BigRed2012
Member
- Joined
- June 5, 2012
- Messages
- 10
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Cresskill, NJ
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2015 Ford Explorer XLT
I come from a long line of Ford Explorer owners. My father has always had an Explorer. Over the past 25 years he owned 6 or 7, he and my mother have since transitioned to a ford Edge. My first car was a 2002 Ford Explorer Limited and I remember how excited I was when I drove it off the lot. I have always been a 'Ford Guy' and always recommend Fords to everyone looking for a car. I even get into debates with the GM Guys, and I rep Ford all the way. My '02 was on its last leg back in 2012 after 10 years and 200,000 miles of excellent performance, it was time for a new SUV. Of course i returned to Ford. I expected to have the same amazing experience as I had become accustomed to in the past. I picked out a cinnamon red 2012 explorer xlt with all the options I wanted and was so excited to pick it up. That's where the real story begins.
I had to bring the truck in for service 3 days after i bought it because it kept throwing terrain management system faults. Just 3 days and I was already having an issue but I assumed it was just a fluke and it would be taken care of, boy was I wrong. I have had the SUV for almost 3 years now and have had it in for service 9 or so times usually for the same issues. Terrain management system faults, navigation not working (it used to love to show me driving off roads or in rivers, ridiculous), phone calls not hanging up, hazard lights not working, missing vehicle health report button, missing 911 assist button, Bluetooth audio would still show streaming but no sound, MFT would randomly reboot while i was driving, this list could go on forever but these are the issues I can remember off the top of my head. I do have complete service records for the truck but nor in front of me.
The worst part is that almost every time I brought the truck in, I would get it back saying they could not duplicate the issue. I started taking pictures and videos of these issues happening, still they would give me the truck back saying it was fine. Most times it was in for service they would have it for a week solid, the longest was 17 days in service. Finally the dealership replaced my APIM, this solved nothing really and I continued bringing it back in for service every time something went wrong. Recently (last month) the service manager got involved. I brought my truck in for service again and after a few days I was told that although the diagnostics were coming back fine, he knew it wasn't working as it should. They had it for a few more days and I was told the truck "was incorrectly programmed from the factory." It took almost 3 years of giving me the run around before they admitted the mistake and "fixed" it. Things were working much better after I picked it up.
Until I had to pull over to the side of the road one night. I touched my hazard button and nothing happened. No hazard lights after I tried touching it 100 times. I brought the truck back in immediately. I was asked to wait for the service instead of being put in a loaner, I guess they thought it would be a quick fix. They figured out it was the actual button for the hazards after I had been there 4 or so hours and said they had ordered the part just be patient. While it was there they performed the power steering recall. After 5 hours in service the gentleman came back out to talk to me and said the part wouldn't be there until the next day so they were going to give me a loaner. Long story short 2 days later I was back in my Explorer. Most things were working well at this point, the occasional glitch in MFT (which they blamed on my cellphone, I have used an iPhone 4 and a Galaxy S4 and both have the same results so I'm not sure I believe this reason).
Now we get to tonight a short time before writing this post. I press my Sync button and notice a rattle from the sound system when the voice speaks. I immediately turned on some music and started adjusting the balance and fade to isolate the noise. Imagine my surprise when I find out it's the front passenger side speakers. I nearly lost my mind. The truck is 2.5 years old and has 23,000 miles on it and the speaker is blown. I've never heard of this happening on a new car so soon. Side note: I don't max out the volume in my car ever. I turned to the internet and found that many people are reporting the same issues. I'll be contacting the dealership in the morning.
I can honestly say that this vehicle has almost turned me off to Ford. I can't believe that it took me 2.5 years to get simple issues resolved. I can't believe that more issues kept popping up. I can't believe I had these problems in the first place!
I'm incredibly disgusted that the dealership would return the car to me saying it was fine only to admit my problems were caused by an issue from the factory. It bothers me that it feels like the truck spent more time in service than it did with me (it didn't of course but that's how it feels). Ford has definitely lost some points in my book.
