Greg Newell

Review of Middletown Ford

Absolutely terrible experience with Ford. My mecha...

Absolutely terrible experience with Ford. My mechanic already diagnosed the problem (in 1 day). Because Ford warranty requires dealership to fix, I had to tow the car over to Middletown. They are 10 days into the diagnostics (and have come to the same conclusion as my mechanic... go figure.). I'm about $700 invested in a rental car which is not covered. I anticipate another week or two to get it fixed. I could have had this done at my preferred shop in 4-5 days. This is THE perfect example of why you never should bring your car to a dealership for service if you can avoid it. I'm stuck because the warranty requires work done at a Ford dealership and I'm convinced that this is the ONLY reason these guys get any service work.

While in for warranty work, I asked them to check the seat warmers. The seat warmers stopped working as they typically do on a Ford - same thing on a prior car and checked the web. They should be covered under warranty. While a 30 second search will tell you what's going on, Middletown wants to charge $100 to diagnose a $100 part! When I questioned this the answer was "Do you know how many parts are in there?" Seriously... Hello? Replace the most common failure - I'll forego the $100 diagnosis in favor of the part that is most likely the problem and if it doesn't fix the problem - I'll pay for the part. If it does fix the problem, warranty will cover it and I won't be out any money.

I'm almost a month now to fix a problem (transmission failure) that could have been fixed in a week. By the time I get the car back I'll be out $1000 for a car rental while getting warranty service. The only people making out on this deal are Enterprise rental car and Ford. I used to love this car (it's my second one). Now I hate the car, and Ford and will never buy another one. 99% of the time you buy any car you will not have issue but you have to consider what happens when it breaks... I could never recommend buying a Ford after this.

RESPONSE to REPLY: I actually did schedule it with you before I towed it to your facility. You guys told me I'd have the car before the 4th. It took Ford 2 weeks to come to the same conclusion the my mechanic did in half a day. That's a Ford problem - not a local problem. But since your sign says "Ford"... it's your problem too. Car rental reimbursement presumes 10 days. It took more than twice that. I'm out $550 that you're NOT covering for car rental because it took you so long. And finally, you returned the car without aligning it which you need to do after you drop the carriage to get to the transmission block. So I still have to bring the car back. Your response is nothing but defensive.