So, just picked up our XLT from the dealer after they repaired some of the outer body panels/molding. The hope was that maybe the loose molding was causing vibrations or changing the airflow enough to cause the fluttering sounds at speed. Where to begin...
Warning: slight thread jack ahead
Bottom line up front: the dealer couldn’t replace all of the paneling issues due to some some parts coming broken on arrival, and the sound remains. But wait, there’s more: they had to drop the headliner to repair the luggage railings, and upon inspecting the vehicle, I noticed a large amount of grease/dirt all over the (tan) headliner from the mechanic. Also, I noticed the passenger A-pillar was not securely fastened, and was barely hanging on by one or two clips.
Of course the service manager has already departed for the day, and the remaining managers won’t help walk through the vehicle with me since they’re closing up. “Just go see the cashier, and everything you need will be on the paperwork,” they said. I grab the sales manager (senior guy there at the time), and walk him through what I found. He offers to clean up the spots the next morning, but he’ll need the car all day. No dice, since I’m in the process of moving across the country and need the vehicle to move stuff into storage.
Besides, that only fixes the stains, what about the A-pillar? Well, they can see me on Monday. Downside is that’s when I was supposed to hit the road. Fortunately, their detail guy is still around and he’s able to get 90% of the spotting off the headliner right then and there. After some finagling, I was able to get the molding to snap back into place as well. Ok, no problem, we can still meet all our timelines.
Fast forward to this afternoon where my wife hops into the driver’s seat. She goes to adjust the seatbelt height (as she does every time she’s gotten into the car), and the slider becomes a garbled mess. It doesn’t go up or down smoothly, won’t secure in any particular position, and locks the seatbelt tensioner unless it’s at the highest position. I check the passenger side and same issue. The plastic around the B-pillar was removed to bring the headliner down during the repairs. So guess who now gets go back to the shop on Monday and lose a day of moving because of shoddy workmanship?
As you might imagine, I am done with this particular dealer—even if I wasn’t moving across the country. We’ve used them for years, and have purchased several vehicles from them, but we ended up getting this Explorer from another dealer in order to get all of the options/pricing we were looking for. Unfortunately, due to military being restricted to our local areas during COVID, I had to purchase the vehicle remotely and have it delivered. When I brought the car to my local dealer for warranty repairs, my service manager gave me a hard time about not taking it to the dealer who I bought it from. I explained that wasn’t happening since I couldn’t go outside of 50 miles of my duty station, and he just rolled his eyes.
Throughout this work order, I’ve expressed that I understood we wouldn’t get a perfect solution to everything. Between my timeline for moving, parts backorders, and their workload, I was just hoping to get some of the easier items fixed and document the rest within my first few weeks of ownership. However, this dealer’s service department has been very unhelpful, slow to communicate, and provided terrible work when it was all said and done.
Outside of calling Ford’s central customer service hotline or the regional office, any recommendations on how to go forward? I’m now losing out on lodging reservations, and eating into my allotted travel time before having to use leave days for my move.
/thread jack
