Not a Good Look for Ford or Next Gen Ranger

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Poetic Justice

Well given that the car company has to fund the warranty repairs, it seems like they'd be the ones making decisions on what course of action happens with a car, right?

There's been a lot of in fighting between car companies and the franchisees over who funds a buyback etc. It's still not clear cut - but the fact of the matter stands, the car company built the vehicle, they ought to be the one controlling the handling of lemons etc.

In many cases, the dealer being the problem is usually because they can't get a straight answer from the car company.

One would imagine the dealership and the customer are in this together in order to get them sorted taking up the battle with the manufacturer, so I'm not sure why some dealerships want to outsource the problem to customers.

The dealership can make a decision that's in the benefit of the customer in the near term, then can wear 'the gap' it takes for it to go through the process with the manufacturer to make the customer experience a whole lot better on a warranty job.

Your mechanics cost you sub $30/hour, you can wear 7.5 hours in a warranty investigation without causing you such financial hardship that you need to close the doors between those 7.5 hours and getting your compensation from Ford Australia

I don't see why a dealership can't wear some workshop time in the short term for warranty repairs and wait out the gap.

Or in the case of a genuine lemon, get them another car sooner rather than later, even if you have to push back someone in the queue for a new vehicle, this customer got theirs first, was burnt with a lemon, stiff **** this person is prioritised on another new vehicle and those of you in the queue can wait another month.

Warranty concerns is one place where you can either lose a repeat customer or gain one for life depending on how you play the game.

From my perspective, there's a whole lot of businesses happy to take the customers money and a lot of 'not my job' cards being thrown down when it comes to warranty repairs from the dealership network trying to push the problem back onto the customer.

You're right in corporate world that on paper its the car manufacturers responsibility to handle lemons - but in the real world to customers the dealership network represents Ford Australia, they're buying a Ford car from a Ford dealership, the place with the big *** Ford oval on a stick out the front, not buying a Ford from 'XYZ PTY LTD', the average joe doesn't understand the agency model.

While its Ford Australias responsibility over the lemon saga, the dealership network can bridge the gap or open dialogue and help customers rather than play the 'not my job' card.

You're the one who is going to get railed by the media and have Tracey Grimshaw (RIP) in your showroom depending on how you play the game.

I agree with Kypez that customers should have the option to purchase direct from Ford Australia rather than deal with dealerships.