I would not expect much cooperation or communication. For better or worse, the best way to get a seller to stop talking to you is to take action against them . I'm sure it's justified, but it doesn't matter who is "right" and who is "wrong" nor does it make much difference whethter it's a valid complaint or not. Regardless of the unique aspects of the individual case, once you notify the manufacturer of your intent, they usually clam up.

Same as you would do, per your lawyer's avice, if someone came back on you after the fact. That's just the way it is. Sucks, but that's life.

 

You actually had 2 lemons? What are the chances of that.

 

I seem to have the worste luck with stuff like that. I firmly beleive that the Ford was a lemon. I had it back MANY times for tranny issues. They saw the problem at the shop once when I was not towing. Then they blamed it on me towing things that were to large for the truck. I pointed out to them that it NEVER happened when I was towing only when I ran empty. Plus what do you think I purchased a F350 dually for!! At any rate it all was to no availe. They did finally give me my ESP warrantee money back. I took that money and sent the tranny out to get fixed. Since then no issues.

My wifes Saab was a much different experience. First off the entire time that the car is in the shop we get a Saab to drive for FREE. They come to our house and pick the car up and drop it off when it is fixed. At any rate the tranny was slipping badly. They put a new tranny in and when we picked up the car there was a clunk when I accelerated away. Sounded like a loose motor mount to me. So I brought the car back and asked them to check to see if anything was loose. Nothing more, nothing less. Next day they told us they were buying the car back... Never told us why.

 

I would agree, except in situations like this a dealer and the manufacturer have different stakes in the game. For the dealer, if the car cannot be fixed in the specified time (as it has not to date), they are the ones losing money--service time, paying for my rental cars, etc. They would rather have the car replaced than to have continual service. The manufacturer has more of a stake in replacing the car--that's a hit to them. A replacement does not hit the bottom line of the dealership, ultimately. I believe that's why the dealership has pushed me forward to start the process. I have read up on the state codes/laws and it seems pretty straight forward, with specific deadlines for Ford to meet stages of the whole deal (from writing a letter, to a final attempt to fix it, to refund/replacement). We shall see! It's not like they've never seen this before. The cust. service rep at the dealership already guided me through most of it this morning. I am glad I have the dealer on my side. But the last thing I want to do is get lawyers involved! Ugh.

 

Ford pays the dealer for their time, your rental car, etc. They won't lose money and may even profit. Usually the dealer keeps the holdback money and the unit sale and all that. It's all on the manfacturer.

The process can seem redundant. They have to confirm the problem and they may appear to doubt you sometimes. Don't take it personally; it's part of the process. It's all laid out in a specific way.

If it's a defect and a deal-breaker, and you don't want to give them any more chances, go for it. Start the process. Sometimes I wish I'd done that with my Prius but there were wait lists for new ones and I could not be without a car. I gave up and traded it instead.

The laws can be used for almost anything. Lemon buy-backs at auction have disclosures shwoing the reason for the claim. I remember a Camry labelled "wind noise". It had a letter from Toyota attached to the window, saying it had been returned to their regional office, tested, and found to have normal interior noise levels. It said no repairs had been done. But there it was, a lemon-law buy-back.

 

To this thread I can add only this... after nearly two years of owning his '06 Escape Hybrid, my friend Joe ditched his in Feb. due to the power steering randomly dying in the cold weather. Since November, he took it in to for service/inspection, and the local dealer could not replicate it. On the fifth trip, he offered to let them keep the vehicle for a week, as long as he received a loaner to get back/forth to work. Oh, no, they couldn't do that, but they were willing to keep the vehicle for the week to do the work.... So, he contacts corporate to find out why he can't get a loaner since the vehicle has been in for repair/service five times in less than six months - I kid you not, the Ford representative on the phone actually told him that it isn't Ford's problem and that perhaps he should buy a newer Escape to 'fix' the problem.

Yah, sure.

So, after a little looking, he traded it in on a new Prius.... no problems at all since late Feb.

Ford was stupid enough to send him a survey form.... his response was nearly five pages, not that he expects anyone to actually read it.

 

Sounds like my own situation, only in reverse. After my 2004 Prius was in the shop 13 times in less than a year, I gave it up. The dealer arranged for loaner cars in most cases, but sometimes they just told me I was on my own. Fortunately, the car always ran and drove at least far enough to get me home or to the dealer. I was never stranded. Regardless, it was the most trouble I've ever had with any car, by far.

I've had my FEH for a little over a year now and it has been almost entirely trouble free.

 

Well, so far Ford has been very good in response. They are having a company engineer look at it, they have a full-out fix for it (as relates to the general problem everyone has had with that rear squeak), and said if mine does come back after the fix and the engineer's work, they will be going along with the law...they also promised to fix the grating rattle around the hvac controls/nav system that the dealer "just could not figure out" so far so good. It gives me hope they will resolve it one way or another at least!