I never expected to be writing a post like this. I had always thought about it but never got pushed to cross the line and do it until tonight. The speaker crackling was the last straw.
I always use the same dealership and I think Ford Corporate should improve the training of it's Service Techs and maybe it's diagnostic tools. I'm going to contact the dealership in the morning as stated and hopefully get this resolved and I'll be adding updates as the process goes on. I only thank god I've been within my 3 year B2B warranty period.
I had to bring the truck in for service 3 days after i bought it because it kept throwing terrain management system faults. Just 3 days and I was already having an issue but I assumed it was just a fluke and it would be taken care of, boy was I wrong. I have had the SUV for almost 3 years now and have had it in for service 9 or so times usually for the same issues. Terrain management system faults, navigation not working (it used to love to show me driving off roads or in rivers, ridiculous), phone calls not hanging up, hazard lights not working, missing vehicle health report button, missing 911 assist button, Bluetooth audio would still show streaming but no sound, MFT would randomly reboot while i was driving, this list could go on forever but these are the issues I can remember off the top of my head. I do have complete service records for the truck but nor in front of me.
The worst part is that almost every time I brought the truck in, I would get it back saying they could not duplicate the issue. I started taking pictures and videos of these issues happening, still they would give me the truck back saying it was fine. Most times it was in for service they would have it for a week solid, the longest was 17 days in service. Finally the dealership replaced my APIM, this solved nothing really and I continued bringing it back in for service every time something went wrong. Recently (last month) the service manager got involved. I brought my truck in for service again and after a few days I was told that although the diagnostics were coming back fine, he knew it wasn't working as it should. They had it for a few more days and I was told the truck "was incorrectly programmed from the factory." It took almost 3 years of giving me the run around before they admitted the mistake and "fixed" it. Things were working much better after I picked it up.
Until I had to pull over to the side of the road one night. I touched my hazard button and nothing happened. No hazard lights after I tried touching it 100 times. I brought the truck back in immediately. I was asked to wait for the service instead of being put in a loaner, I guess they thought it would be a quick fix. They figured out it was the actual button for the hazards after I had been there 4 or so hours and said they had ordered the part just be patient. While it was there they performed the power steering recall. After 5 hours in service the gentleman came back out to talk to me and said the part wouldn't be there until the next day so they were going to give me a loaner. Long story short 2 days later I was back in my Explorer. Most things were working well at this point, the occasional glitch in MFT (which they blamed on my cellphone, I have used an iPhone 4 and a Galaxy S4 and both have the same results so I'm not sure I believe this reason).
Now we get to tonight a short time before writing this post. I press my Sync button and notice a rattle from the sound system when the voice speaks. I immediately turned on some music and started adjusting the balance and fade to isolate the noise. Imagine my surprise when I find out it's the front passenger side speakers. I nearly lost my mind. The truck is 2.5 years old and has 23,000 miles on it and the speaker is blown. I've never heard of this happening on a new car so soon. Side note: I don't max out the volume in my car ever. I turned to the internet and found that many people are reporting the same issues. I'll be contacting the dealership in the morning.
I can honestly say that this vehicle has almost turned me off to Ford. I can't believe that it took me 2.5 years to get simple issues resolved. I can't believe that more issues kept popping up. I can't believe I had these problems in the first place!
I'm incredibly disgusted that the dealership would return the car to me saying it was fine only to admit my problems were caused by an issue from the factory. It bothers me that it feels like the truck spent more time in service than it did with me (it didn't of course but that's how it feels). Ford has definitely lost some points in my book.
I never expected to be writing a post like this. I had always thought about it but never got pushed to cross the line and do it until tonight. The speaker crackling was the last straw.
I always use the same dealership and I think Ford Corporate should improve the training of it's Service Techs and maybe it's diagnostic tools. I'm going to contact the dealership in the morning as stated and hopefully get this resolved and I'll be adding updates as the process goes on. I only thank god I've been within my 3 year B2B warranty period.
