no trouble codes and no warnings!

 

Let me apologize on behalf of myself and others who thought you were clueless. You came here for help and we all jumped to conclusions.Hope they get it back up and running soon.

 

no offense taken.

Since this is my first hybrid, and I have had it for a grand total of 4 days, I am clueless re: all of the intracies of how everything works.

But a dead car is dead, regardless of what kind it is - and that is easy enough to recognize.

The salesman I bought it from was not informative. There was NO discussion that was specific to the hybrid itself, only here's the lights, etc. I think he really didn't know. Both dealers I went to to buy from told me that only get anywhere from 1 to 3 hybrids a year of these, and usually not all at one time.

The first dealer I went to had only 1 and not what I wanted (fully equipped with the navi system, moonroof, safety pkg, leather seats). Online, there was no dealership within a 100 mile radius that had a car like that. Several didn't have any at all - so the salesmen really do not know the car.

This was very disappointing to me as the reason I settled on the MMH was that it was last year's green car of the year. I would have thought they would have produced more, shipped more, and educated their salesmen on how to sell the car. I could have been convinced to buy the MMH at the first dealer - except the salesman couldn't tell me what, exactly, were the features of the car. He told me it didn't have a navi system, but I could add one for a few thousand dollars. When I asked what the Nav button was for then, he said he thought it was there for reserve. I asked for the window sticker, he couldn't produce it, and couldn't tell me how the car was equipped, so I left. I wound up driving 80 miles to another dealer - only to find out the car they said they had on the internet which was close to what I wanted, they didn't really have. But they worked their tails off to find the one I wanted - which was about 150miles away.

This whole process has been very frustrating - for what I was initially very excited about has become a very disappointing experience. I can understand better why Ford is suffering - they are not customer/service focused. And, I was a cash buyer. No one had to SELL me the car. I was a commission waiting to happen.

so yes, I am still learning all the intracies of a hybrid car - and though I am a woman and a female executive at that, I'm far from being a bimbo! But the sincere posts made up for all the non-believers.

 

I would be willing to bet that most of the hybrids are sold despite the best efforts of the salesman. I knew more about the '05 FEH when I bought it than the salesman did and I wasn't even that well informed. I actually started on the lot looking at the new Mustangs.

I made the process even easier when I bought the '06 - I called the salesman a month or so after I got the '05 and told him to call me when another one came in. He called me a few weeks later and I bought the '06 pretty much off the truck.

Neither of mine have had any problems at all. They have both been completely reliable and lots of fun. I'm sure they will find some stupid problem with yours, fix it and you'll love it like most of us on here do. Hope they at least gave you a nice loaner.....

Good luck. Keep us informed.

 

Sanarael - Where are you located? It would be good to avoid the "unknowledgable" dealer for others of us near you. Like nitramjr I knew more about the HCH than the Salesman (at the Dealership the Salesman quipped with the other guy that I knew more than all of them combined). I mentioned that I had been waiting for 5 months and had read a LOT of material in those 5 months so would HOPE that I had learned something about the car. Kudos to all these sites for having such informative members though -- too bad more Dealers are not members. Good luck on this problem though and hopefully it cures another members problem with the same vehicle.

 

At the LM dealership I purchased my MMH from, only the two repair people in their service department got any formal hybrid training (for the service dept could then be "hybrid certified"). These two repair people then "trained" any sales people interested in the hybrid, the best they could. I don't think that Ford nor Mercury runs any official sales person training on the hybrids. Of course, commission or no commission, is the driving force for any sales person to self-learn about the vehicles they sell.

My sales person kind-of knew a bit about the hybrid. But, honestly, I think I knew more than him just by reading through all the threads here, during the six weeks I waited for my custom order to come in.

I am surprised about the one comment where the sales person could not produce the window sticker. Dealers can print those without problem. Plus, the dealer's invoice would list all the options on the vehicle too. That is simply a bad dealership, because obviously, the are trying to hide something. Leaving was the best thing to do.

 

I hope they are at least "hybrid certified". Are they?

Yea, your problem certainly isn't "standard operating procedure" as many here have claimed.

 

I'll second that with the reservation that I thought the dealer was clueless, not the poster.

I do hope they get it fixed. Ford does need to do something about the training for sales personnel. I feel thats part of why they don't sell well. Would you buy something that even the guy selling it to you finds confusing and mysterious?

 

Personally, I could care less how much knowledge the saleperson has about the car I want to buy. I feel it's my responsibility to come prepared when shopping for a vehicle, particularly when we're in the $30K range. I work hard for my money and don't part with it easily. The ripoff is the commission the dealership and the saleperson receive. Direct Internet sales has done nothing to remove that bloat from new car sales.

I'm much more concerned with the lack of qualified service technicians. Receiving bad service is not a pleasant experience, and will be rectified by any reputable service department. But with these cars, an unqualified tech can easily be seriously injured or killed if they don't know what they are doing. I think the Ford/Mercury service deparments need to get serious about this before someone gets hurt.

Just my .02 worth...

JB, I hope your Mariner gets fixed and you get back into the "green"!

 

ok, so many comments to reply to, but the baby green is back in the driveway as of last night and I am THRILLED!

First, yes, the serv mgr said the tech was certified, even went so far as to tell me the person spent 3 days in training, and showed me the long hook they kept on the wall in case the guy made a mistake with the high voltage and they had to pull him off the car.

To answer another question, I am in South Florida.

Now on to what happened. The service manager told me that they ran about 9 different diagnostics (he showed me the list) and even called the plant. What I learned is that when you take your hybrid in, and they run these diagnostics, at the same time the diagnostics are done, the program is checking your programming for updates/upgrades to the software in your car. If their current program is different than yours, it is auto downloaded. Kind of like the auto microsoft computer updates.

AFTER he ran all these diagnostics, he THEN tried to duplicate my problem. And he couldn't. The service manager believes that since my car had a made date of 12/05 (YES! for an 07 car), that upgrades to the software were done and some glitch caused this to occur. If it reoccurs though, they have a monitor made especially for the hybrid that is attached to the car, and when the error or trouble occurs, the driver clicks a button on the monitor to 'mark' the error in the car's cyberspace. Very cool. I hope I never need it.

BUT, since picking up the car, I have noticed two things, one that was not present before, so I do believe the service manager knew what he was talking about, and that the programming in my particular vehicle was outdated in some manner, and the diagnostic routine allowed my car to 'upgrade' to Ford's most recent software. Prior to taking it into the shop, accelerating anywhere in the 50 - 70 mph range was noisy and not seamless. I didn't think to mention that when I took it in, as the dead aspect of the car was overwhelming my concerns. Since I picked it up, the car is incredibly smooth on the interstate, the acceleration is seamless and I don't hear or feel any transition.

But to my surprise tonight, I found I had auto headlights, dash, etc. as the sunlight changes. Now I have driven the car at night (I picked it up from the dealer initially at night) and I did NOT have auto headlights - but lo and behold tonight, I do. So, that convinces me all the more that the programming in my vehicle either was outdated or had corrupt areas, which was the service manager's belief.

It runs so much more smooth - and was a joy to show off to other colleagues today. May all your programming be current!