"New to me" 2013 Limited owner with 2 questions

[2000GM]

My wife bought a 2013 Limited AWD the other day. I never got a chance to look at it until we picked it up the next night.....yes, I know...big mistake not seeing it until night time. Anyhow, today I notice paint overspray on the top edge of the black plastic piece that forms the lower part of the rear quarter panel and bumper, which wraps around the whole car. It sure looks to me like sloppy paint work was done, but in the past I've had other Fords with issues like this, only to find out by looking at other brand new ones on the lot that it comes from the factory like that. So, as a shot in the dark, I'm asking if this is normal. This is the driver's side. The passenger's side has SOME, but not as bad. Carfax says no accidents, but I know how that goes.

Also, today my wife had the following happen to her twice. She backed out of a driveway, put it in Drive, and drove off normally, but quickly realized she was stuck in 1st gear. It wouldn't upshift. It was NOT in MANUAL mode, but acting like it was. She said lifting off the throttle did nothing. She then put it in manual mode, hit the upshift button, and it shifted. Then put in back in Drive, and it was normal again. She's not a gearhead, but she knows her way around cars. She's owned and driven everything from Mustangs to full size pickups and SUV's to small sports cars, etc. with both auto and manual transmissions. She's no dummy, so when she swears to me that she didn't accidentally put the shifter in Manual mode, I believe her. I drove the car 40 miles to work tonight, and didn't have a single transmission hiccup. Is this anything that is common on these?

All in all we're not too happy with this car. We paid near the top of the market value price range because it was "Certified Pre-Owned" and because it was one of only a couple of examples in a 50 mile radius that had the power rear liftgate and power folding 3rd row. The check engine light came on the second day we had it. I read the code and it came up something to the effect of the evap system not establishing vacuum. When we brought it to the dealer yesterday then said the purge valve was bad and they replaced it...whether they actually did so or just reset the CEL, I'm not to confident.

Then there's the paint bubbling along the underside of the hood's edge. I've read about that issue a bit on this site, but of course, not until it was too late. Has Ford been stepping up and fixing this issue for people?

Thanks for any input.

 

[Halwg]

Looks to me that there was some body work done on your unit! And it wasn't done very well! I would say it probably had some minor body damage that wouldn't go on record with Carfax.

 

[1995E]

An accident definitely took place. Either that or the car was repainted. There is no way there would be over spray from factory because the car is painted as a whole and then dried before the plastic cladding is put on. I'd go to the dealer, give them hell for it, and then I'd call Ford's customer service team and give them hell for selling you a car that was supposedly "certified pre-owned" but it was obviously terrible quality with a false carfax history.

 

[cwescapexlt4x4]

I had the purge valve go on mine as well, but not uncommon as the miles increase.
How many miles on your 13?

 

[roamingphantom]

Cant speak for any of the other issues. However, I had the paint bubbling issue approved, and fixed by Ford last week. It took a few weeks to get the appt. for the body shop to get it done but as far as approval it took a day after the pics were "sent to them"

 

[jarettp]

Dude, your wife had the car in manual mode. Accept it and move on. It happens to me as well from time to time.

 

[wjfawb0]

It's possible the dealership took this car on trade or bought it at auction and had their body shop respray the bumper cover due to some 5mph "rubbing's racing" type marks on the cover. I replaced the evap cannister solenoid on my wife's 2013 limited AWD, but I don't think it was actually faulty. Her car was an AVIS rental car from the west coast, and it only had 30,000 miles or so.

The PTO (awd transfer case on right front driveshaft) started puking out fluid on my wife's while still under warranty. That's not uncommon for the poor AWD system in the explorer, taurus, edge, flex, etc. My wife is happy with her explorer, but it has given us more trouble than any other car we've had. She had a 2012 Focus Titanium before it, and it had the computer controlled manumatic 6 speed that shimmied and shook the car on take offs. Today, the only thing I would buy from ford is an F-series truck or a mustang. All of their FWD stuff is junk to me. They're aware too, because they are trying to get out of warranty work as much as possible because of all it is costing them.

My wife will likely be driving a toyota again next time a car change happens. She doesn't mind boring, and I don't mind not having to fight customer service when crap breaks under warranty.

 

[Ecobeast]

It's possible the dealership took this car on trade or bought it at auction and had their body shop respray the bumper cover due to some 5mph "rubbing's racing" type marks on the cover. I replaced the evap cannister solenoid on my wife's 2013 limited AWD, but I don't think it was actually faulty. Her car was an AVIS rental car from the west coast, and it only had 30,000 miles or so.

The PTO (awd transfer case on right front driveshaft) started puking out fluid on my wife's while still under warranty. That's not uncommon for the poor AWD system in the explorer, taurus, edge, flex, etc. My wife is happy with her explorer, but it has given us more trouble than any other car we've had. She had a 2012 Focus Titanium before it, and it had the computer controlled manumatic 6 speed that shimmied and shook the car on take offs. Today, the only thing I would buy from ford is an F-series truck or a mustang. All of their FWD stuff is junk to me. They're aware too, because they are trying to get out of warranty work as much as possible because of all it is costing them.

My wife will likely be driving a toyota again next time a car change happens. She doesn't mind boring, and I don't mind not having to fight customer service when crap breaks under warranty.

Toyota, you mean the most recalled brand in America? Ok.

 

[wjfawb0]

Toyota, you mean the most recalled brand in America? Ok.

My 02 Tacoma, 10 Tacoma, and the wife's 00 Celica, 06 Rav4 were all pretty much perfect running cars that never had an issue. My 02 GT Mustang, 03 Cobra Mustang, and 10 F150 never had issues either. The 12 Focus, 13 explorer, and the stories I read here and elsewhere on the newer ford FWD platforms are not encouraging.

I haven't owned a car that didn't have a recall or service bulletin. My 15 jeep wrangler has a recall, my 13 WR250R, my 10 F150, and the 13 explorer already had the fuel pump assembly recalled. You have a nice statistic there, but the devil is in the details.

 

[ECinEI]

Toyota, you mean the most recalled brand in America? Ok.

My wife has had two Lexus RX models, a 2001 and a 2007. In fact, we came out of the 2007 into her 2015 Sport. Both were essentially problem free. The dealer experience, albeit pricey, was excellent for us. We received warranty extensions for at least two issues, one for leaking headlights and the other cracking dashboards. Her car didn't have either of these issues, but we did receive extended coverage should issues develop.

The equivalent for Ford would be extended warranty covering failing paint on aluminum body parts and power steering problems, which to Fords credit, they did extend coverage on power steering issues if I understand things correctly.

 

[1Aauto]

Welcome to the site it's great to have you here

Tony:wavey: