2007 Ford Edge SEL: Back in the Shop.

Bleh, that's a terrible ownership experience that starts a customer down the road of declaring "I will never own a -X Brand- again."
 
If it's a mandated policy, then someone's an idiot. It sounds like an idiot mandated policy.
 
And for something so simple! I don't know about this car, but on most cars replacement of such a unit would be a 1 hour or less job. How many dealer-man hours does it take to schedule an appointment, come in, have a code reset, explain this to you and document it, have it re-occur, repeat process but this time call Ford execs and relay experience, receive authorization, and get mechanic back to car with necessary parts.
 
Seems like a logistical nightmare, rather than, say, stocking the necessary parts in house and having a TSB which allows technicians to replace defective parts as they come in.
 
Joe

Another reason to get the Highlander over this...
 
Wait, did I hear somebody yelling "tranny problems"?

Having owned two Fords perviously, I can say that this is par for the course. Poor customer service followed by faulty parts and repairs is only the start of things. I had so many problems with getting tsb's fixed and minor things repaired properly at multiple dealerships due to this sort of policy. This is where the Big 3 need to improve in order to increase sales. GM seems to get this right with Saturn, so it can be done. That being said, I rented an Edge could have liked the car with better headlights and a better thought out interior. Who decided to put a reflective surface on top of the dash?

So this is why I have been raised to write off Fords...

Do they know that replacing the TB and TPS will solve the problem? Seems to me, codes that trip the CEL are sometimes difficult to troubleshoot.

I work at a Ford dealership, and that is not Ford's policy, that is the dealers policy. At my dealer we scan the code, figure out the problem, and fix and or replace whatever is causing the problem.

Sounds like a dealer issue to me too. My hypothesis = dealer had problems getting warranty reimbursements & went ultra-conservative as a CYA measure.
 
louiswei - what tranny problems? I haven't heard of any real problems with this Highlander.

You can't judge the brand on the dealership, as franchise laws make it very difficult for the manufacturer to do anything to deal with bad dealerships like this. Yes, this is why so many people may write off a brand, but what they really need to do is find a quality dealership. They're rare, but they make ownership so much easier.

that's too bad. my parents used to own a ford (now replaced with a subaru) and if i can recall, their experience with the dealer back then wasn't great either. the people from the subaru dealership are MUCH nicer.

What is there to like about this piece of crap? It's uglier than The Murano, has crappy break, ugly grill and looks like it uses piss as coolant.
 
I get so pissed when dealers waste my time because it takes away my precious time (usually on weekends) and it also takes away my usage of the car I paid for.
 
I am happy with my current dealer because even if they mess up, they try their best to make up for it. But if someone just turned off the check engine light and gave me the car back, I would probably make the guy drink that thing in pee-colored tank.

based on a check engine light I have come to the conclusion that every Ford ever made is unreliable and that we should disregard all positive news about Ford reliability from CR and other sources. Everyone agree?
 
come on folks, let's pile on the Edge some more and pretend its the only vehicle in the fleet (besides Aura of course) to have a problem.

I said this the last time this blog complained about the dealer experience. FIND A DIFFERENT DEALER! Did I really have to repeat myself? Apparently.
 
It's not a brand thing. It's a dealer thing. The Ford dealer that I visit bends over backwards to make you happy.

Sounds like typical Ford. While I like some of their cars (and I've owned several in the past), their service quality and dealership quality in general is the worst I've seen of any make. Ford dealers are consistently bad all across the country - I've had bad Ford dealers in NY, AZ, and CA. It's almost like they TRY to infuriate you.

GM Majorguard works same way. Many repairs require approval from a roving rep who not only requires the vehicle to be present for approval, but never tells the dealer _exactly when_ he will be showing up.
Result; You, the customer, drive in, leave the vehicle in hopes the rep will show up and approve the repair. This can go on for days (as it did for me trying to get a defective suspension repaired under Majorguard).
GM may have saved a few bucks short term, but they lost a customer (me) long term.

"I said this the last time this blog complained about the dealer experience. FIND A DIFFERENT DEALER! Did I really have to repeat myself? Apparently." -- brn
 
Brn, in this area, they are the good dealership.

isn't "good dealer" an oxymoron?

This is to me why all of the Lets Reduce The Amount of Dealers We Have Plans all stink. If they reduce competition service will suffer. Lets kill of the small dealers. The big dealers can't get good survey scores but the small dealers (sometimes) do. So if we are rid of the guys who can do it right once in a while they won't compare it to us. Out here in the sticks it is going to be very difficult soon to give us a reason to buy new cars. Its 35 miles to get a car serviced if it is not a Chrysler brand or a GM brand. With exception of Hummer. (our local GM store can't do warranty work on Hummers) That leaves us with a former Ford Tech that owns a large shop in town, or driving a long way (or getting towed) to an overpriced shop who doesn't care about us. If its warranty work they won't give me a car or shuttle me back home 35 miles away. Competition is good. I like my little dealers. I work with his kids and grandkids. They know everyone in our little town. Sorry I'm on huge nosensical rant. I just think that the big dealership employees always think "oh there will be work to do tommorrow so who cares about this guy's problems." Guess what the small guys can't afford to make everyone mad and right now Ford is fighting to stay alive as a company they can't either.

Never mind the repair experience... the check engine light is cause enough to worry about Ford. I tend to forgive all-new models in their first year, but that doesn't apply to mere re-skins! A number of my friends have owned Focuses and loved how they drive, but their reliability has been abysmal and the overall statistics suggest that it's no coincidence.
 
The Focus improved in quality after its first 2-3 years, but apparently not by much. Eight years and they still haven't sorted it out.

^ WTF are you talking about, the Edge is not a reskin.

"they are the good dealership"
 
That's sad.
 
Maybe move to my part of the country? :)

My '02 Ford Focus had a constant check engine light at 17,000 miles. I think it was the DPFE or something. The light was the straw that broke the camel's back with that car. It was always having some sort of issue either mechanically or structurally (rattles, groans, squeaks...ugh)
  
My parent's had a '00 Mercury Mountaineer with a recurring engine stutter. Dealer could never figure it out. The check engine light finally popped on one night, and the dealer was finally able to determine that both O2 sensors needed to be replaced. They lived with the stutter for a year, however, before the check engine light finally came on and told the dealer what to do.