I had a problem with my car yesterday, that involved the shifter. I was unable to select any gear. The car was stuck in 4th & I couldn’t change it. I was going to look at it today after work, but my wife called the dealer while I was at work. This was not good, because even though my ZX3 is still under warrantee, the shifter is an after-market short shifter that I installed myself. If the dealer had to fix this, I’d be on the hook for towing plus the dealer’s hourly rate. YIKES!!
Now, I’ve heard a lot of bit**ing about Ford and about dealers, so I want to tell you what happened today. My wife called the dealer & explained the problem. She then called Ford emergency road service. They answered immediately, and a tow truck was at my house within 30 min. They took the car to my dealer. The service manager called me at work & told me all that had expired. He said they fixed the car, (the cable had slipped off the ball), washed it for me & it was ready to pick up. Sweating bullets, I asked him what the charges were. He told me the car was under warrantee, and that they had fixed it free of charge, of course. You heard that right. Free. An after-market part caused a serious malfunction, and they fixed it free.
I’ve read a lot of posts claiming Ford is not a customer service oriented company. Well, you can’t prove it by me. I’ve owned lots of Fords, & I’ve always found them to be fair. There are also lots of slimy dealerships out there. I dealt with some of them. But I want to get a shout out to Lloyd Manwell Ford in Avon Lake, Ohio. They are a tiny dealership in a slightly out-of-the-way place. The owner is a drag racer, who campaigns a dragster as well as a pro stock Mustang. Their service dept. is the best I have ever patronized. Every time I’ve been there, my car was fixed right…the 1st time. How are their prices? They’re fair. Sure, you can beat’em, but in my book, price is only part of the story. They’re honest people trying to make an honest living.
And speaking of fair…it would have been perfectly fair if Ford had charged me for the towing, and the dealer had charged me for the repair.
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I think it depends on how well you know your service advisor and techs.
Regarding your particular issue with the shifter: Evidently this is not an uncommon problem and most service techs know that an aftermarket shifter is better than the OEM equipment. Hence no problems getting the problem rectified.
Your attitude is to be commended regarding your willingness to pay for the repairs.
I am glad to hear some others are finding a good service dept. Now tell them thay are doing good and try to get the same service adviser for future work as he seems to be willing to work for you.
I can tell you that some of the things that helped you (besides what TXFO said) is that it is a small dealership and the owner is into racing and cars. At a larger dealership the owner is most likely into money and business and would charge you just because you wasted his time. I am not saying this would happen all the time but w/o b#tching they would try to charge you.
This is the reason Chelly and myself drive the 100 miles (about there) to go to Starkey Ford in Maine. They are a small dealership and tend to fix thing right the first time and are great with pricing. Just recently I needed the left inner tie rod replaced and Autofair(larg dealership in Manchester NH) wanted about $360 for the job and Starkey wanted about $210-220 for the same job. Hence I had to pay $50 to AF for putting the car on the rack but I got it fixed for 210 + 50 = 260 total and it was done the day after I dropped it off without even telling starkey when I would drop it off. I figured it would be there at least 2 days but no. Starkey has been by far the best service in the NH-ME area with Graponie and Gladstone (in NH andhave had little service work done through them) ties for 2nd in my book.
Not becuase I work there, but yea it all depends on your service advisor, my service advisor also my manager is really cool. She has worked on my car and yet not charge me for the work yet. Although she suggested that I need this and that, but never tried to force to pay for work.
TXFO wrote: it was free because all they had to do was slip a cable on. if the shifter base had broken, it would have cost you.
I don't think so. I've purchased my last 4 cars from this dealer, and have had more than a couple of experiences like the one I detailed above. Some of them involved expensive parts.
BTW, the dealership is so small that there's only one service advisor, 4 techs, 3 salespersons.
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