A Sad Aviator Story

[esandye]

I was called yesterday and informed that my Aviator reserve that I ordered labor day week-end was at the dealer and ready for pickup today--hooray. When I got there this morning, the salesman, when wiping the car down after washing, noted many dots of blue paint on the R fender and hood. The car is pristine white so these spots were very noticeable. The blue spots could not be felt rubbing your hand over the spot so they appeared to be under the clearcoat layer. There were several other areas, also R front, where the paint was rough to touch. Paint splatters were on the plastic cladding at the rocker panel as well. The rest of the paint and car itself were good.

I commend the Dealer for pointing this our and knowing I wouldn't be happy. it would be a major fix with sanding, repainting and replacing body cladding, all for shoddy workmanship at the factory. This car should never have been released for shipment. It was build on 11-7-19 so not an early car. The dealer and I agreed I would not accept the car in this condition and they would contact Lincoln for a resolution and look for me another car with the same special order equipment for a dealer trade. It is quite the disappointment after waiting 12 weeks for it to come in.. Has anyone else had factory paint issues like this? If it was minor, I would have had them fix it but this was almost 1/4 of the car that was affected.

 

[peterk9]

That's very unfortunate. I agree that something like that should not have passed the final inspection at the factory. I hope you luck in and the dealer is able to locate a similar one, minus the paint abnormalities, matching your order specs. Good luck.

Peter

 

[steweod]

Was it shipped by train? Could have got paint on it from some little ***** tagging trains. If that is the case they may be able clay bar it or some other buffing compound then either just wax it or worse case a simple clear coat respray.

 

[blwnsmoke]

I agree about seeing if a claybar would take it out.

The vehicles are painted in batches of the same color so for blue paint to just be in yours wouldn't make any sense. Either it can come put or there are other parts out there on other vehicles with the same spots.

 

[esandye]

I agree about seeing if a claybar would take it out.

The vehicles are painted in batches of the same color so for blue paint to just be in yours wouldn't make any sense. Either it can come put or there are other parts out there on other vehicles with the same spots.

 

[esandye]

That's very unfortunate. I agree that something like that should not have passed the final inspection at the factory. I hope you luck in and the dealer is able to locate a similar one, minus the paint abnormalities, matching your order specs. Good luck.

Peter

Now an update to this story. The dealer had Lincoln reps inspect the car and agreed it was defective. They offered $3500 off the replacement vehicle on top of my deal worked out with the dealer. The dealer had a car in transit I would accept— identical to the original order except buckets in rear rather than full seat. Grandkids can just filter back to the 3 rd row!! It’s on the train and I hope to have it next week. It’s going to work out.

 

[blwnsmoke]

Now an update to this story. The dealer had Lincoln reps inspect the car and agreed it was defective. They offered $3500 off the replacement vehicle on top of my deal worked out with the dealer. The dealer had a car in transit I would accept— identical to the original order except buckets in rear rather than full seat. Grandkids can just filter back to the 3 rd row!! It’s on the train and I hope to have it next week. It’s going to work out.

Sweet deal. I'd jump all over that one if it was me. Dont forget to post pics when you get it.

 

[Yehaman]

Glad it’s working out for you, were excited to get ours as well.

 

[umopepisdn]

That's very unfortunate. I agree that something like that should not have passed the final inspection at the factory. I hope you luck in and the dealer is able to locate a similar one, minus the paint abnormalities, matching your order specs. Good luck.

Peter

I am a trim/electrical tech at a major ford dealer in Texas, and lemme tell ya, the launch of the 2020 aviator/explorer platform was the most awful vehicle launch in terms of QC that I’ve heard of in a long time. So many things were missed on so many models(even had a unit delivered from factory WITHOUT BRAKE PADS. I personally had one in my stall (our very first black label and preproduction model which was supposed to be for our showroom) it arrived in august 2019. Passed PDI , but got very very wet inside the cabin during the first rain it was exposed to. We thought initially that a porter or valet had left a window open on it. No no no, this leak was coming through the lower left hand corner of the windshield....pouring water directly onto the body control module, and dash harnesses, causing extensive corrosion inside the 57 pin (not exact number, just estimate) connections. After tear down, removal of all seats, carpet, dash panel assembly, found that the windshield was missing, YES MISSING, 6 inches (no exaggeration, it was measured) of window sealant in that lower left corner. Directly exposed to the elements. Anyways, finding parts to repair this was a big big pain, ford had not produced ANY replacement components for these at the time this happened, so everything we ordered to recondition this aviator came straight off the assembly lines Effectively putting this $90,000 SUV out of service for 6 months waiting on $18,000 worth of replacement parts to arrive.(BCM,Dash harness, several interior panels(wrapped in white suede), black label carpet, bulkhead insulator, and more bits and bobs that came from factory messed up). Just a warning about the aviator, it’s been in production for a while, things are beginning to smooth out, but this is a problem-ridden, overpriced “luxury” suv in my humble opinion. We have nearly 100 of them on our lot now that have been re-acquired by fomoco as case study vehicles. They were all re acquired by ford due to their selling dealerships not being able to repair them or even diagnose their many many gremlins in the first place. Fair warning, I recommend waiting a few years to purchase a new gen aviator or explorer. They’re awful right now. Great potential, but ford should have waited another year or so to put them into full production. Many many simple quality control things were missed from rushing the production process on these stupid things. Last thing I’ll say is that at our dealership, the aviator has earned the nickname “avi-hater” by our service department.