Hi Guys,
I write this only to benefit those considering to buy a Ford vehicle
in the future. I had purchased a Ford Fiesta SXi (10 lacs at the time),
the Fully Loaded variant in the confidence that Ford delivered
exceptional vehicle quality and service, alas none was met.
My ordeal began when I had admitted the Car, to the Workshop, with
"Battery light shows all time" plainly said, the instrument cluster had
the battery light turned on permanently. After few days, the dealer
called to present me a whooping bill of Rs 52, 000/-! for replacing the
Alternator and the PCM (the brain of the engine). However, when
questioned, they couldn't give reasonable explanations as to why the
alternator and more importantly the PCM had gone kaput, and kept giving
evasive replies. I had asked the following questions:
1) I had followed the owners' manual when I saw the only warning light
of Battery, immediately drove to the nearest garage. The Engine Warning
Light was not illuminated at any point after starting the
Engine. Therefore, I had repeatedly, asked one core question if there was
no "Engine Light On (MIL)" then, how PCM-failure could be the problem
at all?
2) I had gone to the workshop to check the claimed "alternator
over-voltage" as the cause for these failures.
However, the concerned personnel could not demonstrate the same.
And in any circuit there is a fuse to take-care of shorting, therefore
fuse will blow-off and not PCM! Why so?
3) I had asked the ABOVE QUESTIONS in a written letter to Ford Co.
(it's M.D. Micheal Boneham), they called me a few days later and all I
got was evasive replies based on "Somehow Logic" and NO WRITTEN
COMMUNICATION despite my insistence on so.
4) As I did not get any reply from neither Ford nor dealer, I had
posted the symptoms and diagnosis report given by Ford dealer to
various international (UK, US, South Africa, Venezuela etc) Ford owners'
forums including the one below:
http://www.fordfiestast.co.uk/ubbthreads.php
the reply from Expert is:
"If there was or is no engine warning light on (MIL) then there is no
issue with the PCM."
At other forums, members had clearly replied that, they would not have
borne the cost of PCM & Alternator, looking at the age (3 year old) and
low-run, as it has clocked 24561 km.
IS BEING A FORD CONSUMER SUCH A PAIN that I have to seek answers from
elsewhere, and not from the Company itself?
Ford boasts a lot about ethics in their Customer Service, but on the
contrary, I was disgusted to find, that it is worse than that of a
road-side workshop as I was being ripped-off by several tens of
thousands. I have absolutely NO TRUST left in Ford and the vehicles they
produce are UNRELIABLE BREAKING-DOWN AFTER FEW YEARS VEHICLES!
So, please do yourself a favour and buy any other vehicle, so that you
avoid huge financial and mental pain as I have undergone.
(P.S. If anyone needs to see correspondences I had with Ford, I will be
glad to share it with you.)
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