I Need A Bit Of Help Writing A Letter Pls..

[Redhawk]

Cro, although you should not have to put up with the problems you have had I do recall that there are a few posts here commenting on the way you have treated your car, apparently you are a very hard driver.

If push comes to shove Ford will use every tactic they can to squirm out of any compensation.......be careful Bro.

Hope you get full satisfaction though, and cover the glutimus maximus mate!

[DallasQLD]

I am going to speak to Chris about a supporting letter from the Forum. 3000 members out have some weight. Cro was a moderator for our site and we should stick by him.

I for one would support a letter to Ford on the Forums behalf.

This type of publicity is not what Ford needs.

Dallas

QLD Moderator

[ktford]

Cro,

I would try to remain calm & short as possible first time up. You need to engage them to respond & not just rule straight away as now way will they just hand you a suitable outcome first time. If you want to keep the car & just have it rectified then I'd drop issues that can be done easily & cheaply aftermarket. (when I say drop I mean try a tradeoff approach, if Ford fix this, you'll fix that idea)

I'd expect no action on the brakes but you wouldn't want the standard ones back after obtaining working ones. Don't lose it with anyone anytime cause you will only hurt yourself & I think we're all into self preservation.

GOOD LUCK

Scotty

[FamiliaGTRAe]

G'day Cro,

Your car shoulda been picked up this arvo hopefully?

And the results are?

I am STILL without my car

Boohoo

Oh well back to the metallic BROWN auto carby Meteor! :banghead:

Cameron

[Cro]

Well I have taken the car to Cumberland Ford in Sydney on saturday to get the 30,000km service and coolant leak fixed.

The service was done, coolant leak could not be fixed.

There are 7 bolts holding the exhaust on, one of these bolts threads were severly stuffed so they couldnt get the bolt off unless they were to break it. They did not want to risk it and leave me stranded in Sydney for a couple of days. Fair enough, oh and they needed to take the exhaust off to get to the O-Ring.

They also rotated my wheels and noticed two studs on the left and right rear wheels were stuffed.

One more problem has also developed, I hear a squealing noise comming from the passenger side dash when the aircon is on. It's faint, but still loud enough to notice, sounds like what a loose fan belt would sound like on a cold engine, but not as loud. Drove me nuts for the trip back to Canberra.

Anyway, I've added these to the list to give to Gregory's, and they had a hell of a time fixing the studs, and taking the exhaust off.

From what I hear they have been fixed, as well as the coolant leak, I forgot to ask about other stuff.

They needed more time with Gadan, so he's staying there for a bit longer. I thought about taking him back and having problems fixed next time, but then I thought about the stalling and loss of power steering, diff clunk when turning right and the big cliff faces we are going to see this weekend on the cruise. So I thought it might be safer to get more problems fixed this week. I do want him back on Thursday though as if there is something new wrong with brakes, tranny, engine I still have time to get it fixed before cruise. Paranoia has got to me as this has happened before, and the last thing I want to do is pull out of this cruise, been waaay too long.

[cdm]

I too would support a letter from the Forum. We have to stick together on stuff like this. It might also be worth digging up the thread "What problems have you had?" that was about 19 pages long from memory.

Ford would have been better off delaying the launch of the BA and improving quality control. While their at it, maybe they could educate the dealerships on customer service. I think there would be quite a few people on here with horror story's to tell. I waited 4 months for my car and they ended up getting in a bloody auto not a manual. Not to mention the pure bull$hit spoken by the salesmen. Then when it comes to service time, none of my problems have been fixed (o-ring, serp belt) and they even put two big scratches in the car which couldn't be completely cut out.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH FORD.

[FORDTECH]

.... coolant leak could not be fixed.

There are 7 bolts holding the exhaust on, one of these bolts threads were severly stuffed so they couldnt get the bolt off unless they were to break it. They did not want to risk it and leave me stranded in Sydney for a couple of days.

So they're talking crap as well.There are 3 bolts that hold the heatshield in place that need to be removed then 2 bolts holding the pipe in place that has the "O" ring on the end of it.Unless they're dismantling the actual turbo,they're talking crap.

[aaronmihe]

Cro, it's a good letter, perhaps as others have suggetsed itemise each problem, the Dates/locations of the attempted fixes in individual groups.

ie

Problem 1.

Reverse Clunk:

When engaging reverse gear the transmission does not shift smoothly into the reverse as would be expected of an automatic transmission equipped vehicle. Instead the transmission engages reverse with a severe 'clunk' when light throttle is applied reulting in a rapid acceration in reverse. This is both uncomforatable and dangerous as it is difficult to control the vehcile in low-speed reverse manouvers

Attempted resolutions:

Date / Odometer reading / Dealership

Attempted rectify problem by 'flashing ecu'. No improvement noted

Date / Odometer reading / Dealership

Attempted rectify problem by 'adjusting shift lever'. No improvement noted

...

etc.

The idea is to lay out a complete story for the poor bugger at the other end, give them something they can use to escalate up the chain. Be logical, but think beyond customer satisfaction. Think about how it can make a 'everyday' situation dangerous (ie reversing with an auto that only engages at 1500rpm with no 'slip'.

Try to make fair comparisons and highlight your expectations, but don't be emotive about it being a 50K car. Use general motoring expectations for vehcile operations.

Sometiems it's worthwhile to admit acceptance of some 'facts'. ie, you understand and expect the engien may consume some oil during 'normal' operation especially during the running in period however you feel that it is unusual for any engine to consume the quantities you're talking baout with it being a sympton of greater problems, surely this oil is affecting emmissions outputs and performance and possibly even affecting the long term health of your engine.

As others have said don't ask for anything, what you want is to imply that you know your rights, you are prepared to be rational and have clear evidence of their mishandling of the faults and their effect of safety.

I know a guy who had a car replaced by a maker when he discovered that the car he bought had a stack of faults, least of all being the fact it was cut'n'shut from a pair a development mules.

A.

[Mondie]

I know a guy who had a car replaced by a maker when he discovered that the car he bought had a stack of faults, least of all being the fact it was cut'n'shut from a pair a development mules.

A.

Cut & shut

Tell us more, that's unbelievable!!

Sorry for the hijak Cro........

[Lord Cyric]

Cro,

Just a little suggestion (more a legal "cover your ass" thing). Don't mention the speeds you were doing when driving at "highway speeds". Saying that these noises seem to appear when you are doing over 140km/h might open up legal issues down the road if it goes that far (something about driving the vehicle in an "unsafe manner" that might void Ford's warranty responsibilities). Just remove the speed indications and you should be fine.

Other than that, keep the letter sharp and to the point (I.e. don't sound emotional or make threats). List your grievences as suggested above and the fact that these problems are impacting your work life, but without mentioning any dollar amounts.

Since this is your first written correspondence with Ford on this "fiasco", avoid being negative where possible. Say how much you love the car despite the issues and you should get a positive response in return. If things don't start moving forward after the initial correspondence, then you have a platform for pressuring Ford to do the right thing.

As for getting the forum involved, although I agree with supporting our good friend here it might be prudent for the group to hold off it's salvo until Cro gets an initial response to his first letter. There is a fine art to negotiating with big companies and coming out all guns blazing is not the way to go (trust me on this, I know...).

What might be a good idea is to use the knowledge base of this forum to provide feedback to Ford as a separate project unrelated to Cro's misfortunes. Using our group in this manner will not only bring us crediability, but it might also give Ford a means to sound out ideas and obtain constructive comments on their beloved products.

Anyway, enough of me trying to hijack this thread. Back to what we all do best....