Ford buyers beware

[joel2000]

You would think that a service manager would be the one to talk to but that is usually not the case. They come and go pretty frequently around dealerships and quite often they are paper pushers who never worked on cars at all. Quite often they start out as service advisors writing up work orders. I had one who started with the company sweeping floors and thought he had it made when he worked his way up to service manager. Six months later he was looking for a job. The few good technicians I have known who accepted the position as service manager quit after a few months and either went back on the line working on cars or went to a new dealership. This has been the case through 4 different dealerships I have worked for. Service managers are the last people I would ask for advice on buying a used vehicle. Talk to an experienced line tech.

Best advice I’ve read

 

[CBH13]

That's is odd. I remembers visiting Detroit to see my ex wife's folk. The running joke was don't buy a car with a Friday build date. Crack was running rampant at the time and everyone for paid on Friday and went out at lunch and got all smoked up before the went back in. LOL They called them crack cars. They said over half the assembly line were smoking crack for the rest of the day.

Her whole family worked there. Her uncle was a supervisor, two cousins were clay modelers and a few more worked there but I can't remember what they did. They had great paying jobs so they were straight up all business. That particular plant stretched for miles. It was mind boggling it was so big.

supply chain just hit pretty much every manufacturer so replacement parts were used or possibly stuff that was just slightly out of spec. There are countless news stories about it that have been coming out with quality being down across the board. Then if the new stuff does break i've heard horror stories of **** being in the shop for months waiting on parts.

 

[joel2000]

I handle upgrades and facilities tools and equipment repair / maintenance for a major player in the used car sales industry’s reconditioning center. The managers and techs at that facility can tell you exactly the common and major issues with all brands.

 

[greg vess]

I handle upgrades and facilities tools and equipment repair / maintenance for a major player in the used car sales industry’s reconditioning center. The managers and techs at that facility can tell you exactly the common and major issues with all brands.

Oh I am sure being that it is there bread and butter fixing every known make and model out there.

 

[greg vess]

You would think that a service manager would be the one to talk to but that is usually not the case. They come and go pretty frequently around dealerships and quite often they are paper pushers who never worked on cars at all. Quite often they start out as service advisors writing up work orders. I had one who started with the company sweeping floors and thought he had it made when he worked his way up to service manager. Six months later he was looking for a job. The few good technicians I have known who accepted the position as service manager quit after a few months and either went back on the line working on cars or went to a new dealership. This has been the case through 4 different dealerships I have worked for. Service managers are the last people I would ask for advice on buying a used vehicle. Talk to an experienced line tech.

My cousin has worked for the same dealership his whole career. It's a small family owned and operated dealership in Wisconsin I think that where it is. They keep all their good employees. It not like high volume dealers like Atlanta or other big cities. I know all about the high turn over in greed driven dealers. It absolutely horrible. He just happened to find a good dealer and moved from Virginia to that dealer and has been there ever since. He is a good soul for sure and was the top mechanic at the dealer he worked for here in Virginia. With his family he calls it as he sees it.

 

[greg vess]

A good service manager can make or break you as a mechanic. They had out all the work and if they favor one mechanic they will give all the easy jobs, inflated job time to those they like.

Each job has a certain time frame it takes to replace or repair the item. There is a book that list those labor hours involved with each job. Some can be done well under the time allotted. If the manager shows favoritism he will hand out those gravy jobs to one person so he can really wiz through each job and make a ton of money. Politics plays a big part in that. However he is fair and wants to distribute those jobs fairly to give everybody equal opportunity to increase their pay. They get paid on number of jobs done and bonuses if they come in way under listed hours for each job. It's just as stressful as sales if you get a rear end of a manager.

 

[rbalan]

I put around 1500 miles a year on a vehicle so I generally don't get into the problem milage before I trade it in. It will have 7500 miles in 5 years when the warranty expires. I won't live long enough to see 36000 miles probably since that'd be a while.

What vehicle? can I call dibs when it’s time to trade it in?

 

[Gunanddoglover]

Then if the new stuff does break i've heard horror stories of **** being in the shop for months waiting on parts.

I can verify that. 6 months for suspension parts, 3 months for electronics, forever for a belt molding. That was 2021-22. The supply does appear to be better now than a year or even 6 months ago. Presently, 3 weeks and counting for a door skin.

 

[greg vess]

I can verify that. 6 months for suspension parts, 3 months for electronics, forever for a belt molding. That was 2021-22. The supply does appear to be better now than a year or even 6 months ago. Presently, 3 weeks and counting for a door skin.

A a few deer were standing over in the grass alongside the road and I slowed down and got in the other lane because I could see a pretty good long distance away and I don't think I slowed down enough and one of the deer change directions immediately and shot straight into my passenger door. It didn't make any scratches or damage to the paint but it just caved in the door skin. I had to wait 2 months for them to get a door skin in. I was able to keep the truck but it just took so long to find the new door skin. And being it said GMC and the same for the Chevy I'm sure it was not easy to find due to demand of those parts.

 

[Fatal_Bert]

Ford driver's drink bud light