overly complicated. I had asked the dealership to measure the gap so they would send it the engineers who could look up in a reference book and have a quantifiable measurement in which to compare against. I understand if those tolerances are proprietary, all they have to do is say it is within the specification range so you're not seeing an issue or it is outside of our range and you have a valid claim so it will be fixed. Common sense sometimes is hard to find.
I am not giving up this issue until I have a definitive answer.
"...I should tell you that I once spent two-and-a-half hours on the Hewlett-Packard support service just to complain about their support service." - Sheldon, Big Bang Theory
####
I would love to hear your feedback!
Thanks,
Matt