Max_Focus

Well it's good to know that customers aren't treated any better, getting the "Contact your dealer" answer repeatedly. Who does the zone rep contact? :P And why do I suspect whoever engineered this solution probably drives a BMW?

Nope, just a regular order. Actually x-plan but it didn't go in as x-plan. I think the inventory manager only works a couple of days a week and the salesman didn't submit it in a timely fashion. Annoying but not the end of the world. How do you know there are TWO window stickers? I find that VERY interesting. I did change my mind on the stripe (told him not to delete it) since the order hadn't been pulled yet. The only sticker I've seen has the delete. I was less worried about the stripe and more worried about the black filler on the trunk so I said leave it and I'll remove whatever I don't like. Very informative and helpful, actually. Describing the process helps me understand the impact of options on the buid time. Mine is an MCA car. Not buying the Memorial Day thing though since it just shortened the week to 3 vice 4 days. Mine is a manual transmission car. And this has been my assertion all along -- since the lots seem to be flooded with autos but not manuals. Time and time again I was told that's not the issue. A-pillar trim. Coolant stickers. Stripes where they shouldn't have them. Timing chain issues. Engine ticks. Commodity holds. And on and on and on. Bottom line for me is simply tell me when my car is going to be shipped. It hasn't moved since May 21st. It's been "built" since May 4th. Sorry, but whatever quality issue there is, it can't take this long to fix unless they're doing one a day. And to see cars with a much later VIN sequence being built and delivered makes me feel like those of us who jumped on the Ford hype bandwagon are simply being dismissed as unimportant to the overall customer base. ViperPilot -- this is the single best post regarding "my" car I've seen. Not that it's specific, necessarily. Just that it's extremely helpful. I'm waiting for a call from the regional rep today along with a call from Ford CS. I'm not sure why my dealer tells me "You'll get a call today" rather than simply pass on the information he must clearly have. Why would the regional rep call me with anything meaningful and keep the dealer in the dark??? Still waiting on that call. Just like the other 3 that haven't been returned. RangerM -- I know the car is sitting at AAI. AKirby -- when I ordered I asked the dealer if it would arrive by Memorial Day because I wanted it for a road-trip. He assured me it would. 6-8 weeks. And I'm even mostly OK missing that date for a good reason. I just need to know when I'm going to get it or why it's been delayed so I can make an INFORMED decision about how to proceed. Right now I just want my deposit back and if it shows up before I buy something else I'll happily buy it. If not, oh well, thanks for trying. Further, if there are 6000 cars affected by quality issues, that's more than HALF of the often hyped "11,000 pre-orders on the new Mustang". That's not saying much for the manufacturing process. Good on the QC guys for catching this stuff, however. Of course they're in the 132,000 range now (or higher) so the percentage is smaller. But at this point more have been produced AFTER mine than before mine and mine still hasn't shipped.

