Our New Ford Freestar - the "Perfect" Family Car? NOT! A Rant

OK, when you have twin car seats, etc., plus other kids, you pretty much
resign yourself to the "mommy van" brigade. Or at least we did. Before the
boys were born, we bought a new Ford Windstar (96) and it served us very
well. After 80K miles, we decided to finally replace it with another car
that we intend to hold for about another 8-10 years. We researched the
safety options and cabin sizes (DH & I are both tall w/long legs), tried on
a few imports and finally decided on the Ford Freestar. It has the safety
air bag roll over canopy, side air bags, etc.
So we pick up our new car on 10/15 and take it home, only to discover lots
of "junk" in the factory paint surface (the car was wet when we picked it
up). We're taking major blobs of "stuff" under the finish in about 23
places! Immediately, we call the dealer and Ford, both of whom promise to
take care of the problem. After lots of wrangling, and we're still not done,
Ford is saying the dealer will take care of it and the dealer is saying that
Ford is the only one authorized to replace the vehicle. The problem? There
are so many defects in the paint that the car needs to be repainted, pretty
much all over. This "warranty repair" will immediately reduce the future
trade-in/resale value of the car by about $2K! Even the Ford factory rep who
inspected the car last week stated that is was a "one in a million fluke,
but a terrible paint job". We don't want a repainted, reduced value, new
car!! We paid for a factory finish! Not only that, but after 8 years, most
repaints show wear over the factory, bare metal finish on a car. And what
happens if/when we move to another state (part of our long range plan) and
the new dealership won't honor the warranty repairs done here in CA?? This
is a nightmare. Right now, the car sits in our driveway, unused for the
moment. I'm afraid to put too many miles on it until this is resolved.
Anybody with any ideas, I'd love to hear them. Thanks for listening.
Lorraine

You might talk to a lawyer, but my initial reaction is that they
probably aren't legally required to give you a refund. If they can
repair the car under the warranty, that's enough, and the fact that you
don't value a repainted car as much as one with the original paint job
isn't enough to change this.

I doubt you can get the dealer to do more than repaint the car. If you
have any chance of getting a replacement vehicle, it's probably by
dealing directly with Ford, and convincing them that they should take
your car back (and repaint it and sell it as used) for the sake of
customer relations. I'm sure they sometimes do this, you just have to
convince them that they should do it in your case.

I don't know anything about the actual durability of car paint. I
wouldn't personally have thought that having it repainted would be such
a big deal, although I can certainly understand why you would prefer a
car without defects in the first place.

David desJardins

You might talk to a lawyer, but my initial reaction is that they
probably aren't legally required to give you a refund. If they can
repair the car under the warranty, that's enough, and the fact that you
don't value a repainted car as much as one with the original paint job
isn't enough to change this.

I doubt you can get the dealer to do more than repaint the car. If you
have any chance of getting a replacement vehicle, it's probably by
dealing directly with Ford, and convincing them that they should take
your car back (and repaint it and sell it as used) for the sake of
customer relations. I'm sure they sometimes do this, you just have to
convince them that they should do it in your case.

I don't know anything about the actual durability of car paint. I
wouldn't personally have thought that having it repainted would be such
a big deal, although I can certainly understand why you would prefer a
car without defects in the first place.

David desJardins

Lorraine,

If I were you I would call a local news station. They are always looking for
stories like these, and it seems like they can get results we can't get because
companies are afraid of bad publicity.

I am sorry you are going through this. What a nightmare.


Ellen
--------
Erin 6/26/95
Bradley & Alex 10/5/00

Lorraine,

If I were you I would call a local news station. They are always looking for
stories like these, and it seems like they can get results we can't get because
companies are afraid of bad publicity.

I am sorry you are going through this. What a nightmare.


Ellen
--------
Erin 6/26/95
Bradley & Alex 10/5/00

Ugh, that sounds horrible! I am so sorry! I agree with Ellen (surprise,
surprise) Defintely call a news station!


~Megan~
Aidan Matthew & Alexis Valerie
Born September 28, 2002

www.babiesonline.com/babies/a/aidannalexis

Ugh, that sounds horrible! I am so sorry! I agree with Ellen (surprise,
surprise) Defintely call a news station!


~Megan~
Aidan Matthew & Alexis Valerie
Born September 28, 2002

www.babiesonline.com/babies/a/aidannalexis

A lawyer might be our next option, but we're trying to handle this without
having to incur legal expenses. The biggest deal about the factory paint,
durability aside, is that, without it, or rather, having it "done over"
immediately reduces the trade-in value of this car, by about $2,000. If this
car, and another, without the re-paint, were side-by-side, the other car
would fetch $2K more in the used market. We're in CA, so we're trying to
research some consumer protection laws. It just doesn't seem right that,
because Ford didn't do their QC properly, our new car will take a $2K hit.
Anyway, that was the reason for my rant.

A lawyer might be our next option, but we're trying to handle this without
having to incur legal expenses. The biggest deal about the factory paint,
durability aside, is that, without it, or rather, having it "done over"
immediately reduces the trade-in value of this car, by about $2,000. If this
car, and another, without the re-paint, were side-by-side, the other car
would fetch $2K more in the used market. We're in CA, so we're trying to
research some consumer protection laws. It just doesn't seem right that,
because Ford didn't do their QC properly, our new car will take a $2K hit.
Anyway, that was the reason for my rant.

Subject: Our New Ford Freestar - the "Perfect" Family Car? NOT! A Rant
From: "TwinMom"
Date: Tue, Nov 4, 2003 1:57 PM
Message-id:

A lawyer might be our next option, but we're trying to handle this without
having to incur legal expenses. The biggest deal about the factory paint,
durability aside, is that, without it, or rather, having it "done over"
immediately reduces the trade-in value of this car, by about $2,000. If
this
car, and another, without the re-paint, were side-by-side, the other car
would fetch $2K more in the used market.

From where are you getting this 2K figure?
Maybe if you turn around and sell it next year you might be looking at that
kind of a loss. But if you keep it the 8-10 years that you planned, I really
doubt it will mean anything approaching a 2K difference.

As far as what to do now, maybe one option would be to contact the CA BBB and
file a formal complaint.

Regarding different dealerships in different states -- FWIW we bought our
RAV4 in Oregon. We have had issues with the engine light going on (long story
but it had something to do with the catalytic converter and the way the chip
was set -- we never actually had the car break down) and have had it looked at
in dealerships located in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
Where we bought the car or had other work done on it was never an issue.

Lori