What are my rights for a Ford Mondeo fitted with a Fiesta battery ?

stephenliverpool1

I bought my 2005 Ford Mondeo when it was 6 months old. One previous owner prior to me.

The car has done less than 58k miles. It is serviced regularly each year and for the first 3 years was serviced at a Ford garage in order to maintain the warranty.

My battery went flat last week. Took it to Kwik-fit (after recharging the battery), who advised me that the battery was for a Ford Fiesta (and not suitable for a Mondeo) and that it needed replacing due to it not operating properly.

Took it to another local garage who also confirmed the above. Replaced the battery with a proper Mondeo battery and all appears fine now.

Can someone please advise me of my rights with Ford with regards getting compensation for the Fiesta battery; especially as they did not observe the Fiesta battery during the servicing of the car during the warranty period.

For info the local garage has given me a note to advise the old battery was not appropriate for a 2.0 Mondeo and I have also kept the old Fiesta battery.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

andygb

You are joking I hope? A seven year old car with a flat battery - presumably the original one?
I don't think that you have any possibility of a comeback on this one, and would add, that I have a 2000 Mondeo which is still on its original battery - luck of the draw I think.
I would never go to Kak Fit, and why have a battery fitted by a local garage, and did you tell them what Kak Fit had said - maybe priming them to make some money?
If it really was a Fiesta battery, then how did it last seven years, because there is a fair bit of difference in the size?

Mr_Reeman

Has the car been running on the Fiesta battery fine since you bought the car? If so then whats the problem?

If the Ford fitted a batter on Monday say, and it then broke yesterday, then fair enough, but if it's been working fine for a few years and has now just broken then I cant see a problem. Batteries are consumable items. They can fail at any time.

dzug1

If it had had the right Mondeo battery then it could easily have failed in 6 or 7 years.

You really don't have a problem

andygb

I have had a quick look, and both the Mondeo and the Fiesta can run off a 550 55ah battery. The Mondeo has an option for a 610 71ah, and the Fiesta has an option for a smaller size.
It may well be that the garages have seen you as an easy target.

worried_jim

Funniest thread of the day and it's only 09:18. Well done fella!

Strider590

andygb wrote: »

I have had a quick look, and both the Mondeo and the Fiesta can run off a 550 55ah battery. The Mondeo has an option for a 610 71ah, and the Fiesta has an option for a smaller size.
It may well be that the garages have seen you as an easy target.

^^ Confirmed

If the battery was marked as a "Ford" part, then it was the original and would have been knackered by now anyway.

Your problem was an old battery, NOT the size of the battery.

You probably didn't need a bigger battery, but the tyre/exhaust outlets charge nearly double the retail price for a car battery (but varies depending on how stupid they think the customer is). So selling you a bigger battery would have made them a nice chunk of beer money.

All Mondeo's will have the same battery tray, the Diesel would require a larger size of battery, the 1.8 Petrol would be fitted with the smallest.

Cost between £38 and £58, with a top quality Varta battery (arguably the best in the business) costing no more than say £95.

Personally, i'd have (and it's happened to me twice now on two cars) seen/felt the battery was on it's last legs, done my research (Google is your friend) and had an appropriate replacement delivered in time for it's inevitable failure.

The reason these places get away with charging such prices, is they know that your probably stranded/desperate.

forgotmyname

When it was new they would have offered an upgrade to a larger longer lasting battery. For a small fee of course.

Obviously that option was not chosen.

waynedance

Is this for real??

Done well lasting 7 years forget about it and move on.