So I ordered a 2011 Mustang V6 Premium Coupe on 4/3. The dealer takes 10 days to place the order. The car gets built 31 days after the order is placed. As of today, it has been 35 days since the car was built and the car has still not shipped and the initial ETA has been missed with no update. Repeated calls to customer service are met with "Your dealer is the best person to ask about your car." And, "We can escalate this and get back to you within five business days". Neither option has proved fruitful except that it lets the CSR take other calls that they may get rated better on. No callhas ever been returned. Emails to Ford have also been responded to with canned responses. The gist of all Ford's responses is, "Go away, your problem is typical not anything special. We don't need to do anything." In the end, I'm left with Ford Customer Service being useless, the dealer being less than useless, and stuck with no idea when I'll get a car I custom-ordered but knowing it has sat in a parking lot in MI for more than a month with no expected delivery date. So I would ask Bill Ford, Alan Mulally, Dave Pericak, etc. . . . where is my Mustang? Mr. Pericak tells one Mustang buyer to his face that there are no holds on Mustangs. But, in fact, there ARE holds. Mr. Ford is probably just worried that the company is going to be a Blue Oval with a weird looking H in it in 5 years (Hyundai). Mr. Mulally is likely just wondering why his Audi was replaced with some silly over-priced Taurus. I've been a HUGE Ford fan for years. I've owned many DIFFERENT Fords crossing the entire product line (Ranger, F150, Focus, Escape, Taurus, T-Bird, Escort Mustang, etc.) and now I'm left feeling that Ford doesn't even care about the customer. Marketing touts 11,000 pre-orders but fails to address the THOUSANDS of cars sitting on the lots at AAI with quality issues. Management counts their profits today but fails to acknowledge the harm they're doing to customers by failing to keep them informed. The dealer network has become nothing more than a joke and a place to get free warranty service. Tomorrow I will attempt to cancel my order. Any company that can build a car in 2 days but can't fix it in 35 clearly has a problem. First with poor manufacturing and second with the inability to address quality problems. If Ford would like to FIX this issue, look no further than my VIN and the history: 1ZVBP8AM5B5116799. Thanks, A dissatisfied Ford owner and former customer

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah, my '06 Focus had its first oil change there too. Something like $55 for 6 quarts (even though it only takes 5.5 or so). I just didn't feel like doing either and the dealership is always a hassle no matter what you're having done. The "upsell" crap annoys me.

So I took my "new" used F150 into the Mobil 1 Quick Lube place to have the oil changed since I have never had it changed since I bought it 700 miles ago and don't know the history with the previous owner. I was going to tackle it myself but when I went to buy the filter it called for two different styles depending on the fitting. Great. So I'll just let someone else do it this time. Well, here's the scam. The owner's manual calls for 6 quarts of oil for the 4.6 V8 WITH a filter change. (This is an '04 non-heritage F150 4x4). So they pull out 7. I remind them that it only takes 6. And they put 6 in and then check the dipstick and add half a quart more. OK, since this was 5W20 Synthetic Blend, I have to pay for the whole quart at some outrageous price like $6.00 or so. So I tell the guy to throw what's left in the cab. He looks at me funny like I'm speaking Vulcanese or something. I said, "Hey, you're charging me for the 7th quart, I want what's left. I'll bring it back next time so you don't charge me again." He does but I'm still perplexed how a "full" oil change takes more than 6 quarts. Here's my theory: They only put 9/10ths of each quart into the engine. After 6 quarts, you're about half a quart low. Gosh, that will require another bottle. Oh, and those bottles are already marked up about 200%. So my oil change ended up being $56. And that was after a $10 discount they were advertising on their marquee sign that they originally didn't want to give me because I was a "repeat" customer. (It didn't say "new customer discount" anywhere.) I'm not sure if the dealer will honor their "$21.95 oil change" coupon if I bring this in and ask for 6 quarts of synthetic blend. My assumption is that it's usually a bait-and-switch tactic so why bother? How many quarts above/below the owner's manual does everyone else put in their cars/trucks? (The obvious answer is "until it's full on the dipstick" but I'm looking for variances from the manual.)

I'll start with the basic disclaimers: I'm not an engineer. I don't pretend to be one. I don't know UVAENGR. This is my first post here. I'm a repeat multiple Ford fan and owner. OK, now about this control arm. . . did anyone else see the nicks/scratches on the wheel side (away from the break?) Could these be from a chain? What if the owner actually had this towed or it was towed in a previous incident? We do not know the history of this vehicle. What if it was stuck and someone towed it from the control arm? Obviously this didn't just "happen" at the bank drive-through. I have an F150 that I beileve has these same control arms (cast aluminum) and if they're going to be that Fragile, maybe I'll trade it in for an '03 or '04 Heritage. If this truly is a design defect and how Ford chooses to handle it, I'll be buying a Honda next time. I don't say that lightly or without a good bit of sadness for such an historic brand.