Multiple ongoing issues with car from a main dealer

chipxtreme

I bought my £25k Car back in July of last year on PCP. It was just over 2 years old and still had Ford warranty until a few months back but I paid £500 extra for 2 years warranty.

I've had nothing but issue after issue with the car and I barely use it. In 11 months i've only driven 7k miles, mainly just me travelling to work and back.

Within 2 weeks was in for back brakes (dealer replaced with new), stop start issue - basically never worked (Ford authorised them to put a bigger battery - newer models do come with bigger battery as standard so obviously a known issue. Issue with noise from headlights - still there, they claimed they had updated software on headlights and they may need replacing but it has been back in for that and they now claim no issue even though there is no change. There is also an issue with the clutch pedal which was reported in first two weeks and again since then....they claimed first time there was something sticking but would need to be worse before they'd fix it...Next time claimed it was normal as they compared it against another Focus ST. Its like one notch on the clutch pedal rachet is slipping which is the best way I can describe it, in sport mode it isn't as bad.

It has had issues with the B&O sound system from day one however it has been intermittent and mainly seemed to only happen on longer journeys which I rarely ever do but has been there from start and is current reason car has been in garage since Tuesday. I've had issues where the sound would go off, you'd see volume 0 on screen briefly then the sound would come back on but again randomly go off again. There was issues where on one drive I thought I had a puncture on driver back wheel but it was just a hissing sound coming out of the speaker in the back door. It would randomly amplify the sub double volume, another time it muted all speakers except the centre speaker behind screen. I have shown them videos in past and all I got was "we've updated the software and been unable to replicate it". Well it was intermittent and usually on longer drives so not really a good test.

I hardly ever have passengers in car but a few weeks before MOT my mate got in passenger seat and said it feels like seat is loose. Next day I had a look at seat and there was a small screw missing which holds the seat to the frame. Earliest the dealer could get car in was weeks after MOT but they said it shouldn't fail for that. I decided to take car to Evans Halshaw for MOT (big mistake but that's for another post), they failed it but garage I bought it from did agree to get the car in and fit the bolt. How a low milage 3 year old car can be missing a bolt on the passenger seat is something I'd love to know how happens.

So anyway straight after this I notice there is a leak on the car, turns out to be water bottle for wipers and needs new pipes. Just out of Ford warranty tried to book it back into garage and ended up taking it to another Ford main dealership they run as it was quicker and they initially told me it was going to be just over £300 for the parts as the warranty they sold to me at point of sale as "covers everything like ford warranty" doesn't cover pipes. This is the point I get Ford involved and they then agree to fix it FOC.

Now on to this week i'm driving to get some petrol and theres a noise which I initially thought was on the song so skipped to next but it didn't go away it got louder....and louder. It sounded like it was the engine which I thought was broke. It was a very loud tapping noise so pulled straight over into car park. It was at this point I got out the car and noticed the engine sounded normal, the exhaust sounded normal so the noise was coming through the speakers.

Turned the car off. Left it off a few minutes and started it back up, there was now a loud clicking from the drivers side front tweeter, sounded like a Geiger counter detecting radiation but then the loud engine noise started coming through the speakers again at a deafening volume so had to turn the car off. I then rang the AA.

They came out, took the battery off a few minutes and then tried again. There was just normal noise. So I filled the car up and within a minute of coming out the petrol station the loud engine noise came back again. Quiet to start with but within a minute deafening. In the end I drove it home by basically staying as low in the rev range as possible meaning I could only drive very slow.

Took it back to garage Tuesday morning, which its been there ever since. Ironically there was no noise driving it to the garage, but I have sent them multiple videos with the noise present. This is the last straw, I have lost all confidence in this car. I have lodged a complaint with the garages regional manager, my finance company and Ford. I have told them I have lost confidence in the car and want to return it as not fit for purpose which it isn't.

Regional manager said they'd look into fixing it first and then looking at returning the car and seeing what else they can find for me but it sounded more like a sales pitch rather than helping me out as he said they'd obviously not give me what I paid it - which to be fair I expect some money to be took off for the small amount of usage I've done in this car. However it sounds like he is expecting me to take there trade price for my car to then sell me a car at their inflated price which isn't happening. They have two cars similar to mine, 6 months older reg, similar milage selling for almost same price I paid for mine.

Had minimal contact from Ford garage, they called me Tuesday before they closed saying they couldn't find cause of issue and would be contacting Ford tech and haven't contacted me since. I tried to get hold of them today but couldn't get through but did speak to their call centre to ask them to call me back, which they haven't. The case handler at Ford has rang me today but she said as far as they were aware the garage hadn't contacted Ford's tech team and they couldn't contact garage either.

They haven't offered me a courtesy car or anything and no further forward. So annoyed. Anyone else been down this road offer any advice?

Aylesbury_Duck

No, I'm afraid not, sorry.

Alfrescodave

Aylesbury_Duck said:

No, I'm afraid not, sorry.

Like you, I lost interest halfway through reading it

boobyd

So after a bit of back and forth all have been repaired/ replaced apart from the radio?
There isn't engine/gearbox/exhaust noise? But from the radio.?
Have you asked about a Courtesy car?
Have you asked for an auto electrician to assist,been on Ford Forum for similar problems

chipxtreme

boobyd said:

So after a bit of back and forth all have been repaired/ replaced apart from the radio?
There isn't engine/gearbox/exhaust noise? But from the radio.?
Have you asked about a Courtesy car?
Have you asked for an auto electrician to assist,been on Ford Forum for similar problems

I can't get in touch with them, they aren't returning calls. Ford themselves rang me this morning and the garage has told them they tried to call me yesterday which is nonsense.